We aren't color-blind. We don’t automatically look at each other’s hearts or minds. Of course, we may want to. But, truthfully, we mentally assess, divide, and even rank fellow members of our human race daily.
One of the ways we are most likely to do this? Racial identity. Why? Because in our society, how we identify by skin color matters. Race and ideas about color and culture are foundational to the American experience.
Racial identity shapes the way we've organized and systematized our society.
Individually and collectively, racial perceptions impact how well we survive, thrive, and evolve over time. Worldviews and expectations are often tied to a color-sensitive continuum of light to dark in particular.
Throughout history, posed as opposites, white people and black people struggle with awareness, clarity, validation, and reconciliation routinely.
Moreover, people of all colors; indigenous groups, biracial people, and those raised in homes with mixed racial identity, are also increasingly vocal about their own challenges in a racialized society.
So. Racial identity is a key part of the way we see and interact with each other socially, politically, personally. Thus it stands to reason that race affects our mental health significantly.
Do you operate from a place of comfort and confidence in your race? Or a place of tension or rebellion? Perhaps both? Whatever your experience, the weight placed on racial identity is real.
Too often, our racial history and the hope our nation holds for all people clash as we try to live our daily lives. The result of that collision?
For many, anxiety, depression, anger, and disconnect result. The mental health fallout can be painful. Yet, with compassion and support, personal exploration, relief, and growth are possible.
How mental health is linked to our racial perceptions.
To reiterate, race, particularly in the US, is a color-based construct. The inferiority of any race isn't based on science or truth. However, the views and prejudices embedded in racial identity today have deep roots. This can feed certain fears and dysfunction.
Where does your racial identity come from?
From the start, we aren’t born "white", or "black" or any racial moniker at all. We have our ethnic backgrounds. We're citizens of a nation. Our skin colors are basic descriptors that don't, by themselves, speak to our culture, heritage, or status as Americans.
So how does racial identity emerge?
Racial identity begins outside ourselves. We come to understand the role our skin color plays in our society early on. We accept assignment of our "race" at birth. As we become more and more cognizant of what this means as we observe and interact with others. We ask, “How do others perceive me based on my skin?”
and
Racial identity is sorted out internally. As we start to connect societal dots, we start making choices about what we accept and believe about ourselves in terms of race. We ask, “How do I identify myself?”
Understanding your own racial identity is not static. Racial identity is constantly changing and evolving as you live through personal experiences, education, communities, etc. Whether you conform or rebel, solidifying an idea of where we fit in is hardwired into all of us.
How Racial Identity and Mental Health are Linked
The daily stressors of unequal treatment take their toll.
As you come to recognize your assignment to a particular racial group and react to the associated perceptions, you start to feel the weight of it.
If you are white:
early on you may feel the weight in minimal ways. In fact, you may enjoy a certain amount of freedom and privilege. On the whole, your place in society and the positive perceptions linked to white beauty, wealth, influence, and "rightness" may not feel very stressful.
Yet, as your understanding of racial disparities evolves, interacting with people of color may start to feel uncomfortable. You may feel uneasy, guilty, or simply want to avoid anything race-oriented as race-related stress accumulates.
If you are a person of color:
thoughts of how you're perceived, and how you think of yourself are tested regularly as you recognize the disparities that exist.
Conflicting messages about your value and promise, compared to the mainstream groups, may wear on you at school, work, navigating the mall, or certain neighborhoods. Media portrayals that exacerbate stereotypes as well as dismissal of race-related challenges by those in power regularly contribute to ongoing stress and pressure. Anger, anxiety, and depression are not unusual outcomes.
Consequently, all sorts of helpful and unhelpful self-talk can develop over time. This stems from a range of coping perspectives. People of color may ascribe to behavior like "conform and fit in"or "push back and rebel" and "stand up and take pride in who you are." Many people of color experience these coping phases multiple times, even simultaneously, throughout their lives.
Unresolved racial trauma lives on and is passed on.
People learn to cope with their racial staus quo. But their trauma should not be discounted. If you believe you are perceived as somehow inferior, the emotional fallout is real.
To witness and be the recipient of abuses in social, economic, political, and medical realms hurts. To believe that those abuses may be life-long and inescapable is damaging. This distorts your thoughts and perceptions if you don't have healthy support and guidance.
Racial trauma is often a sort of chronic tension. Commonly, negativity, low moods, and hopelessness occur in much the same way as it is seen in PTSD victims.
In fact, entire families or communities may know the same pain. Thus they must find ways (individually and corporately) to cope as well. Many times, chronic conditions, addictions, depression, anxiety, and fractured relationships result en masse. It can be a generational experience, one that is difficult to recognize and escape.
A Compassionate Professional Is an Invaluable Helper
Working with a compassionate, non-judgemental therapist is invaluable for sufferers of racial trauma. It can provide the safety and encouragement required to confront your pain and move forward.
As a member of the racial majority, you may be coming to grips with it. Struggling with racial awareness, unhelpful thought patterns and perceptions, and confusion requires support. You need to talk about how to make changes or make peace with your past personally or historically.
If you are a person of color, you may be coping with racial realities in ways many minority communities have for ages; family, spiritual practice, activism and outreach often help. Yet, weathering waves of anxiety, mistreatment, and the daily effort of relational and systemic challenges requires specific and support you can trust.
Relief and growth are possible.
Even if the world isn't changing fast enough for you, therapy with a helpful, qualified listener is extremely validating. It can help provide productive and effective tools for functioning well with your own transformation as the goal. Seek out a therapist who can help you find peace and a healthy path forward. You can trust us. We’re here for you.
Contact us for a free 20 minute consultation.
About the Author:
April Lyons, MA, LPC is a somatic psychotherapist and currently owns a private practice group in Boulder CO. She specializes in PTSD, eating disorders, and bipolar disorder treatment. April is trained in EMDR Therapy, Trauma-Informed Care, and is certified as an Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapist.
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