Racial Trauma/Other Identity-Based Trauma
I view racism as a product of white patriarchic supremacy culture. There is now a large body of historical and scientific evidence that systemic racisms are real and have a real impact on individuals and communities, often resulting in traumatic reactions.
In the United States, anti-black racism has been the primary form of racism alongside the genocide and displacement of Indigenous peoples. Race is an invented category used to justify bias, persecution, oppression, and exploitation of targeted groups of people.
Racism is more than thinking badly about a group of people. Racism is having the political, economic, and cultural power to act on those beliefs about the inferiority of groups of people.
In this way, sexism is a form of racism for instance when women and especially women of color are paid less for the same work as men or suffer sexual harassment and violence and are silenced. Racism by this definition is perpetrated against people within the LGBTQ community, Latin and Central American communities, immigrant communities, Muslim, Jewish, and other communities cast beneath culturally invented white male dominance and superiority.
Race and class interact. Race is used to invent, justify, and maintain severe inequities in economic status. In this way working class and poor white communities suffer even while holding racially invented status over peoples cast outside of whiteness.
At the end of this section, you’ll find a link to articles and resources if you are interested in learning more.
Racial trauma and other forms of identity-based trauma:
Because racism is pervasive and insidious, exposure to these and other forms of racism is common. Even if you’ve never faced explicit violence, harassment, or loss, the everyday implicit forms of racism can add up to chronic stress and traumatic reactions. Many people are resilient, successful, and enjoy strong mutually loving relationships, while carrying the scars of racial trauma.
The harm that comes from racial trauma/other identity-based trauma: