"is this climate..."? Racism and discrimination exists in every country and society, has, a likely will as long as human beings are involved.
More appropriate questions might be WHY these questions are front and center, WHO pushed them to the fore, and WHAT do they have to gain.
Obviously the MSM dwells on questions of race because it's easy, good for ratings, and they can use it to trash Trump.
The Democratic Party encourages group identification to target its electoral appeals: War on Women, Police Brutality against Blacks, Income inequality, POC, immigrants, LGBTQ, transgender, etc - driving home messages of white supremacy, racism, anti-semitism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, what-have-you, making everyone terrified that Federal Marshals will break down their door before dawn tomorrow to haul them away.
Of course, the GOP can exploit fear of illegal immigrants, floods of dangerous refugees, perverts using your daughter's bathroom at school, and rampant crime that goes unpunished.
No wonder some people suffer physically. They are being abused for ratings and political reasons. On purpose.
14
Thank you for reaffirming my perception that the Trump Administration and its supporters are literally killing me.
8
If you tie this together with another article in today's paper- Can My children Be Friends with White People?- it is obvious that the trauma is not only physical, but also emotional. Progressives- especially white ones- are loathe to talk about this as people of all political stripes still tend to see psychological problems as a sign of weakness or something that is "your fault." But it puts those of us on the left on the defensive when talking about black crime and other behavioral issues, and we end up with either denial or changing the subject, and with the never-ending argument about bad behavior versus structural racism. Structural racism, past and present, is all too real and destructive, but so is the painful woundedness that is the result of racism, marginalization, and denigration.
The reality is that if you want people to act more constructively (and most important, less self-destructively) and have better physical health, treat them decently, with full dignity and respect, with equal pay, and with equal empathy when either Timmy or Devon fall down the well.
4
In these teen years of the 21st Century, I find no difference in the feeling and behavior of Americans and the "color line", coined by Du Bois and my experiences as a non-violent student protestor and resultant pro-integrationist. The construction of white color privilege, the revealing metrics on mental health disparity created by others' "isms", the rules of "Pass Go and collect $200" for the weighted roll of the white dice, is the norm for us all. We're programmed to sit at the game table and play the cards that are dealt. We shorten life's-span with the pre-existing condition of replaying the past as nostalgia from the inferior side of the defensive chessboard with the expectation that equality will rule the governed. We're not "literally sick of racism", we're caught in the nostalgia of recalling and reliving the painful past. We've adapted to sleepwalking and cheering the museum of the history of "otherness" on the National Mall, reminding us that "isms" will persist in newer forms, while we look back at the monumental tropes of a craggy mountaintop envisioned by "the drum major of peace." We're not sick of racism; We're inured to it
And ~50% of the people in this country are also truly "sick" and enraged by continually being accused of being racist, xenophobic, anti Semitic, intolerant, insensitive, disturbing and constantly told "You should never say this to a ...." by the democrat Party and their major media propagandists if they dare to disagree with NY Times, Democratic Party, the academic neo Marxist Left and the reckless high velocity globalization 1% crusaders on any issue.
17
The comments raising the effects of reverse racism and being called a racist prove the insanity of the people who deny racism and its targeted victims in a culture defined by its exploitation of Black people before the birth of this exploitation dependent nation. This culture cultivates and sustains racism in the DNA of those too weak of mind to know they are also being exploited by the elitist White Supremacists and Nationalists to profit from every source it can. When Eurocentric’s only see their trees in the forest of many types of trees they doom the entire forest to suffering and eventual extinction. There is no such thing as a superior tree or human. This thinking is soul of Eurocentric’s murder of others and eventual self inflicted suicide.
4
Thriving homogeneous Japan, South Korea--just two examples--dispel your observation.
11
Racism is only one form of stress. Our personal psychological makeup determines what is stressful and to what degree.
Of course, racism still exists and so do people that hate. Anyone and everyone can be a target. One can be sitting in a church, attending a rock concert or be a successful business man sitting in one of the Twin Towers. A black man who has moved up the economic scale and buys a house in an expensive neighborhood, might be fearful when he decides to go for a walk. MD's are now experiencing a great deal of hatred. "They're rich" "They're causing the Opioid epidemic. "
What is most disturbing to me is how hatred can be exploited and used as a tool by political leaders anywhere in the world! Scapegoats are easy to create.
8
Thank you for the data included in this article, but until America as a Nation is tired of racism, you can write until the cows come home as nothing will change. 62 million people voted for a man who encouraged violence against American citizens who disagreed with the subtle MAGA doctrine which is a discriminatory, divisive and shortsided slogan. Also, the so called Christians attacked the NFL for kneeling in an ignorant display of racism not knowing that other fellow American Christians don’t stand for the flag or the pledge for decades. Finally, we just celebrated Veterans Day and only the Department Of Defense Twitter page showed Black Veterans. Yes, some of us are sick of racism, but not enough of us are.
3
My entire life I have watched less deserving people get admission offers, scholarships, jobs, and promotions that I was denied simply because they happened to be born with skin that is darker than my own. Discrimination against whites is not only tolerated, but celebrated. It is also institutionalized. Every college and university has things like a black student union, scholarships and internships just for blacks, clubs and societies just for blacks, mentors just for black students, etc. Likewise, every major corporation and government agency has explicit programs that favor racial minorities when recruiting, hiring and promoting its employees. There isn't a single program of any kind anywhere in America that is just for whites, and anyone who dared to suggest such a thing would immediately be blasted by the media and fired by their employer. The hypocrisy is astounding.
By obsessing over race and favoring blacks over all others, we move further and further away from Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of a color-blind society. Race is just a set of meaningless physical characteristics, as unimportant as ear lobe length and pinky toe diameter. I don't know if it's making me physically sick, but I am certainly tired of people acting as if such things are important. And I am tired of the media constantly telling me that I am a closet racist, should feel guilty all of the time, and don't deserve the same preferential treatment offered to people with African ancestors.
16
White racists and supremacists are winning spectacularly in this country. They are literally killing colored people, softly and legally. The stress I'm feeling since November 7th, 2016 is positively correlated with depression, overeating and anxiety. Last year this time, my doctor told me I was in the 97% of good health among my peers.
For all of the upheaval in the Middle East, when I go home and face the grind of day-to-day living, it is much less stressful than to feel like a marked man in this country: hide that Arabic script; don't mention God, ever; God forbid that Quran, wedding gift from my mild-mannered father-in-law, should be visible anywhere at home lest a contractor or plumber sees it; drink wine so that people don't think you're extremist; switch to English with your family when someone else approaches; parrot the platitudes you read in the newspaper; never, ever complain about US wars in the Middle East, always blaming the victims; never, ever go to the mosque nor take your kid there or else your faces will be fed into the federal pattern-recognition database and you'll mysteriously be denied credit, be disembarked from flights or worse; do not talk politics with anyone you haven't known for at least a quarter century; change your name to John or Jake; never transfer any money to anywhere in the Middle East, instead taking it in cash on the next trip; shave your 5 o'clock shadow before showing up at the immigration desk at LAX, and the list goes on and on.
7
Unfortunately, the line from the column that reads: "no wonder that more than 100,000 black people die prematurely each year.", only adds fuel to the racist fire.
Why would a white supremacist stop spewing racism if he knows it causes not only mental anguish, but actual physical harm to the targets of his hatred.
It is so sad that we are discussing this in 2017. We have come so far, but we are so far behind.
2
Racism is a disease of the soul. Hatred In all its forms harms the hater and the hated. I wonder if hatred for the "other" is hard wired into our DNA. Regardless, we must overcome it in order for our civilization to evolve.
That said, I love in a constant state of outrage against those who would destroy others because of their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
My mother (may she RIP) always said; "live and let live". A beautiful sentiment and words to live by.
1
Very troubling to see that racism could be literally sending us to our graves prematurely. It has been known for a long time that our experiences and perceptions can heal us or make us sick. I would like to know what are the mental, physical and spiritual consequences of the despicable racists?
1
A friend's parents both died recently, very old, She has a blog and remembered them on it as, "My White Parents." Her text was about how even though they lived in the South, they were actively anti-racism in thoughts and deeds. OK, nice, but that heading! Sheesh! She apologized for being born white. smh....
I'm tired of this constant drumbeat. And in the NY Times, you are preaching to the choir. All these articles and editorials are having the opposite of the desired effect on me. My family came here from the shtetls of Eastern Europe. They had zero privilege and never owned slaves.
I feel like this is going to reach a boiling point, if it hasn't already. I'm not like my friend, I'm not ashamed of who I am.
11
My Chinese husband got comments of "You can't be from here." Leafpeeping on 11/11, at Minewaska. We had a downtown doorman question his entry into our building when he returned from the gym too. Take away the suit or khakis....
Thank you, Dr. Jacobs. Get us where it hurts. 'Our Health', physical and mental, for any form of Racism is a two-way street.
1
Stop watching the news. I did - I feel much better because of it.
8
The only institutionalized racism in the US is that against white males. They are legally second class and have fewer rights than everyone else. Why is there black TV? What gay TV? There are probably women’s channels. There are no white male tv channels. I don’t want one by the existence of the other channels is insulting. There are black colleges. What is that all about. There is a Latina network.
The only way to stop racism is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.
9
Discrimination works both ways. There are blacks who do not like whites and Muslims who do not like Christians. I have personally experienced both and I had tried to befriend both groups. This situation must also be addressed if we are to have fair and balanced reporting.
13
Being falsely accused of racism has effects as well.
11
What an indictment of the stupidity required to consider oneself superior to other(s), no matter the excuse (in this case the color of our skin). We humans, all of us, came out of Africa, and developed different characteristics that Nature 'imposed' on us, to best fit in a given geography and weather and, eventually, culture and language and, last though not least, taking advantage in gaining uneven power by the luck of resources locally, and when agriculture stopped our nomadic routes, the specialization in different trades and a 'military' to defend ourselves and to plunder other people's land and treasure. We humans have grown used to abuse our weaker neighbors, to better leave our mark ( individual survival and of our species) as a tribe (all for ours, nothing or battle for 'the other'). Somehow, we haven't even overcome our arrogant stance by believing the Universe was creating for our benefit...when reality is far more humble, our existence being just pure chance when circumstances aligned for life to occur. And to further our megalomania, we created gods at our image, so to justify our abuses in the name of an all loving creature, to the point of fanatic dogmatism we continue to teach our kids since birth (indoctrination has been considered an abuse by some, teaching as truth what is only an invented belief). But I digress. We humans have a long ways to go, to regain some humility and be thankful (to Nature) for the joy of life. Discrimination stinks, period!
1
This makes so much sense.
The victims of misogyny understand, completely. That horrific feeling of being threatened produces a fight or flight response. And, it's a killer.
A lawyer once told me that I was "lucky to be a white female. Things could be far worse, you could be a black female. They are on the lowest rung of the ladder." I was 21 yrs old. It was decades ago, and I never, ever forgot the chill that went through my nervous system. That lawyer said: " you would be discriminated against all day, every day." Certainly, that would have made me very, very sick.
4
all agreed and important. but unfortunate (though never surprising) that asian americans (as well as native americans) are rarely if included in these studies of "racism." (model minority all over again...)
5
Yes, this has been my experience. I am mixed race, but look white. It amazes me the things people say that are racist, homophobic, and sexist expecting that I agree. The result is that I am suspicious of how others really feel and am reluctant to share things about myself and my background because of these prejudices that people seem to think are commonly held truths. It is extremely hurtful and isolating.
11
The lasting legacy of the Obama Administration will always be, in my opinion, that he set race relations in the US back about 50 years.
6
Racism is alive and well in America.
The civil war was never truly won.
This is not something new that just started under Trump. I have lived all over the US. I mainly grew up in the South and was used to seeing KKK posters and Confederate flags. I actually find the covert and insidious racism in New York and the Northeast worse. I think it contributes to why the Black population of New York City is steadily declining.
I didn't truly know I was Black until my mom told me I couldn't go to a Caucasian friend's house anymore because her parents were racists who didn't want our kind in their home. This happened on a military base in California in the early nineties.
Racism made our grandparents, parents, and relatives sick. Caucasians can choose to leave a stressful job or make lifestyle changes but you can't stop being Black. It hurts us to watch things like Trayvon Martin go down and justice not be served. We watched Eric Garner get murdered for selling loose cigarettes. There were so many more murders and beatings caught on tape and not one of those families received justice.
The Black infant mortality rate is high and rising. Those in power do not want to deal with racism or how it leads to inequality in terms of poverty, access to healthcare, poor housing, and more. Instead they want to tell us about how they are the new oppressed and we should stop whining because racism was over 100 years ago. Until those in power do want to address those problems and make real changes, racism will continue to literally kill us.
Carefully chosen Rosa Parks generating more sympathy amongst struggling working class whites than an overgrown middle aged man(child) with multiple children selling "loosies".
2
This is the world you have helped create NYT. Race is the most important factor in every circumstance, except when it isn't.
9
Brookline MA is one of the most liberal towns in MA. So I guess racism isn't a GOP thing. These officers should have their day in court and should be able to sue for past pay. Thought they were doing so?
But those doing studies on discrimination and it's health effects - where did you get your money for 700 studies? Why were those studies limited to blacks and latinos? What about women, what about white men, what about a real scientific study? Bottom line: Anyone under stress, regardless of it's origin, will experience high blood pressure and increased Cortisol production. This isn't limited to those that are or feel discriminated against due to their skin color. While I find them reprehensible, I'd bet the KKK and white supremacists also have health issues.
Best to let the bad stuff a minority of people dump on you just roll off. Not worth it affecting your health.
6
Just a thought. The barrage of sexist behavior in and around the workplace is also stressful and a health risk. A black female gets a double dose of stress. Was the loss of a promotion due to blackness or sexual identity.
1
The simplest way to get rid of racism is to address the causes of the underlying stereotypes like out of the 44 NFL players accused of Sexual or Physical Assault in the last few years, why are 90% black?
Focusing all of the attention on the small number of unarmed black people getting shot by police (which there is) is like putting a bandaid on a severed leg.
1
One of the biggest contributors to racism is the dearth of jobs, especially for lower income minorities. But the left champions illegal immigration which, according to a US Civil Rights study compromises the jobs and wages of lower income blacks, especially men. But then we go around taking down statues and re-writing songs to show how ant-racist we are - the epitome of white privilege.
4
Have we become a better Counry over the past 50 years? No, we've regressed steadily. Do with that what you will
And yet, a young black athlete was a perfect match for donating bone marrow to an older white man proving we are no different. ESPN.
Asians--conveniently not mentioned yet again regarding perpetual subaltern grievance--on average, outlive whites. Why? Sturdier stock?
6
The white lieutenant’s remark probably wasn’t racist. He obviously meant that Brookline, Mass., residents would be more likely to regard a black officer in unmarked police car with suspicion than a white officer in an unmarked police car. The lieutenant was probably commenting on racial stereotyping, not indulging in racial stereotyping himself.
Blacks are unfairly stereotyped as criminal because blacks commit a disproportionate number of the type of violent crimes the public fears most. The 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Report shows 52.6 percent of those arrested for murder and 52.6 percent of those arrested for robbery were black, even though blacks make up only 13.3 percent of the population.
The FBI Uniform Crime Report shows that a total of 2,263,112 blacks out of a total black population of 38,093,725 were arrested in 2016. So 35,830,613 blacks, or 94 percent of blacks, weren’t arrested for anything. It’s unfair to stigmatize a racial group as criminal because six percent are criminal, but it is human nature. The stereotyping will continue as long as the disparity in arrests rates persists, and it will persist as long as income inequities persist.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-p...
38,093,725
4
Some comments here are written by flat out racists who would swear they are not. That's how far gone they are.
In political discussions these types are the first to automatically parrot words and phrases given to them by right wing media. They become defensive. "Who me?," they exclaim.
If you call out their racism, they accuse you being "politically correct" or of "playing the race card." Astonishingly THEY assume the role of "victim." Sarah Palin was an expert in this.
In effect, the racists love to hate. How else avoid responsibility for their failed lives?
3
...and the Constitution.
1
although this certainly has some validity, the effect of the constant barrage against 'white privilege' can also have inegative effects. all human beiings suffer, which makes us human. when it rains, it rains on all of us
4
The logical implication is that the current epidemic of hate hoaxes that falsely accuse whites of racism, such as the ones exposed last week at the Air Force Academy and Kansas State, are not only anti-white acts of hate, but they are also bad for the health of non-whites by falsely increasing non-whites perceptions of discrimination.
4
More than a few nonWhite people, in particular, Black people, have went to premature , untimely grave due to the racism that is endemic in American society.
1
Yes, this is so true. I also think that the people who practice racism are made sick by it. It's like a cancer that eats at your soul. When I saw 12 Years a Slave, which I will never forget, one of the things that struck me was how stunted and ridiculous the lives of the plantation owners were. The word "sick" came to mind but not only in the way we usually ascribe to racists. I saw them as being physically rotting away, in pain and in terror of their own twisted lives. The depth and breadth of their racism colored their lives so much that they had descended the evolutionary ladder into being nothing but racist. It had erased all their other qualities. This kind of proscripted life that feeds on the misery of others and cruelty towards others is a toxic mix.
10
I can relate. The open anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence the left condones has me in a state where I can barely breath. It's been over 25 years and the Crown Heights pogrom is still referred to as "a fight between blacks and Jews caused by a car accident". No, it was caused by the anti-Jewish racism that is openly expoused without consequences from black activists. I will not be sympathizing with blacks as long as their hate speech and violence is condoned.
10
Top 7 Answers For Racial Reconciliation From a Christian Perspective -
TogetherLA.net: https://togetherla.net/racial-reconciliation/
"... hatred in all its forms. Racism, bigotry, sexism, anti-Semitism, ..." ARE TIGHTLY WOVEN INTO THE TAPESTRY OF AMERICA FROM ITS CONCEPTION. As for me, since declared '3/5 a person' everything imaginable have been done to deny me any rights , land, education, work, since U.S. Constitution defined slaves as 3/5 of a person...nothing was given ..if without struggles, protests, kneeling and court battles to change the laws... and people wonder why so much hopelessness, disarray, depression, and disgust within our race from post traumatic slavery syndrome, the residual indelibly trauma remains...there are reminders everyday...covert and overt.
We must understand that we are all capable of discrimination and it is not just the Whites and the privileged. Jews discriminate against Muslims. Muslims against Jews. Brown Skinned against darker skinned. Educated blacks against blacks who have not had this chance. It is almost like history that keeps repeating itself. The discriminated become the discriminator when in power or in a majority. It is human nature to select the narrative that suits one's current situation. I find it funny that Indians rightly cry about the discrimination in the United States under Trump but have no qualm discriminating against the minorities in India or not speaking up when in India....because now the shoe is on the other foot.
1
Islamophobia is not hatred as stated in this article. It is fear of people whose hatreds are hard wired into their religion.
3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6378439
To all the people who are reading this and feel that they are under stress. There are several drugs which reverse the effects of stress. One of them is the anti-blood pressure drugs called beta blockers. You can read about them in the treatment of alcoholism is a medical article above. I'm sorry, it is a technical article. This is a prescription medicine and you need to go see your doctor and see if it's appropriate for you. But it works. It eliminates the Cortisol effect and brings your blood pressure down. As a physician I have used it for years. I can't treat you over the Internet but I can tell you to see your doctor if you think you're under stress. There's lots that can be done for it.
Exercise, good diet. Moderate alcohol (two glasses of good wine a day) and relationships with like thinking individuals are wonderful stress relievers.
As I've stated above, getting even works for me. When I've known I am done something good for people or society my blood pressure is great. You should try it.
Go to makeitfair.com. Get involved. You'll feel better.
4
Racism is a pernicious and evil thing. That said, it is becoming harder and harder to take the drumbeat of accusations of racism seriously. Not when things like "microaggressions" and other supposed manifestations of racism are searched for, like a scientist looking for an elusive germ, and found, whether they exist or not.
The accusations of racism at every turn which are accepted unquestioningly make my blood boil and give me a visceral response. Perhaps it is time to focus on real manifestations of racism and roll with things that are hardly worth anyones time or effort to deal with. What our pals on the campus' don't seem to get is that there is such a thing as desensitization and that if every utterance by a white male is 'bad" then really nothing is bad.
Maybe it is time to grow up a bit.
6
The thing that strikes me most is that the metric here is perceived racism. If you teach people to see racism in almost anything - a disagreement, a question about where they're from when the person asking is thinking what borough, you are teaching a lot of people to make themselves sick.
7
“But the illness associated with discrimination adds injury to insult and magnifies the suffering of these times.”
This “awful world” and especially the “awful” United States, where so many people suffer daily is like the soap opera staple of the press these days - and anyone just reading the paper would think this is the most awful country in the world to live in - until they actually go outside to see how wonderful, safe, peaceful, and prosperous it actually is. I know: that doesn’t sell papers. Huddled and frightened masses, afraid to come out of their apartments, cowering before racists (even though they never actually do that) suffering daily insults and derogatory remarks sells copy - so that’s the story. And people can then spend their days is sorrow for the sad condition of the neighbors, and wait for the next episode of the national soap opera, brought to you by the press, so they can shed more tears tomorrow.
3
Read the comments sections in Fox News stories and you'll see a persistent racism that blames minorities for their situation— they must be lazy, or dumb, or criminal or just plain inferior, otherwise why would they still be struggling in this great country of ours? There's a willful blindness to the continuing, relentless discrimination faced by minorities.
As a nation, we ALL pay a price for racism. If millions of Americans are poorer and sicker because of their race or ethnicity, isn't that a drag on our prosperity and global competitiveness?
We are in this boat together. And unless we help each other, we may all go down together.
1
Ross Doutha wrote today:
“Lately we have been given an extended education in the different varieties of... pigs. There’s the industrial-scale predator, the male feminist who respects women when they’re too drunk to resist him. And the Great Man of Letters creeping on his co-workers and. the let-it-all-hang-out artist.”
Doutha was more specific in describing sexual assailants but he could have been writing about racists.
Women have shown us three things: 1) the pervasiveness of sexism, 2) they are afraid of it and 3) they don’t like it.
Racism and sexism are the heads and tails of the same coin but only our great Southern writers—and James Baldwin— have shown us the connectedness of both.
It’s an ugly realization to discover that we all are guilty of one or both sides of the coin—from Wall Street to Back-Street. It’s even more disturbing to learn that if you’re guilty of one, you’re probably guilty of both.
One could say the same about women's health if you use this paradigm? Women are constantly subjected to microaggressions, harassment, and threats of violence.
3
Like a rock tossed into still waters, the discriminatory injuries of Trump and Trumpism to, literally, the body politic keep spreading and spreading and spreading.
Thank you for this important article. It is very timely. I suspect all of the employees of the US intelligence agencies will have a similar reaction to Trump's latest statements that he believes the racist, lying, murdering and thieving Putin over them.
1
People who imagine "high-profile expressions of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and xenophobia, along with widely covered acts of hate and bigotry" where they don't exist are doing it to themselves - with the assistance of mass media who eagerly promote this paranoia.
3
One person dying prematurely every year from the adverse physical and mental health effects of racism is a tragedy. One hundred thousand people dying prematurely every year is sickening beyond belief. Take the shame America and then let's get to work on getting racism and haters out of our system for good.
There is. O doubt that more than a few people or color, in particular, Black Americans, have suffered an early, untimely death due to the endemic problem of racism that deeply permeates our nation.
1
Micro aggressions are on the rise.As someone of Indian descent I can warrant this. I walk into a restaurant with some Indian friends and it takes tens of minutes to be escorted to a table with such a formidable demeanor my friends and I are wondering is it because we look what we look.And then same restaurant with a few white friends greeted with exuberance a smile and a great table.Multiple times.This in the red county of round rock near Austin.
White pizza delivery guy barely gives a smile a hello or a greeting even with a pre-paid 30% tip. The hispanic girl greets warmly with a smile. Nothing overt.Just a way of life.Only thing that speaks in USA when you are not white is money. And so I see the african americans wearing gold when they walk to a "white"restaurant or in las vegas.Green speaks when you are not white. That is it !!
1
The effects of discrimination upon body and mind has been evident, statistically, for a hundred years. If one compares the risks of high blood pressure, cardio vascular diseases, cancers, substance abuse, dysfunctional families, anti-social behavior, and life expectancies they are all noticeably higher amongst racial minorities who suffer from discrimination by the majority of citizens. The discrimination has been cruel and brutally exercised over our history, excused by the notion that the minorities are just not as smart and responsible people, but today it's mostly an attitude towards these minorities that they just are more likely to cause trouble and are more likely to present uncooperative behaviors. But if one goes back one hundred years, one can see the source of the problems is discrimination.
During the early twentieth century it was noticed that recent immigrants from Eastern Europe who were Jewish scores eleven points below the mean IQ for the general American population. Their children became college professors, doctors, lawyers, artists, writers, millionaire business people, and averaged at or above the mean IQ of the general population. The Jews in Eastern Europe experienced brutal and stifling discrimination for many generations but freedom released them to achieve according to their potentials. Three decades ago a statistician published a best selling work that asserted that African Americans' mean IQ was eleven points under the general population.
I have no doubt racism causes physical illness in persons of color who experience the impact of being subject to injustice, of living in fear for themselves and for their loves ones and who see/hear/feel the hate directed at them and others on a daily basis.
This illness of racism extends to society as a whole; we are all damaged by the impact of racism as it kills kindness, spirit and compassion. Racism is a form of extreme irrational thinking and people like the white cops in Brookline who are racist toward their black colleagues harbor sick belief systems.
2
This well informed meditation piece is Pulitzer worthy writing. Some subjects must be brought to light & discussed, re-discussed, processed & weighed against facts. In our nation theater arts have lost some of their fire power. We must have an interactive new strand of grassroots theater arts. Some scholars who work professionally are meting this need dealing with challenging topics, critical issues & turning these considerations into active, kinetic innovative theater. Specifically Dr. Larry Myers of St John s University s Playwrights sanctuary is mentoring vices not heard & faces not seen. Traveling to onsite Charlottesville Dr Myers composed "Black & White" -- a consideration of disturbing issues as a model. There in Virginia he found a progressive, enlightened group of university students wanting to be a part of his
neo- Beat(ific) theater arts.
Having lived overseas for many years in a highly racist and xenophobic society, I've experienced this and seen it in other expats. People get old quickly. Physiologically I wonder how meaningful the fact that it's racism as opposed to other stressors is, but when I returned to the US and heard people of color talk about the general dread of dealing with white people, I saw it from a new and different perspective. The expat community I had left was pretty close-knit and many people wanted to limit their interactions with the national population as much as possible. Once back where I felt I belonged, I could breathe again--same for my wife of a different race and our mixed son.
The fact that not all people are racist--or even that most people aren't, at least on purpose--doesn't matter. When something literally makes you sick, you do what you can to avoid it.
2
"Chances are, in reaction to each instance of perceived discrimination, he had a stress response. His blood pressure increased, his heart rate went up, and his brain sent a signal to release cortisol."
Great information. But we need to add more to this equation. Women experiencing harassment, low-grade or extreme, on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. Add race into it, black, Latino, Asian, etc, women - and how much higher are their stress-responses?
Factor in that women of color get harassed by men/boys of color on a near constant basis, and I wonder if women of color are not in a constant state of stress-response. They leave their house, walk down their block, get on a bus, train - dodging come-ons and comments about their body the whole way. If they're lucky enough to own a car, they get a respite, until they get to the mall, park or workplace. Where it starts all over. Compounded by being a female, who have to perform more perfectly more often.
Its important to focus on the negative health effects of racism on males, no doubt, but those very same males are contributing to the poor health of their own sisters, mothers, wives, female friends and neighbors - by always being on the prowl. On the street, fast food shops, at work, etc.
We've all seen that video of the woman walking the streets of NYC. Most of us were appalled by the constant onslaught of harassment. But we never consider the health impacts of such near constant "attacks" on women.
The time has come.
1
Just came out of church, black lady asked my white skinned sister walking behind me if she wanted to stay for the social upstairs before leaving. She stared at me point blank without smiling until she saw we were related and felt comfortable ignoring me until realizing we were related.
2
I live in Texas and teach at Baylor Univ. Prejudice and rampant xenophobia are very common with overt acts that shock the outside word are common place. We live with specter of prejudice daily and it has taken the toll on us, with new and ongoing health problems. One wakes up daily, with the feeling "what will transpire today to degrade us." The white evangelical majority around us are mostly oblivious to the constricting and hostile environment they present to Latinos, blacks, LGTB and Jews. Trump-sanctioned prejudice has just embolden harmful ideas as cultural supremacy instead of emphasizing plurality.
9
The term "racism" is so overused that it is mind numbing and lost its meaning.
Almost all Americans agree that "racism" should be condemned.
Claiming that there is a "recent spike in expressions of identity-based hate and harassment" is false.
There is a recent spike in accusations of "racism", sexism, and various phobias to justify a sense of victimization and for political gain.
The sense of "victimization" is damaging to the health and "magnifies the suffering".
Viewing oneself as victim, accomplishes nothing good.
15
You probably think the term "racism" is so overused because you're not on the receiving end of it.
And as far as "victimization" is concerned, those who victimize are in the same boat as their victims.
There are no winners here.
1
I'm a white guy who's married to a black woman. She has a doctorate and was a full-time college professor. Now she has her own business doing diversity training. She's currently working with a medical school trying to enlighten both medical students and residents, the latter group already finished with four years of college and four years of medical school. It is mind-boggling to find out that these highly-educated doctors and future doctors believe that black skin is thicker than white skin and therefore they don't have to be as careful giving injections since blacks don't feel that much pain. This is one reason white people are dying from opiate overdoses at a much higher rate than blacks, an ironic benefit of racism. Black patients don't get those prescriptions. Doctors believe that blacks are less intelligent and shouldn't be prescribed medications they won't take. Black patients are more likely to have limbs amputated due to diabetes than whites who receive treatments instead. These students are not consciously racist, but they've been acculturated in such a way they accept stereotypes and treat black patients differently from whites. Institutional racism, a term coined by Stokely Carmichael, is not limited to the justice system. It's in the medical system as well.
18
Being constantly reminded that people hate and belittle you because of the color of your skin increases stress and the related cascade of damaging hormones.
Identity politics, with its intense focus on what divides us doesn’t help. Telling an out of work coal miner whose losing his home that he had his turn as a white male and should shut up also causes stress.
There’s hostility flying in all directions. Let’s take it down a notch.
15
What many people with comments like yours don't account for is the fact that racist reports are increasing (like reports of sexual misconduct) because it seems that at least some of society hears and finally understands that people with these complaints were silenced by society. I am a white college educated woman who sees systemic racism and sexism all around. I watched a re-run of Johnny Carson recently and was amazed at the sexism that was so de rigueur that at the time it originally aired it wasn't considered sexist. The same goes with racist attitudes. We have a very long way to go. As a woman, I survived because most men that I worked with were afraid of me and my ability to verbally castrate (with a smile) sexist men. I found out about their fears when enlightened men told me of this fact.
1
When Treyvon Martin was shot, I remember thinking that he was dressed and acted exactly like my son. And I knew what white privilege meant. Because when my son would have turned around, his skin would be shown to be white and that makes all the difference in the world. I did not live with the fear and stress of daily living as a black person. I did not fear for my son.
This is not being overly dramatic. I think about the black male who when getting in a car must ratchet up their instincts because they are "driving while black".
This is an insidious effect of racism for Black Americans far from the court rooms and other institutions that we normally associate with racism. It is a suffering I do not know, nor would ever wish to and I do not want my fellow New Yorkers (or anywhere) to have to.
The current GOP government is not good for your health period. Especially if a citizen of color. It can not be 'stressed' enough that our collective votes count.
The Trump administration is building a federal judgeship across America that only a Jeff Sessions would love. The future is grim to say the least. Vote like your life depended on it because it does.
7
Racism is bad. Period.
Oblique observations and theories like those offered in this article are unhelpful, overall, in my opinion. For me, the qualifiers "probably" and "perceived" not only dilute the argument, but actually frustrate efforts to ameliorate racial friction. Encouraging people to vaguely ascribe discriminatory, identity-based causality to stress, which we all endure to some degree, is too convenient.
It has been established that stress is a killer. There can be no room for racism or bigotry. While ANY amount or form of discrimination or harassment is unacceptable, over-diagnosing it is corrosive.
6
When Mayor DeBlasio was reelected, I was very surprised that no one mentioned that one of his victories is the drastic reduction in the police tactic "stop and frisk" (and I remember that right before his first election, his opponent quickly renamed that tactic, "stop, question, and frisk").
This daily harassment of tens of thousands of the city's young men has stopped and this is something to be admired; meanwhile, here in CT, studies are showing that people of color are more likely to be pulled over in their car during daylight hours (the racial imbalance is less at night.) How stressful is that in 2017! DWB is still a crime in some of CT's towns and cities. Sickening to be sure.
3
Stress is a proven killer and if you feel the additional and unwarranted stress of oppression, another word for discrimination, pretty much every day you are now in the high risk medical category outlined in this article.
Trump and his administration have placed all Americans into a toxic and highly stressful living environment and I agree with this article, those who feel the most stress are the ones targeted under the banners of racism or bigotry.
Trump has never evolved and he surrounds himself with those who reflect the same lack of character traits and evolution. Thank God most Americans want to 'erase the hate' in a new campaign designed to bring us together despite the deliberate divisiveness of Trump.
2
We are all carbon-based life forms.
1
It's an American tragedy , the legacy of slavery
and racism in this country. Listen to Deborah
Yehuda, neuroscientist , on how trauma is stored in the body.
And passed on through generations.
We need to address the legacy of slavery in our
society and finally be free of racism.
2
White males suffer more discrimination than any group.
When applying to college his test scores are reduced.
He will be the last hired... women and minorities come first.
At work he will suffer racism... he will often not be promoted, the "more deserving" get the promotion.
The media and various "movement" will blame him for past transgressions.
10
If "white men suffer the most discrimination" was true (which is ludicrous) think of it as a learning experience and stop whining. The rest of us have been there.
1
Racism in any form should be discouraged. One should never generalize by skin color, unless you're a cosmetics salesperson.
The problem is that although society has a strong immune response against white supremacism/nationalism - as it should! - it has a very weak immune response against racism that targets European-Americans, e.g., the "Black Lives Matter!" (BLM) movement. Well, racism begets racism, hate begets hate, so BLM helps the white supremacist movements recruit and it helps Donald Trump's politics of hate. Steve Bannon said as much about the "identity politics" that some Democrats love to spout.
For a better, Trump-free society, we have to celebrate diversity, not put one group or another down, or try to elevate one group or other.
2
These would seem a strong argument to not classify every unpleasant incident as racism.
6
Was there even the slightest effort made in these studies to determine if the people who complained of racial discrimination might not have been exactly the sort of people who would find anything to complain about, and would then see their blood pressure and cortisol levels rise when encountering the things they happen to complain about?
Because, you know, correlation is not causation.
Spread the word.
6
It has created a culture of fear and anger exacerbated by religious zealotry and the current administration.
1
Bigots are with us always. Cherry pickers too. The paid mob is a fixture to promote disharmony and advance false narratives.
Solutions are harder to come by especially when they are not wanted. The greatest canard of the year is "We need a conversation about race relations." Million$ are being spent to avoid it and the solution and political bigots and hacks are reaping billion$ in the process.
I'm a black woman. I've understood for much of my life the toll racism and other forms of bigotry take on its victims. I don't know how much non-blacks understand this truth about the effects of racism, but I hope this article will help.
4
Well, it's not going away. Ever.
Get used to it, if anything it's getting worse.
1
I think we need to stop talking and writing about racism. Judge a man by his character and that's it, white, black, brown, yellow and all colours on the rainbow.
I love my friends that are black, as I do those that are Asian and Caucasian! I do dislike this constant beating of the drums that blacks have it different. Asians don't do this, Southeast Asians likewise don't don't do it, and arguably face the same level of innate stereotyping as does anyone else.
We had a black president, black ceos, celebrities and run the gamut from the bottom to the top of social ladders. Its great. Thus, I don't think expectations should be any different. I do think lots of times, people want it both ways, where they want advantages over others, empowerment and pity at the same time. I think this is where everyone who is not black is frustrated, including Asians, Caucasians, etc.
It's not complicated.
Bored writers, activists, etc., look to perpetuate a story line vs writing about realities or clear eyed perspectives, that make things worse than better in my opinion.
8
Racism is America's curse. What frustrates me is we don't as a nation confront why white Americans became so convoluted and vicious in our attitudes about race. Confronting the unconscionable results of racism is a start, but uprooting racism requires recognizing racism's roots in the white American psyche. This requires digging deeper into our early history.
There is an astonishing and largely untold story here. For example, few Americans know the American Revolution was fought during a smallpox pandemic - one of the worst in North American history. There are two profound racial aspects to this story. First, it turned Britain's Native Americans allies into a non-factor in the war, as the smallpox pandemic wiped out entire villages. After the war and the pandemic, Native Americans would regroup and pose a nightmarish threat on the new nation's Northwest frontier. The citizen militias that bested the mighty British army we're crushed by these new Native American forces.
Another profoundly racial aspect of the Revolution and the pandemic was how Washington prevented the pandemic from destroying our fight for freedom. Ironically, the only effective smallpox vaccine the Americans had access to was the one their slaves brought from Africa. Europeans and white Americans learned about smallpox vaccination from Africans.
Without that pandemic sidelining Native Americans and without African smallpox vaccinations we very likely would not have won the Revolutionary War.
African slaves did not bring a vaccine from Africa. The only "vaccine" was variolation, a practice that started in China and spread. But, as I learned, Cotton Mather learned about it from 2 North African slaves. It involved purposely innoculating someone with the smallpox virus.
1
This is exactly the outcome the haters want. It furthers their narrative...
It is better for all of us if you treat others as you wish to be treated.
While this article doesn't capture the extensive research linking racial discrimination with diminished mental and physical health indicators, the premise is sound. Racism is bad for non-Whites! As someone who conducts research in this area, I often suggest the need to examine and understand Whites' propensity to engage in racist acts. It seems like no one ever wants to have that conversation!
2
Nobody can disagree with the premise of this article in general but the devil is in details. Define racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia etc. what is the dividing line between an ideological disagreement and abuse? What if I said I despise radical Islam? I know a couple of people whose blood pressure would go up hearing this. So should I keep my mouth shut for fear of causing health damage to some Daesh supporter? Or imagine a group of Jewish and Arab Israelis yelling at each other. Each side has a long list of grievances, each is convinced of its rectitude, and each accuses the other side of antisemitism or Islamophobia. I would imagine both sides could use stress-reducing therapies after such an encounter but does it mean that it’s preferable to shoot at each other? I am not happy with the notion that perceived emotional damage to somebody can be used to stifle freedom of speech.
3
for me going backwards only works when needed in traffic. this country i have lived in now has made nary any progress with regards to race issues. as a nation we always have used the next group of newcomers as if they are not deserving of being here. with Black Americans they had no choice of coming here and are treated almost worse than the Native Americans. as a white man i am well aware of the sins of my country's past. there are no reasonable arguments to maintain the status quo with the racial compacts that are ingrained into the System.
Our nation is having a crises with all institutions being dismantled a nick at a time. for all here in the good ol usa we had better get with the program because dithering as a human trait destroys getting anywhere. in my early 60's now i know i have benefited many times because of my color. i cannot change that. but daily work on being kind to others everywhere. Sat Sri Akal to all Sikh that you meet. it does not hurt to be nice to others. it makes one's own life a bit rewarding and comfortable.
Toxicity is unevenly distributed in th US. If you are black, not only are you more likely to experience the deleterious effect of anxiety producing social encounters described in this article, but chances are that your water has a higher lead content, your air is more polluted and nutritious food is harder to get and more expensive than in white neighborhoods.
4
I’m sick of racism, of course. I imagine experiences being the target of racism affect physical and spiritual health of victims. I want to say to stop racism as soon as possible. But watching the scenes of racism is another matter. Even if the scenes keep our blood pressure elevated for long, we have to see the reality of racism on TV and prepare ourselves for the battle against racism.
One thing I observe when topics like this come up is the prevalence of the view that one can control how the body responds to stress just by using the conscious portion of the brain.
That part of the brain can decide whether you stand up or sit down, walk or drive, wear loafers or pumps, vote for Hillary or that other person, or watch Jessica Jones or Luke Cage on Netflix.
It cannot by itself stop the psychological and physical effects of being in an environment where you have to tolerate multiple micro-aggressions just because of who you are.
1
I have been "picked on" exactly one time in my life for being white. Once was enough. I cannot imagine what it is like to be counting only the last month. I have experienced it when out socially with my own friends who are black... It raises my blood pressure when I see it or read about it, how could it not negatively impact every facet of your well being? And why do I feel so helpless about the change I thought we'd see by now? I was born in the 60s, when "anything was possible," but I barely recognize this country any longer. The racists have become empowered.
3
I've seen the effects if racism and the pervasive discomfort in my friends lives. In some ways, like insisting in near perfect behavior from a very young child, hypervilligance, to text alerts of accidents, road clisures, etc.
From my ill informed white eyes, I initially thought the behavior quirky at best, sometimes borderline kookoo at others...but I questioned gently and things were explained. And then we all started reading about unarmed black people being shot and killed.
How do you keep your beloved child safe in an unsafe world...how do you keep yourself safe.
It's heartbreaking for me to know such a wonderful person must feel constantly under seige. This is not paranoia, it's a coping mechanism and makes me so sad.
We are all God's children.
17
The psychology of malignant domination and resulting stress probably transcends species as it obviously transcends genders. The male black soldiers mentioned here probably had the same physical reactions to racist based stress as women in the office have to even subtle put-downs suggesting their gender affects their competence.
In laboratories, monkey alpha-males have been shown to cause very damaging stress to beta-males with the removal of the alphas creating near instant improvement in the mental and physical health of the beta males.
This suggests that the desire for dominance, particularly in males, may be wired right into our DNA (to establish "sexual dominance of the herd"). It may not even be a leap to far to suggest that this desire for dominance, regardless of relative merit, may be the source of a great deal that ails our government and society as a whole.
It also man indicate that it will require a great deal of push back, cultural and legal, to cure the pathology.
3
Back in ’93 I traded America for Europe with the dream of living here as a writer the way James Baldwin had done. Needless to say my plan fizzled out within 2 years but here I am, 24 years later without the slightest regret. While Europe is certainly not perfect - what country is? - I am convinced that I have been spared the penalty for having dark skin (24 years and counting) by no longer living in the country of my birth. My 24 years of living in Europe have conditioned me in ways that would not have been possible had I never left the ‘greatest country in the world’. To be terrified of the police, to receive second class service in restaurants and hotels, to be followed around in stores as if I were going to steal something, perceiving discrimination everyday of my life… Are you kidding me? Life is too short for such nonsense! Again, Europe is not perfect, but in terms of my heath, blood pressure and well being... no regrets
28
People who are trapped by discrimination because of racism have no ability to change their situation except to escape from their oppressors. Their persistent distress must result in physical problems, self medication with overeating, alcohol, various drugs, and irritability and anger. That is what we see occur more frequently amongst those in discriminated against minorities. We also see it amongst people who are impoverished, another group who can experience being trapped. But if the latter can find good paying jobs, they can escape. The only way to escape racism is for those who stereotype people according to race learn to not do so.
1
The 'isms' described in the article are just other names for bullying & such assaults as domestic violence. The symptoms of ill health that result, are identical.
1
As someone else commented below, a real study would compare the incidence of stress-related conditions among African Americans to the incidence among white men and then stripping away other factors that could influence the incidence eg diet, lifestyle, weight etc. Without the comparison to a control group, this article is anecdote masquerading as analysis.
7
It is not only minorities who experience this anxiety. I, a white woman, experience it too when I read about blacks or Latinos or Muslims being discriminated against. I become sad, depressed, angry and anxious about our country. My blood pressure rises. Discrimination is bad for all of us. It is a stain on our culture, a thorn in our democracy, a meanness in our hearts. It is untenable, unAmerican and unsustainable in a country such as ours. I only hope we are better than what I've seen lately. Everyone of us except for the peoples of the First Nations came from someplace else. Isn't that a wonderful attribute to celebrate?
3
What about misogyny? Having experienced everything from employment discrimination to being groped by strangers, I can assure you that it triggers similar feelings. Has that been studied? If not, why not?
8
Racism asserts that humanity is divided into varieties which have different super attributes which explain the dominance and advanced cultures of people who live in or who are descended from selected nationalities in Northwestern Eurasia. It seems to have developed from an attempt to assuage bad conscience of imperialists, slave owners, and other exploiters, and to assure them that their powers are not just circumstantial, a product of luck more than genetics or genius.
This notion leads to a perception that one can know the abilities and behaviors of strangers according to race. It is also difficult to disprove such notions because people disbelieve contradictory facts rather reconsidering their beliefs. Those in the discriminated minority are trapped by the racism of the majority which is a continuous oppressive refusal to appreciate them as they really are, forcing them to live with the constraints imposed based upon those false beliefs. Higher health problems from constant distress, lower success with the same efforts, more escapist behaviors, more self medicating substance abuse, and more anti-social behaviors all derive from racism.
Adding insult to injury, the majority condemns the minorities for symptomatic destructive behaviors which are the result of racism.
3
Race isn't even a legitimate scientific concept for many well-known reasons, not the least of which is that there is more variation with populations that are labelled races than between them. A little biological anthropology would go a long way here if people would listen. That discipline, which studies population genetics, ditched the concept, not because it is politically correct, but because of it is just bad science--actually, it isn't science at all. It's a cultural construct. Its one many Americans continue to live by, to report on and to validate in ways that are simply destructive. It wastes talent and diminishes everyone.
7
trajectory (with hindsight):
as first generation of a minority which suffered its major hits before hispanics took their place, the litany of insult, from references to skin tone, intellect, hygiene, etc., were part of the day from the beginning of memory.
at, first to a child, they were confusing, humiliating (some references were made by teachers in class)
...and repressed, partly due to the respect we were taught to accord our teachers and other authorities.
however, these feelings slowly, as unearned respect faded, became aggressive, reactive, both as personal motive to "rise above" and as refusal to endure...acted out directly, confrontationally and, per circumstance, indirectly, through forms of strategic and tactical delinquency...earning reputations, of course, for incorrigibility while the bigots remained in place and empowered...not hard to see where rage comes from.
adjustment toward more useful habits came not from school and any sense of "unum" but from the examples of fathers and uncles who served in wars, and created paths of their own in business and the professions despite biases (including university "quotas").
so, yes, there are psychophysical effects of racial and ethnic prejudice but they can be transformed (good actors know how to do this though reflection and resolve) and aimed at higher goals.
in this regard, let those who have power as examples, exemplify, get off the knee (so to speak) and show a kid how the game should be played.
8
We need the NFL and all leagues/teams to show some real integrity--starting with addressing head injuries through real rule changes and then move beyond games into general topics of leadership. Transparency, accountability, even things like players medical treatments, violence,addiction and yes, racism--starting with team identities. Then there is a potential for true leadership. Otherwise it is just words.
Which minority you were matters. Africans and Natives in America are sui generis. Hispanic has nothing to do with race, color nor national origin. Like Anglo it is a linguistic and cultural designation.
2
One question I wonder about still seems to remain both unidentified and never studied: what is the impact of perceived and real racism on those who recognize it but are not of the specifically targeted race? It seems parallel to me to the impact of any violence against people on those with empathy and respect for human life, be they the actual direct victims, those who experience domestic violence personally on to the families and survivors of everything from war to the random public violence we see far too often on one of our screens in our shared lives. How do we, individually and as a society, move from indifference, arrogance and a false sense of invulnerability to compassion, respect and dignity for ourselves and all others? Perhaps we start right in our own back yards? Boston--are those supervisors still on the job? Where is the place to address this in the system? I live and work in the Boston area so yes, I am asking, right in my back yard. What can you do in yours?
12
We haven't gotten past the 1850's. Yes, we have civil rights laws, all well and good, but informal social attitudes remain.
It doesn't help that the GOP stokes the fires of hatred with each election cycle by producing venomous political advertising, especially in the south.
Let's face it: Lincoln got it wrong, despite good intentions. He should have jettisoned the south. Slavery would have died a natural death, and the country would have been better off.
3
Are you kidding?
The South would have gone to war no matter what.
They wanted to expand slavery into the western territories, and also keep the right to enter non-slave states to hunt down escaped slaves.
The North refused to allow expansion of slavery, and that's why they seceded. No matter what that war was inevitable.
It is not a perception by those Boston Police Officers of discrimination. It was discrimination. And it has a horrible effect on the mind and the body. End of story.
2
I don't know a single American woman who isn't either taking pills or drinking too much. The spike in hate-induced anxiety is real, and someday a researcher will confirm what we already know, that this period in America is shaving years off of our lives.
4
You mention many forms of discrimination but left out ageism. It's probably one of the least reported on but most prevalent forms of discrimination in our society today!
8
I was a "tomboy" as a kid. It was valued since our society values male attributes. But as I entered into adolescence and adulthood maintaining my lack of conformity to gender, I experienced all kinds of stress. I am not a feminine woman, and I do not defer to men any more than I do to women. I simply respect people who earn respect. This causes all sorts of judgement towards me. I have not gotten jobs because I am not a girly girl. My resume gets me the interview, and then I present in person with a healthy blend of humility and confidence, but whoa, that confidence part is "off-putting."
As a lesbian, I live in an area that feels mostly safe and affirming, but the toll is still there in certain circumstances. It is unconscious homophobia mostly. When I explain to someone (and I am discerning at picking my battles) that something is sexist or homophobic, I am made to feel to be the problem because I raised this issue. This is tedious, but I do it to bring awareness. Allies need to do more. They are crucial. Thank you to those who care.
10
Years ago I read a book that discussed the author's life. As survivor of sexual abuse, I noticed the striking similarities. I even pointed them out to my therapist. I couldn't find much research when I looked for it, but I never forgot that being black in the US seemed to be a lot like being abused. I'm so glad to know that studies are being done. If nothing else, I believe some trauma skills should be taught en masse. Or we could remove the white supremacy built into this world right now.
9
Most of my life I have been sick at heart. I grew up on both sides of the Atlantic (and a few other places too), and one of the heroes of my high school years was Martin Luther King.
In my young view, America's crowning achievement in that era was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that proudly proclaimed that -- in employment, access to schooling, and more -- all individuals would be free from discrimination on the basis of race or skin color.
Imagine my dismay when, with the ink barely dry on the Act, the Supreme Court broke that promise and betrayed the Civil Rights Act by "interpreting" it to mean the opposite of its plain words and intent.
This was not just an act of Supreme dishonesty, but it led to the racialization of our society and to the terrible evil of identity politics that is tearing us apart.
The Civil Rights Act did not promise racial equality or that every school or workforce would "look like America." That is a preposterous and wicked goal. It can be implemented only by incessant interference by government in the free choices of real people, if it can be achieved at all. The Act promised each individual that he or she would be free from discrimination -- including the freedom to succeed or to fail based on her or his own luck or merit.
But where the Act said race must NOT be taken into account, progressives demand that race MUST be taken into account. That is racism. If our society is sick of racism, literally, look no further for whom to blame.
6
Affirmative action and diversity promotion efforts both are race based policies which do assert the fact that race has a significance that goes beyond the superficial attributes used to identify race. Per se, it is a use of race in determining public policies. That should be acknowledged. But it should also be acknowledged that for all the years preceding the Civil Rights act legal and culturally endorsed racial discrimination left those groups without the resources all need to prosper in this society and continue to hobble their efforts. Thus until the effects of racism have diminished to zero, these policies are just even if the are base upon race.
Huh?
Racism should be stopped. You need laws to prevent the actions of racism in order to stop it. Words and actions are racism.
Denying decent housing because of color is racism. It's the actions that are the problem. And we all know that.
Plain and simple the Edwards Supreme Court suffers from his and the other conservative judges' racism.
Casual Observer:
I am pleased that you acknowledge what usually gets blurred, namely that affirmative action is a form of racism.
But you are less than candid about the truth that this racism is entrenched in our political system for ever. Do you seriously believe that the day is ever going to come when blacks say, "hello, we are no longer hobbled, so we can end affirmative action, minority set-asides, gerrymandered Congressional Districts, extortion by the Dept. of Justice, and more"?
That is my point. Progressives think they are entitled to lie, because after all their cause is right.
2
Discrimination is an action, not an opinion.
Many times, opinions about race are based on personal experience, i.e. empirical research.
People are entitled to their opinions, whether the Progressive Thought Police like them or not.
An act of racism is unconstitutional. Voicing an opinion on race, is everyone's inalienable right.
3
I'm bothered by how many commenters seem to minimize or dismiss the impact of racism on the health of those facing discrimination. What we're talking about isn't a single incident of being made to "feel bad" but a lifetime of accumulated threats, death by a thousand cuts. We are social animals and we need to feel accepted and protected by our society. Hostile, discriminatory remarks and attitudes strip this protection away.
We should remember, too, that while racist behavior is often unconscious, it serves as a mechanism for underscoring membership in a more powerful group. The powerful do not have to check their words and impulses in the presence of people they consider less powerful. When asked to do so, they are intensely resentful, and complain of "political correctness."
This tears at the fabric of a democratic society. I wish we could replace some of the discussion about "check your privilege" with "check your impulses." Minorities, and women in the workplace, often feel that they have to parse every word, and second-guess themselves constantly. It's about time white people, and men, do the same. It may feel unnatural, but it's the essence of civilization, and of courtesy. As Katherine Hepburn says in The African Queen, "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."
24
I remember decades ago that I would unconsciously pin my handbag to my side when approaching a black person on the street. When I was made aware of the meaning of that gesture, I determined to never do it again. In such situations subsequently, I actually had to fight with my arm against the gesture and refuse to do it. My arm wanted to clutch and I had to consciously resist it. Now it comes naturally to me. The point is that I had to understand the meaning of what I was used to doing and learn in my body to stop. I had to made a concerted and
conscious effort. There are hundreds of these seemingly innocent gestures or statements that must be carefully examined one by one and consciously dealt with. Believe me, it's worth it. In today's climate there is a tolerance and promotion of racism that makes me sick.
1
Whiteness is descriptive of a false notion of racial supremacy but it tends to distort the problem by classifying and stereotyping the social, economic, and political power and actual privileges according to race. If one applies the argument to reality, wealth, power, and health should be distributed with clear grouping by race. Most poor, less educated, people in the criminal system, substance abusers, and people with poorer health are white. The effects of racism are seen in disproportionate poor outcomes amongst minorities. While the problem of racism is due to notions of white racial supremacy, whites are being stereotyped as privileged even though so many are clearly, not. The problem is not being described accurately, and that makes resolving it more difficult to correct.
1
How about, "Our natures, Mr Allnut, are what we are
to rise above."
We haven't been "put" anywhere.
2
I did some introspect of my own feelings of rising anger, resentment or my "blood boiling" after watching or reading what I think are hateful or disgusting segments about hypocrisy and other right wing flash points for me, and then drew a conclusion that the same thing happens when someone sees racism and bigotry on a TV show which results in their rising blood pressure.
I can't imagine what it is like to live a life with this as a constant element. I can fast-forward or stop reading when I start feeling that way. Others can't change their skin color, so can't avoid it like I can. Maybe the only cure is--Let's just all get along. So Pollyannish and naive of me, but I do try.
2
Racism has been a driving force in my life. I always wanted to excel because others expectations of me were so low. Like the time someone asked me to make the bed for them at the hospital where I was working at. They thought I was part of the cleaning crew and were shocked to find out I was actually part of the rehabilitation team. Or my high school counselor telling me I should just apply to the local community college and good luck. PS most kids in my High School were trying to get into Ivy League schools. I am sick of it all. I don't want to explain myself anymore. No, I'm not the nanny. She's actually my biological daughter. Yes, I have a Masters degree. Yes, I live in this nice neighborhood. I've had enough.
41
It's an unfortunate fact of our nature that we generally privilege particular characteristics over individual characteristics and universal characteristics. With respect to other human beings in their diversity, this means we tend to forget that there are good and bad and talented and untalented people in all groups of us and that we are all human.
If we found a germ on Mars some would cheer. It's unfortunate that a single flaw in our nature should distract us from appreciating the much greater significance of all of us. But reading and accepting discourse like this and experiencing positive interaction with different others can allow us to overcome our flaw and not just be but become - as only human beings can if we will it.
Most people of color in this country already know for a fact how racism can effect the mind, body and soul.
And after being subjected to it, in its every form, for generations, it's no surprise that sicknesses like hyper-tension, high blood pressure and heart disease have become a part of the pathological illnesses that afflict large swaths of the African-American community.
It's hard for people who aren't on the receiving end of this kind of racial discrimination to understand this, and doubtless, there will be many comments to dispute this fact.
But to that, one can say; you'll never know what it's like until you walk a mile in another man's shoes... or a lifetime.
8
Actually, quite a few whites have hypertension. Me, for instance.
Why would the young doctor diagnose an ailment without prescribing a treatment?
It important to note that the person who is sick is the person who believes they have been discriminated against. It is all an internal reaction to a perceived external threat. That threat may or may not be real, and I am not saying there is not discrimination in our society. But it is the individual’s reaction that Dr. Jacobs is describing – and that can be controlled. The antidote to letting yourself feel discriminated against is to practice compassion and compassion meditation. Indeed, the happiest man ever measured by science – as assessed by functional MRI scanning – is Matthieu Ricard (look him up on Wikipedia) and he was meditating on compassion when he was assessed. Compassion is the happiest and healthiest state ever.
So the appropriate therapy is two-fold. If you feel discriminate against, feel compassion for the other person. Think about their life story and how they got to this unfortunate point. What can you do to address that root cause. Turn the other cheek.
And second -- turn off all alerts on your phone, stop watching the news and reading the paper, stop complaining, stop protesting, and get out there and DO something to help your fellow man. The world will be better off, and you will be healthier.
12
This is truly a Pollyanna response to a very real and ugly problem. You have to be very naive to think that a human being can take constant abusive degradation and simply turn it into compassion for the abusers. These are citizens of the United States of American and deserve the same respect and opportunities as any white person. Turn the other cheek to racism? Making the victim the one that has to change is not the answer.
The narrative today is more often that prejudice is at its peak rather than its nadir. Too often, MLK's dream that people will judge one another on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin has been warped by those who should be his heirs, into a drumbeat of victimization and that only skin color matters.
Although Obama's election was a milestone many celebrated, I felt he often sent out a double message on race that led not to a "post-racial society" but to one more mired in race. However, I do like what he has recently said in speeches, of which the following is an example:
". . . {W]hen I speak to young people, I often ask: if you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn't know ahead of time who you were going to be -- what nationality; what gender; what race; whether you'd be rich or poor -- what moment would you choose? You'd choose right now. Because the world has never been healthier or wealthier. Despite some ongoing conflicts, the world at large has never been more tolerant or less violent. Fewer people are dying young, and more people are living not only longer, but better. . . . "
I have to save characters, but find it online. It teaches confidence and progress, rather than alienation and fear. IMO, it is generally the best thing he's ever said, but it is largely ignored b/c it runs against the narrative of fear and victimization taught too often taught in the media, as in this article.
4
Discrimination in all form and shape is sickening, literally and figuratively! Human history has never been free of it. How do you fix that flaw in human nature? Can you fix it? Can human society ever be rid of violence, murder, thievery? Even being honest about the answer goes against human nature. We are all in a state of denial, those who discriminate and those who think it can be fixed. In all truth, a critical number of people in our society lack even the will to acknowledgediscrimination, because they benefit in various forms. Violence is blatant and we have outlawed it in some areas, but sanction it in others as heroism. Discrimination is subtle, and we only made it a crime, if it employs violence. We cannot eradicate discrimination but we can minimize it. To what level, needs to be determined. But as long as we don’t recognize discrimination as a daily occurrence of natural human behavior, we will not make any progress.
13
Well this article is amazing, because I'm sitting here right now missing Placido sing Nabucco because I have my sixth nasty cold since Donald made those bully-faces at Hillary during the debates.
It would be interesting if the CDC could take data on this unique period of mass-triggering going on now, to see if the rates of certain illnesses have gone up among the many groups President Bully-Face has targeted.
1
Thank you for writing this piece. I often feel as a black person that we are treated very poorly. Some -- not all of our peers in the workplace try to leave us with a bad feeling. They can be so unkind and fail to see the humanity in us. This is a big problem in the workplace that not only negatively impacts our health, but can spillover into our personal lives. After a long day of these aggressions, the employee is tired and less engaged at home. And then the next day at work is more of the same. Just a vicious negatively reinforcing cycle that many minorities are forced to live.
Our culture as a whole has become cruder and harsher. We seem to have lost our soul as a nation. Mass shootings are routine and the response is let's setup a gofundme as if money will fix the problems of losing a loved one through a traumatic experience. People also now say whatever they want without regard for the truth and how their hateful feelings impact others. We have to continue to stand up for ourselves and others. I encourage people not to suffer in silence and call out what is wrong and unjust. And to stay lifted in your spirit and protect your emotional well being.
1
I don't doubt that feeling like you are singled out for discrimination can raise blood pressure, contribute to sleeplessness, and perhaps have other adverse effects on health. Nor do I doubt that many black people are discriminated against in a variety of ways, and feel that reality acutely. However, I would be surprised if, for the average black person, this is among the most serious causes of poor health. I would look to more obvious and direct causes of poor health in the general population which most likely are even more of a cause for concern in the black population. At the top of this list I would put poor diet, followed closely by a lack of exercise. Also important, and perhaps contributing to the first two above: poverty and lack of education. We must not forget a lack of access to medical care, which perhaps is related to poverty. Access to clean water, and clean air are also at risk if you are living in poverty. Then there is violence. It is hard, if not impossible to separate out all these different factors and rank them appropriately. But my guess is that discrimination is probably not a major cause of poor health, compared to other risk factors.
2
Depending on how one reads his article there is an argument here for people actually stepping back and really asking themselves “Was that really racism?” It sounds like a big chunk of the risk is being on a hair-trigger for racism/sexism, rather than overt instances of the same (think microaggressions, etc). It is the anxiety and second-guessing, which is not a universal experience by any means.
Case in point: my three sisters are all conservative Republicans (I’m not). There are instances in their lives where I️ would see sexism, and they decidedly don’t. As a result they feel like they’ve never been discriminated against (and maybe they haven’t, who am I️ to say), and are undoubtedly happier, bolder and braver because they don’t see sexist bogeymen hiding around every corner. They will probably be more successful as a result.
Obviously this is a deeply imperfect ‘solution’, and does nothing to tackle instances of overta discrimination, but I️ wonder if people just relaxed more if they’d be better off. I️ also wonder to what extent feelings of persecution track with political ideology (I’d imagine pretty substantially, actually). Another interesting test would be to include white conservative Christians to see if they feel discriminated against, and what effects it has on them. Given their relatively easy status in society they could act as a sort of control group for how important perception vs reality is.
2
White conservative Christians over 45 or so have definitely been discriminated against. Also mocked, insulted etc.
I still have a dream. Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.
Anthropologically speaking, people have always been better off among those who look and think alike. Hence the prehistorical creation of culturally uniform groups and the eventual creation of nation states. The modern imposition of diversity at any cost is obviously having deleterious effects on humans - effects which other ancenstos evidently understood. As a recent immigrant to this country, I have found a niche of fellow expatriates, and all I hear is: I can’t wait to go home. Me too! and not beacuse of discrimination, but because of the nostalgia that I experience around the holidays and when remembering the sound of my church’s bells. I stand with those who believe that people should have the right not to migrate but to remain safely in their country within their people.
16
Anthropology is not biology. Biology is a science. Anthropology is mostly not science. Cultural anthropology is not a science. Physical anthropology is a science. But it is not genetics nor ethology nor physiology.
2
The negative psychological toll of being a racist is ten fold more damaging than any other form of human behavior. Most racist are frozen in time and cannot think about anything else except their bias. No one except other racist can tolerate their company. Racist develop a facial distortion that become permanent and disgusting even to other racist. Racist classically develop hypertension evidenced by the redness around their face and neck. Racist become so intolerant that they become celibate and lonely. Ultimately their hard-hearted vasculature become encrusted with plaque and they all die prematurely.
Yes we should be all sick of racism which is not something that has emerged this year, it has been around from the dawn of civilization and we need to end it. We also need to end racism against the Russians. Yes the soviet union was at times an evil empire but on this Veteran's day as we salute and remember our veterans, let us not forget Russia was our ally in our fight against the fascists and anti-semites. Russia lost millions of soldiers and forced Hitler to divert his forces from destroying Britain and Africa. Russian space station is what we use for our space exploration. The Russian people are not our enemy. It is comforting to see Trump and Putin get along and may develop a good working relation to ease tensions in the Korean peninsula and in the middle east. Trump has also won the friendship of the Chinese and Vietnamese people. Trump pledged to be president of all Americans and people of all races are benefiting from low unemployment and increases in higher retirement portfolios. Racism has been marginalized and will be crushed as we realize the inter dependence of all Americans for mutual benefit.
3
This "racist" stuff is overdone. It's like when the Moral Majority in the 70's was calling everyone "sinners". It's become socially tedious and oppressive. Can you go a week without accusing someone of being a racist? Well isn't that special.
9
First of all, Latino is not a race. Latinos or Hispanics, are a linguistic group that share a common language, Spanish. And many Latinos or Hispanics are black or of African descent. And unfortunately, whites, Caucasians, or Europeans, are not the only ones who are racist. Many blacks are racist, scary, and aggressive as well. Even blacks fear other blacks. I also have male friends who are gay and some discriminate against women and are ageist. Asians are racist, too. Discrimination is inevitably human, and to err is human, sadly. Moreover, racism is mostly based on culture, not color. And race politics are not about equality but power and control. It's time we face this reality.
14
It made me sick just to read about it.
1
I am an alumni interviewer for an elite university, that admits 1 in 30 candidates. I have not interviewed a single white kid worthy of admission. How do you like them apples, MAGA voters?
1
In Bed-Stuy recently, a cafe was shut down for "racist" behavior. It was mobbed, witch hunt style, by persons on the lookout for "racism," to quell it with outrageous disapproval and mob justice.
The issue? It appeared that the clerk refused to give Halloween candy to black children. But then the clerk gave candy to some white children when they came in.
Where is the evidence, though, that the black kids were not given candy because they were black? I heard later that the white mother bought the cookies for her white kids. The cafe apologized, saying the clerk was new and had only been in the country for ten days. The mob then called this a "lie" and if it was true, the cafe should have hired a neighborhood kid to work the counter, instead of an immigrant. In any case, this cafe is now shuttered. Is this just? Imagine the pain in the bodies of the persons who own that cafe. And again I ask: on what evidence was this mob justice conducted?
The source of this information reveals many such accounts of mob justice, based on emotional responses to situations that are anecdotal and unclear. Racism is assumed, and off they go, to 'shut down' businesses and people they deem 'racist.'
The way to end 'racism' is not to be even more violent and punitive in response. Not to cause physical pain to others as retaliation for perceived injustices. And a lot of it is PERCEPTION. Am I being spit at when I walk down the street by these same people? Or are they just...spitting...?
9
I think the author needs to be more careful with his terminology. Is a white person not wanting physical intimacy with black people racist? Yes. Is it wrong? No. Is denial of civil rights or demeaning commentary because of skin color racist? Yes. Is it wrong? Yes.
8
Who is "we"? What is "race"?
There is only multi-colored multi-ethnic multi-faith multi-national origin biological DNA genetic evolutionary fit human race species that began in Africa 300,000+ years ago. What we call race aka color is an evolutionary fit pigmented response to varying levels of solar radiation in isolated populations at altitudes and latitudes primarily related to production of Vitamin D and protecting genes from damaging mutations. What we call race aka color is a malign socioeconomic political educational historical white American male supremacist myth meant to legally and morally justify humanity denying African enslavement and separate and unequal African Jim Crow.
Neither color nor ethnicity nor national origin nor faith are biological race markers. However about 2-5% of European and Asian DNA is extinct Neanderthal and Denovisan. There is no Hispanic, Anglo, Jewish, Aryan, black, white, Chinese, Arab, Muslim, Mexican, Indian, African nor European race. That a medical doctor would be ignorant of that fact is disappointing.
Although I am biologically genetically white European, black African, brown Native and yellow Asian in America I have been by historical convention all and only black African. My white European American ancestors owned and bred with my black African ancestors in Georgia. Although Barack Obama was half European American by biological nature and all white European American by cultural nurture he is all and only black.
1
Every race deserves the utmost respect but we are all inherently racist for we all have a bias and natural inclination to our own.
With multiculturalism comes a multitude of problems.
6
The subject of this article is the “…connection between discrimination and physical and mental well-being…”. Inevitably the author is forced to draw upon studies concerned with an exceptionally American form of discrimination, white on black.
Thousands of studies by American researchers choose color as the key variable – see this line from the 2015 study cited by Jacobs: “One-hundred and twelve (N=50 Black, N=62 White) adults from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study provided saliva samples…”
That simple two-color distinction then becomes in American medicine a distinction between what are seen as separate “races” not only socially constructed but all too often also as genetically constructed. To do this is itself racist.
Commenter Sam I Am points to this problem:
“It wasn't "because of their race." It was actually because of someone's racism. Their race is the same as yours and mine: human. It was the racist belief in separate races…that perniciously causes the unfair treatment.”
This fundamental way of thinking is never treated in Times articles; only in comments will you see it questioned. If we are going to discuss racism we must first examine the US Census Bureau system for classifying us Americans, a system that teaches citizens from birth that each belongs to a race.
Visit Professor Dorothy Roberts’ TED talk on race in medicine if you want to open your mind to this subject.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
3
Racism makes people of color sick, and it makes white people psychotic. It makes them see and hear things that are not real, and it makes them fail to see what is real. Witness John Kelly claiming that Rep. Wilson said things that she did not say. He is either an incredible liar, or he suffers from racist psychosis.
Witness the police officers who rolled up on Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old child who was minding his own business playing alone on a playground with a toy gun, and shot him instantly because they saw a dangerous criminal.
Racist psychosis becomes a societal psychosis when it makes white people blind to the facts of how they have been and are still being abused by the ideology of white supremacy. This ideology tells them they ought to be proud of a civil war heritage where an army of conscripts, most of whom did not own slaves, were forced to kill and to die so that states could maintain the right to keep human beings in bondage.
Now this same ideology has them voting for Trump and the GOP whose political agenda consists of taking away their healthcare, allowing the fossil fuel industry to poison and put at risk water sources, and give tax cuts to the rich while they get next to nothing for their votes.
Crazy.
11
I️ had a white male boss refer to me as his ‘slave.’ I️ walked into a black tie company-sponsored event to have a white female colleague ask ‘what are YOU doing here?’ Such shards take a cumulative toll. Which is why I️ always tell young minorities that at least 25%of their emotional energy at work will be spent making white people feel comfortable. But the reverse will never be true.
11
Agree. I am sick of the blatantly racist law called affirmative action, which doesn't help minorities - it helps blacks and latinos at the direct expense of Asians (and to a lesser extent whites).
Everything else being equal, an Asian kid has to be 55% more qualified than a black to get into a competitive college. Its even worse for many professional schools. For medical school, an Asian has to be 5x more qualified than a black and 3x more qualified than a latino. This is according to stats compiled by non-partisan non-profits. I don't know about you, but I want the most qualified and moat studious doctor to do heart surgery on me. Not someone who is there because of a racist policy.
6
"More Than 100,000 Black People Die Prematurely Each Year in This Sick Society" is much more on topic than the ambiguous "We're Sick of Racism, Literally." I don't think I'm being picky. Medical reports identifying the connection of racism, bigotry, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia to suffering and death should surely inspire corrective action by civic, religious, business and elected leadership in a healthy society. Instead, the reality for this for this country, this society: Get ready for more sickness, more pathology.
1
Yes, the majority of Americans are sick to death of racism. Humans first emerged from Africa together and except for a few chromosomes related mainly to skin we are all the same people!!
Some people are white but that is only because they settled initially in places where the sun shown less, like Scandinavia. Thus they no longer evolved darker skin to shield themselves. White Racism is the imagining of white people who prize themselves on a false value of fairness but it has nothing to do with what's inside a person or his brain.
Christ was Jewish and thus could not have been fair skinned but olive colored, given the climate and his ethnicity. It is also unlikely that his hair was light colored for the very same reason.
Christ was also not Christian since the faith many of us share today did not exist in his lifetime nor does he speak of it in the Bible. The faith we follow was decided long after his death and in reverence to him.
Christ today would therefore not condone white supremacism since personally he would not fit in this group. A note from an anthropology student. Thanks.
"Hatred in all forms" should also include white men and Christians in your grouping.
2
Find the PBS series "Race, The Power of an Illusion" to learn why "race" was invented by white people, and its "measures" have changed over time (e.g., is it head circumference, length of limbs, size of chins, etc.?). Biological phenotypes (outward appearance or conditions statistically more-prevalent among some groups of people) are not found solely within one "race." There are Asians with naturally curly hair, Jews with sickle-cell anemia, and so forth. We are biologically nearly identical under the skin when born. Statistically, we may be grouped for national or political reasons. We are programmed and taught to fear "the other."
If you believe you are not racist, ask yourself if you would rather be a different "race" or to have much darker skin. Then ask yourself why or why not. And then -- if you are brave -- ask your neighbor or co-worker.
6
We are not born racist. The culture we live in creates it.
I am a red head, and when I was child, way before the invention of sun screen, I used to get very painful sunburns that blistered, and as a result I was covered in freckles and often teased about it.
I envied those with dark tans since they seemed immune not only to sunburns but also freckles.
It wasn't until I was much older that I learned that they were not tanned but born that way, and it was even later that I learned that they were a different race.
I didn't really understand the problem until the Civil Rights Movement became a focus of the TV news.
If society was not so racist, yes I would love to have dark skin. But I know that having dark skin makes people victims of irrational hatred and violence, and I am a scared of that irrationality.
Thank you for that. I'm tired of people asking me if I've had a permanent. ~ Asian With Curly Hair
In light of all this, and while I appreciate the “black” perspective, the author left totally untreated the victims of black racism. For example, how about the white victims of affirmative action? How about lost careers and lost educational opportunities? How about the fear which many white people have in their inability to go to certain places in their hometowns due to rampant crime? How about the fear which white people have, on a daily basis, to watch every single word and nuance in talking to blacks for fear of being falsely accused of racism or, worse, losing their livelihood? This shoe can ALSO be on the other foot.
6
He also left out ageism, which is more wide spread and just as harmful as racism.
1
This is 2017. You can't be serious.
"Can My Child Be Friendly With White People?" What physical effect might this NYT opinion piece have had on its white readers? Bias affects everyone and is unhealthy in all its forms.
5
Someone ought to study the effect on stress levels of constantly being barraged with articles about perceived racism.
5
There is a difference. You have the choice to not read the article.
Nurses like Lillian Wald were talking about the Social Determinants of Health since the 1890s. It bears repeating but its not new.
5
So 50+ years of using racism to fight racism has produced what? More racism!!! So why are people surprised?
3
I can't imagine, being white, the daily horrors of being judged just by appearing "different."
How could it not be stressful. Life is never easy for any thinking person, but dealing with moronic bigots adds another layer of hardship.
3
Better yet. Maybe we are all just sick of listening to the news paint its version of racism and beating us over the head with it like a water torture.
5
If you want racial progress- then let's cut to the chase and start with the most obvious! The "N" word has been in our society far too long- It is a word of oppression and subjugation. It needs to be removed from our lexicon. Until the African-American community is as equally shocked, angry and appalled by the use of this word when uttered by a fellow African-American, then this word will continue to plague and dismantle any attempts at racial harmony and equality.
The rapper "Ice Cube" committed a huge public disservice when he proclaimed on the Bill Maher show last season, "It's our word now," I'll never forget that and I felt we lost 30 years of progress right then and there. Get rid of the word- get rid of the racism.
1
Preachy self-righteous denunciations of racism fall upon deaf ears throughout the United States. Because people see what a trillion dollars of entitlement money--more than the space program cost--that have been spent since the Great Society of LBJ was initiated, have done. Here in Chicago, one is not safe to venture into entire large areas of the city, where kids grow up living in a state of siege. The adults learn that they can make far more money slinging smack and 'caine than working a job and take advantage of the opportunities in the drug trade. They abound, unlike decent-paying legitimate jobs. Black people are victims of their own violence far more often than white people in this place. Those like myself who work in law enforcement see the ugliness from the ground up on a daily basis and our black coworkers are constantly at a loss as to why their own people are destroying each other. One trembles to think of the solution that this administration may resort to before its term is up, since the president is not famous for his rational or temperate approach to any situation, To most white Americans, blacks don't deserve to escape the fires they have started for each other.
10
“Slinging ‘Caine.” What a wild thing to say.
1
And I suppose by your logic you believe there are NO places in America where white people harm each other at an alarming rate, and there are no white people who choose to 'sling smack and 'caine' for a living, and there are no predominantly white 'hoods where drugs and violence make it dangerous to go to those places? Have you noticed the patterns of profiles mass shooters? Have you ever been around white gang members? I could go on...but you get the point. Violence and drug dealing and dangerous neighborhoods don't just happen in Chicago's African American dominated neighborhoods.
This is a good example of stereotyping people of color, as a way of blaming black people for their problems, rather than facing up to the realities of racism in this country. If racism is the disease, then poverty, and all that goes with that, is one part of it.
1
My father was the victim of a racial attack by two African-American youths.
He was partially disabled because of it, but he was close to retirement anyway so knocking down an old white man didn't make much difference anyway, right?
All part of living the dream in Detroit. How's that for an adverse effect due to racism? Does it get past the censors?
13
Why do you consider it a ‘racial’ attack?
@Cleo: Why do I consider it a racial attack? Because of the words used during the attack. Hint: They didn't call him a caucasian or American of Polish descent.
That's why I consider it a racial attack.
He was just a person who took the bus to and from work everyday and minded his own business living on the near-east side of Detroit. He looked so weak when he made it home that evening (about 2 blocks from the attack). He never returned to work. A couple of years later they were able to move to the suburbs where it was nice and peaceful for them.
BTW, were all the victims of discrimination noted in the article required to prove the incidents they experienced were "racial" or "ethnic" based?
4
That’s horrible and I’m sorry it happened. Segregated communities doesn’t just lead to white-on-Black racism, but also black-on-white racism. I see a lot of hate from black people to white people and it’s just as wrong, but it’s not really discussed much because white people generally wield more power in society (which isn’t right). In my experience mixed communities have the least racism. The only time in ten years in a majority minority neighborhood I have almost been attacked was a white guy.
1
The Algerian revolutionary psychologist Franz Fanon decades ago detailed these effects in his classic Wretched of the Earth. His solution, still good for today, fight your oppressors, direct your anger back on the system and those who run it.
5
Racism, the social disease without remedy.
2
If the white lieutenant is that confident making such a baldly racist comment in the face of a minority person, then the culture within the police department is seriously dysfunctional. My question is what subsequently resulted because of the white lieutenant's racist insult. Was he fired?
3
No. The Black Police officers who reported racism were fired. The white cops are still on the job. Brookline Selectmen also fired an African American firefighter named Gerald Alston whose superior officer left the word “Ni**er” on Alston’s voicemail; the white firefighter who left the racist slur on Alston’s voicemail was promoted.
1
Hmm, not unlike the stress felt when one is accused of being a racist, I suppose.
8
Guess, I wrongly assumed that ‘racists’ are comfortable being racist. If they’re uncomfortable, maybe change? Why not learn from others’ comments?
1
No,Harry, it's totally different. I'm certain that, when accused of being racist, the "racist" easily reminds him/herself that the other person is mistaken, is misunderstanding one's comments. He/she continues to act the same way as before. The accusation is easily argued as benign, and generally dismissed as a slip of the tongue.
However, it is not easy have a civil discussion (argument) with someone who yells racial epithets at you or trashes your reputation because of who you are. Do you think victims of racial harangue can fight back by merely saying, "Sir, I believe you're mistaken about your attitude toward people who are different from yourself"? When pigs fly.
The only way to cure racism is for neighbors to get to know one another as friends. I'm certain it starts with our parents and in our supposedly desegregated schools. Now if all our teachers would rid themselves of their racist views......... what a wonderful world it would be!
As a highly educated smart nice Brown, with four degrees and a PhD, my health was perfect up until June of this year. After being in Dallas for over a year, as a caregiver to an ex with Huntington's, and dealing with the system, and people who are behind the times when they deal with me, I developed elevated cholesterol, blood sugar, etc. All in less than two years of being in Dallas, Texas. They all gain from my knowledge, experience, kindness, insights, etc. I got bad health. Stupid arrogant people, aggressive people, racist people, sexist people, violent people, mind-game playing people...will make anyone who is smart and sensitive, with dignity and pride, sick. Where is the research on this?
10
The swamp has turned into a cesspool, coast to coast. Will the last American leaving the country please bring the flag...
4
Submission 2: Ann, Verified from California, states that we as a country need to go further in addressing discrimination in all its forms, suggesting a national dialogue, perhaps taking the form of a Truth and Reconciliation Forum.
I agree, but who will shape and lead this dialogue. I have proposed and propose once again that Michelle and Barack Obama might at least help to shape this forum and could make the opening statement in which they would begin by saying:
We, the more than 300 million individuals who make up the American population, display an extraordinary diversity whatever measure we might use to characterize that diversity. Suppose we were to record using an appropriate scientific method the skin color of every citizen at age 1 and then represent that variation using an appropriate 3-dimensional graphic. We believe that this would show continuous variation in color making it impossible any longer to believe that we can separate black and white, standard practice since 1790.
Each of us is a distinct individual but we all share a genome so alike from person to person that we must abandon the US Census Bureau system and declare that we are all of one race, the human.
Once we agree on that we can move on and examine the forms discrimination takes in America, discrimination based on religion, skin color, gender, country of birth, even the languages we speak. Let us begin.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen-US SE
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I agree but did you know that your argument would get you branded as a racist at Berkely?
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@ Pete Mitchell - No I did not know that but I know very well that many, many in the USA have a very strong commitment to a belief in the existence of distinct races.
This was submission no. 2 so I will see if 1 was accepted.
This matter is so important that I find it inexcusable that the Times Newsletter called Race/Related won't touch it. That Newsletter is mostly about racism so that is what it should be called.
The paradox is that the race nomenclature used by the US Census Bureau was created entirely by racists in the service of creating racial orders. A leader in that field was Herman Lundborg who created the Swedish Institute of Race Biology in 1922. He and Hitler were very close. So when Americans insist that the races must be preserved they are doing exactly what racists and notably in the Nordic countries, the Neo Nazis are the main supporters of the assignment of people to races.
Larry L.
These laments leave me cold. How is It that everyone, particularly U.S. born blacks, are now so dainty that they can't rise above obnoxious remarks and be all they can be? In remarkable data now coming to light, blacks made incredible strides even in the slave-owning South. In 1850's Charleston, SC, 27 percent of all adult male slaves were skilled artisans such as blacksmiths, carpenters and coopers. These were heroic achievers. Today, the racial group with the highest per capital income are Indian-Americans. And Nigerian Americans families earn
well above the national average. It's time to get away from all this stupid self-pity, it doesn't help anything. Forget what stupid jerks say and get on with your lives like so many ethnic groups did before - and are still doing.
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People are sick of hearing the hyperbole of prejudice from the media. It's especially disheartening after an 8 year reign by President Obama- after all, he is half black. What are we to conclude: that the press and much of the electorate are prejudiced against older white males and just dissatisfied that a white man is back in the White House?
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We are sick of racism...
We are sick of sexism...
But we all better get vaccinated for poverty and bankruptcy...
While we play with our belly-button lint - other countries are competing and building and surpassing us...
4
America's original sin, and still going strong. Racism is the FIRST refuge of a scoundrel. Right, GOP????
4
After the NY Times puts out article after article: "Why don't these young people on college campuses like free speech racism anymore?"
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This isn't just speculation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580597/
1
I think that this is one reason that if someone prefers to live ina community where most people look like them, we shouldn't judge them for that. As long as they treat other people fairly, we should live and let live. Maybe that is what they need to do to minimize the stress of either racism or of worrying about it, looking for it, wondering about it, etc. There is evidence that just the faces of people of another race tends to cause a stress response. Some people are more flexible than others.
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When I was under a lot of pressure at work due to discrimination, I became very ill and was off of work for over a week. During that year, I look some paralegal classes to better understand the legal implications of my situation.
It took considerable two semester of classes, but in the end, I was able to get the manager to put into writing his discriminatory actions against me. I sent him a reply to his email and cc'd the human resources department at the company's headquarters. Up until then, HR had not been particularly helpful. This wasn't an old company with petrified traditions; it was an Internet company which tried hard to be fun and cool.
In this case the discrimination was not just because I was an ethnic East Asian, but because I was an ethnic East Asian woman. The manager in question was also East Asian, but not from the same culture. My proof against him was the treatment of another woman who was white.
The issue was taken care of and the manager found another job, but the HR department and the multinational company did NOT commend me for my actions although I later heard whispers about other people who suffered illegal indignities under him. I am pretty sure I was labeled a troublemaker at that point and for the most part any promise for a future at the company was dead.
Racism is more complicated than black and white, but I do believe that the basic premise of this article is true: The stress of living under prejudice is harmful to our physical health.
8
I read the original article. To directly paraphrase...
To date, there have been two published studies of the relationship of racial discrimination to ABP. One study included Black adolescents (n 207) and did *not* find a relationship of perceived racial discrimination to waking ABP. The other study included an Black adults (n 69), and found a relationship of perceived racism to average daytime SBP but *not* nocturnal BP.
So basically they didn't like the findings of the previous research and made sure to set the record straight. If you want to see a significant effect look at what unemployment does to BP in their study. The data is right there in their main table, but completely glossed over. Perhaps unemployed people are more likely to interpret all interactions more negatively and blame it on discrimination.
8
There is political benefit from creating fear, and then saying, “I alone can fix this.” Until we recognize the damage this causes, until we recognize that we are deeply hurting fellow human beings by this practice, will we be able to begin a conversation. But we have to see those we are harming as complete human beings, worthy of grace, equal in every way to ourselves. When we do not see someone else as human for whatever reason, be it skin color, religion, gender, it’s much easier to not care what happens to them.
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Racial discrimination is joined at the hip to socioeconomic discrimination. Hence people of color, who are more often at the bottom of our "social" ladder, are also more often short on economic resources--for schooling, housing, health care, food. Yes, things are better than they were 50-100 years ago, but too many embedded problems linger across the generations.
Part of the point of "denouncing racism" must include narrowing the economic inequalities currently on the rise in our society. We cannot give out-sized tax advantages to those already well-off, we cannot take away basic health care coverage from the least advantaged among us.
I doubt we will all "love one another" in my lifetime or that of my children and grandchildren. Maybe we can improve tolerance for one another, and improve access to those things that make life more tolerable.
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Nonsense.
"People of color" is a ridiculous rhetorical redundancy. All people are colored. People come in many colors. Except white and black. Since there is only one multicolored biological DNA genetic evolutionary human race species, racism is endemic, enduring and eternal.
Bigotry is not "racist". Bigotry is discrimination based upon naturally diverse human characteristics. There are many kinds of "we".
2
When one understands that the human "soul" is software derived from the experience of living, one knows that, in the mind, we are all of the same race.
In a rational society, one that responded reasonably to facts, this would place restrictions on First Amendment protection of hate speech. It turns out that word are physically violent. Something that we have known for a very long time but have been blinkered by denial, the kind of denial that insists that guns do not kill.
1
Has anyone done any studies observing the physical effect on those who practice racism. It might be equally harmful to them and we might suggest it will affect their longevity. That might be a motivation to love everyone.
I can support the perspective of this essay with my anecdotal experience. Being passed over for promotion multiple times for persons who didn't have the same or better performance output, were not selected on merit, but selected based on quota's for race and sex has been very stressful, has generated anger reactions, brought on anxiety and depression. Though it is demonstrably provable that this was the circumstance, even the perception that this was the mechanism in play regarding how people were selected for promotion, not by merit but by demographic quotas, was very stressful, distressing, and continues over time having a negative impact.
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It's been well known that stress increases the risk of high blood pressure. How is this any different?
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This article confirms an idea that I have held for many years. The problem can be corrected by following the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If only we could all follow it.
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Thank you Dr Jacobs for your report on the research that shows the toll that bias takes on anyone perceived as "less than" another who judges with bias and hate in their sick minds. We are, indeed, a broken society, always looking, lurking for someone to bash and denigrate. Very SAD. Almost seems like intent to maim--hearts, minds, spirit, essence--to prove one's superiority.
And we all have the same 46 chromosomes in each of our cells.......how can we tell the difference between one person's humanity and another's? We can't-- there's no difference except in function, talents, and aspirations toward success and the best of human attributes. Being human is one's essence--all the same in each of us--equals all, through chromosome count.
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Thank you for this article. For anyone who wants to follow up: "Why Zebras don't get ulcers" by Robert M. Sapolsky is a great read on this topic.
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Yes, reducing the incidents where others make intentionally threatening or demeaning gestures is critical to public health. That is the essential external response. The essential internal response is for all of us to learn to manage our our stress reactions, so we neither absorb other's hate or respond in hateful outbursts. These efforts are from traditional religious and spiritual approaches, as well as their scientifically established versions of breathing, meditation, exercise, singing, and certain forms of verbal and physical expression.
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Being as we are primarily human beings our physical self is the greater part of what we are. It's disappointing therefore, that an article detailing how our experience of being one of us is intimately connected to physically being one of us, says "our bodies pay the price" rather than "physically, we pay the price" or simply "we pay the price". Truly we are more than - not other than - our physical selves, even though much of our physiology is autonomic or not dependent on our conscious control.
Even the most simple or most wretched of us is an example of the most sophisticated kind of being in the universe as far as we know. Unfortunately we tend not to know that and we are not aware moment-to-moment of the truth of it. The parts of us do what they do that allow us to live but we experience life as a conscious whole entity that needs to focus on the dangers without not on its workings within.
In our evolutionary past that included others not of our "tribe". So unfortunately we are naturally inclined to disrespect and fear those not alike in appearance and behaviour to ourselves whom we encounter. Such occasions were rare for the vast majority of human history. In our modern world of multi-ethnic cities such is obviously not the case and this aspect of our nature is maladaptive. Biology is not destiny so it can be - and should be - overcome, but it's not destiny that it will be by all individuals. What's important is that not overcoming it should not be socially sanctioned.
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So racial phobia is instinctive, innate? Not much empirical evidence to back your postulate. Society and culture plays a more distinctive role in this area, at least empirically. People are taught to hate, usually during very formative stages of development. After all, we're all humans and our realities and perceptions are quite malleable.
1
The poem "I Didn't Tell You" by Norma Johnson, which she calls "A poem for my white friends", is one of the most powerful statements on this issue that I have read/heard. Her reading of it can be viewed online.
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Thank you for this. She is amazing . White folks, pay attention! Including me
As I send my mixed-race children out into the world, I worry about the impact of discrimination on their health and sanity. I wish I had better tools for teaching them how to cope. In my own workplace, I felt I was able to compensate for the prejudices of some of my co-workers by finding friends and supervisors who were more supportive. But not all workplaces offer that kind of flexibility.
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As someone in a similar situation (younger sisters, noy children), I would advise you to give them this one, small, coping tool: Please assure them that some - some - of their misfortunes will not be a result of their race/appearance.
There is a lot of space between warning a naive child about racism and telling them they're doomed. Increasingly, the messages from The Times and elsewhere imply the latter. I assume that even reading this article will have a small physical impact and I can't help wondering if the cumulative influence of these alarms will eventually eclipse the effects of racism, itself.
The fact that we continue to talk about different "races" among humans makes my blood boil. So you want to reduce the cost of healthcare for one benefit? Teach the findings of the Human Genome Project at the turn of the century, and other related sciences, wherein it was revealed that regardless of one's skin color, shape, birthplace, or innate behavior, no person on earth has enough genetic deviation to be considered another species or race. We are all Human beings that come in a variety of shapes, appearances, etc. called ethnicities, but we are all people, the same. The differences we talk about are social constructs. So educate about our equality and the positive things about humanity--and maybe we can "chill."
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In medicine we point out that there are always the "lumpers" versus the "splitters"; that is, those who wish to separate disease states into specific entities versus those who wish to keep them in a continuum. It sounds like you prefer the latter, pointing out that we humans are much more homogeneous genetically than different. That is true at the macroscopic level, but at that level humans are not distinct from gorillas, and not even much different than canines! One can't ignore the micro level however. At that level, it is abundantly clear that humans have great variation. In fact, no two humans are the same. Where one draws the line between races one can discuss, but to claim we are all the same and thus there is no such thing as race just is not scientific reality.
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Social class is also a social construction. As are things like inheritance rights and educational certifications. We do need educating from an early age what and how exactly these constructions manifest themselves, but their tangible effects on the human condition cannot be denied.
8
Road:
Much as I understand the overwhelming genetic similarity between all "races," that educational approach is not going to work. I suppose, in some way, we are dealing with longstanding divisions between faith and science, between our beliefs and what scientific data should tell us. You see this everywhere.
If we are going to make it to a place where tolerance is more pervasive--where equality under the law becomes more of a reality--it will not be science alone that takes us there. If one insists that science must dominate the discussion, that is a losing route. I might wish it were otherwise, but so many tribal behaviors are embedded within us.
4
Somewhere in this explanation is missing the determining factor between good stress and bad stress - a topic much discussed in recent years. Good stress is defined by the opportunity use the cortisol surge to enable some kind of personal victory. Bad stress is defined as enduring the cortisol surge while unable or unwilling to respond in a way that solves the problem.
In the case given in the article both get a cortisol boost but one walks away feeling victorious (good stress) while the other is trapped in humiliating inescapable defeat (bad stress).
Needless to say, as a society we can do better than that.
15
Racism makes both victims and aggressors sick. People on the receiving end often suffer in the extreme because a lot of discrimination is not recognized or openly confronted. So their experience is further minimized and invalidated. However, the toxicity is real and takes its toll on all of us. I've always believed America needs to have a national dialogue to address this; a truth and reconciliation-type forum that invites listening to those who have been harmed, everything that needs to be said and heard, allowing for real mourning and amends.
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I wish it were true that it makes aggressors also sick. You present no evidence, nor have I ever never any. Sadly, and contrary to wishful thinking and popular myth, the bullies, racists and lizard-brains all do quite well. We're a very sick species, indeed.
Can you cite the study/studies that document the negative health effects of committing racial aggression? I’d be interested to read that.
I️’m reading a book on education research which points out that, while many education studies can show a program improved student performance, the effect in standard score points was actually quite small. While we might wish to argue a program changed a students trajectory, evidence doesn’t actually support that contention.
Liberalism can be just as susceptible as conservatism to exaggerations in the desire to prove a point. In this case, yes, studies have shown that experiencing a racist event causes unhealthful physical responses such as an increase in cortisol levels. While we know that, over time, such physical responses can be detrimental to long-term health, that doesn’t quite warrant the conclusion that many people experience so many racist events in a single lifetime that their health is negatively impacted in any meaningful sense.
While we as liberals might desire to declare racism a public health crisis, simple desire doesn’t make it so.
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700 research reports indicating association between discrimination and health effects should not be minimized. It’s not liberal vs conservative, it’s the national denial syndrome. It is more than overdue for America to begin a truth and reconciliation process. Not likely to happen anytime soon sadly.
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The effects demonstrated by the studies are quite small (for example, exposure to racist events is 100 to 1000 times less impactful than smoking). As noted by Cam, just because we want the effect to be large doesn't mean it is, even though we can see some effect. The public heath problem that completely overwhelms the problem of "racism" is the incidence of children growing up without fathers (regardless of their race). If one wants to improve the lot of those in the US, we should focus on how to maintain the two parent household (whether that be a man and a woman, two men, or two women).
1
You can read a book Cam and stI'll not know, know.
Make friends, develop a level of trust and just listen with an open heart. People are hurting on a daily basis.
I walked in my local park one day with a friend and her little daughter. I was walking just slightly ahead. All the passers by smiled at me and say hi. Few did the same to my friend and her little girl. I know because I deliberately let them walk in front of me and observed once she pointed it out to me. My experience walking in my local park was definitively different than theirs.
Amplify that by news reports, work experience, dramatic pay differentials between colleagues doing the same or very similar tasks and functions. It's every day, all the time and obviously takes a physical and mental toll.
"And you can always hear this long (white patriarchal American) sob story: 'You know it takes time.' For three hundred years, we've given them time. And I've been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change."
"We want a change in this society in America because, you see, we can no longer ignore the facts and getting our children to sing, 'Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed.' What do we have to hail here? "
"The truth is the only thing going to free us. And you know this whole society is sick. And to prove just how sick it was when we was in Atlantic City challenging the National Convention, when I was testifying before the Credentials Committee, I was cut off because they hate to see what they been knowing all the time and that's the truth."
- Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964
America's been making African-Americans sick (and dead) for a very long time.
A respect for our fellow Americans and fellow humans of a slightly different hue is long overdue.
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Excellent article.
It’s not only racism or sexism, it’s any kind of ongoing harassment. After being harassed for years at a workplace, my cortisol levels were measured and found to be “off the charts.”
Anyone who is victimized by others on a continuing basis is likely to suffer health consequences. It’s time for society to recognize this more explicitly.
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While it is important to respect people's different abilities and preferences, stereotyping people is a faulty pattern assigning failure of sound reasoning of which racism is a clear example. Race is nothing more that some superficial characteristics of people with common ancestors to which general characteristics have been assigned which are utterly unsupported and contrary to what biology has learned about people and their inherited capacities. There is a clear remedy, learn to see race as having no meaning beyond what we see, that in fact it tells one nothing about the people in any other respect.
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But how can you insist such learning upon people who actively engage in encouraging racism?
As long as reasonable discourse is possible, use good arguments to disprove the false representations of reality. It's one of the purposes of the First Amendment.
This agrees with my anecdotal observations over three decades but is limited. Some important areas of study:
1. What are the aggravating and protective factors mediating the effect of overtly demonstrated racism?
2. Which has the greater adverse effect: overt objectively observable acts of racism or the subjects perception of racist intentions or microsgressions in the absence of objective direct expressions of racism?
3. What is the effect of being accused of racism?
4. What is the effect of being exposed to other who are themselves experiencing an adverse emotional reaction to their perception of racism in the absence of overt objective evidence--of being exposed to racial hostility and paranoia fueled by subjective perceptions of racism?
5. What is the effect of sensitivity training enhancing awareness and labeling of actions as racist?
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Try dealing with a special needs child - my daily reality - and then talk to me about cortisol. Everybody has stress and we all just have to deal with it, end of story.
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The stress levels felt when one is worried about constant, unprovoked existential threats, or threats to one’s livelihood, or to constant insults and passive aggression at the workplace without appropriate, unbiased and informed channels through which to resolve the problems, all at the hands of people with whom there is no personal mother-child type of relationship, is surely different.
1
I agree that almost everybody has stress. But to say we are all equal with our stresses is not true. We as a society should be addressing all the
injustices that create unnecessary stress.
1
I have a special needs child who is now an adult. Although, everyone has stress, I don't need the added stress of racism. Racism is ignorant and stupid which I realized as a child. We are all human beings trying to survive on this bitter earth.
1
I am a male African-American, this very topic has been on my mind for a while now. I was a relatively healthy, happy person from a upper middle class two parent household. I then made the tragic mistake of attending schools in the South, not too far from UVA actually. Needless to say, my mental health has been less than optimal ever since My question is, are there any effective treatments other than the general approaches, e.g. exercise, meditation or psychotherapy? I have yet to find anything that helps me with my mental "default loop", which is less than positive to put things lightly. I suppose I could just move to Tibet and become a monk....
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I recommend regular exercise and surrounding yourself with supportive people. See below for some suggestions on therapies.
I hope that your circumstances have changed- that you are no longer at the schools that you have mentioned. If you are still in such an environment: is it possible to transfer, or is there a counseling center that can be helpful?
With respect to various therapies that might help:
1. Read “The Body Keeps the Score,” in which a highly regarded therapist— the founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts— discusses a wide array of trauma treatments. The book explains why traumatic experiences, unlike more routine memories, do not just “go away.”
2. EMDR is a trauma release technique that is being increasingly used for people who have gone through a variety of traumas, including emotional distress caused by harassment or psychological abuse. It is administered by psychologists and psychiatrists. It worked very well for me. You can find a trained clinician by googling EMDR Institute. EMDR has been proven effective in roughly 30 controlled studies.
3. Emotional Freedom Technique has not been adopted or advocated by the psychological/psychiatric community, but it was also very helpful to me over a short period of time (20 or so hours of treatment.) The practitioner whom I used works by Skype. Visit www.pushpabansal.com.
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You don’t have to become a monk or go to Tibet to meditate. There is excellent evidence to show that meditation reduces blood pressure and cardiovascular events in high risk African-American men and women. I’ve been meditating to some degree for several years and it makes me much more resilient, I think. As a Jewish woman with many hued friends, this has been a stressful time for me, also. Meditation has helped. I also practice it when I am out and about and feeling stressed. No one knows, and it can help turn around very stressful situations. I learned with online tools, from Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg.
1
As a now-elderly white person (or "incompletely pigmented," as I like to say) it's not my place to write your (or anyone else's) life story. But if I could, in an entirely selfish way, you would stand your ground, speak your truth, share it with others, become a leader and help free white people from their own form of enslavement. You, like Barack Obama, evidently have grown up knowing life could be better. That's a special gift. Maybe you could send him a letter. I bet he'd give you a great response.
As an African American, your article really resonated. Sometimes I feel so angry having to defend myself against racism. It is stressful to be previewed as the other in their own country. My mother use to prepare me for what I encounter in this world. She gave me a proverbial “hard hat” to defend myself. She always preached that self love was the greatest love of all and thought me about the history of my people. I would never survive if I didn’t have that love of self.
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Your mother was a wise woman and excellent parent.
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What a bright and wonderful Mom you have! Self-love alongside caring and respect for all people crosses all color lines as two of the most important things a child can be taught. I know White people, Asians and Italians personally that are lovely people but are filled with self-doubt and struggle with that for years and I’m sure this goes across all peoples. You got a grand gift. Don’t ever let it go.
1
I am so, so sorry for what you have experienced.
I am white, and I feel enraged every time I hear it read about what POC have experienced. Each time I think, "now, magnify this by 100x and that's what POC feel on a daily basis".
Logical people can’t make sense of racism and the bad lieutenant should have been fired (after all, he was a spokesman for the city at large and I assume the city does not back racism). But imagine the impact of daily stress on those in poverty, or those living on the streets, or women in the workforce who have to tolerate sexual harassment vs risking loosing a job or the 20% of kids who go to bed hungry, or sex workers. Even worse, sex slaves. How about transgender members of the community who face discrimination or violence on a daily basis. The list goes on for ways for humans to belittle other humans.
Not to minimize racial discrimination, but maybe it’s time to have a broader discussion in this country on how we treat all marginalized people.
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The article addresses stress outside of racism.
1
How about seniors living 50% below the Federal poverty level?
Once, just once, in my life I have been treated as if my mere appearance in a shop was reason to believe that I was there to steal something. The help could not have been clearer in letting me know non-verbally that I was simply not welcome to even look at the merchandise. The details are unimportant, but I can tell you that the rage reaction was so real as to make me feel quite ill for most of the next day: headache, jittery and lethargic at the same time. It was awful. Fortunately, it happened on a Saturday night and I could hole up and recover Sunday before I had to go to work on Monday.
I cannot imagine the agony of having to face anything remotely similar on a monthly, weekly or daily basis. I can't imagine how anyone stands it. To be very blunt, I am saying that all the African Americans and other members of minorities that have to deal with this treatment regularly - you are much better people than I am or ever will be. And I am so very sorry you have to go through that.
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I was asked to leave a department store. The store detective believed I was going to shoplift. Years later a police officer friend explained that I shop like a shoplifter -- that is, I touch every item, scan the floor, pause and ponder things, etc.
It happens. You can survive.
1
To AACNY and your response, we are not talking about a single incident of being suspected of shoplifting. We are talking about the aggregate of such experiences over time due to prejudices over the color of one's skin. As this article made clear, those that go through this continually do not survive as long as those who don't.
2
This had nothing to do with my behavior. At a guess it was based only on my apparent age (youngish), social class (I was very dressed down) and the fact that I was carrying a bag large enough that it could have been used to carry stuff out of the store. I would not have been nearly as upset if the reaction was related to behavior.
And to be clear, the clerk followed me the instant I walked in the store. As soon as I approached the merchandise, he stood between me and the items I was looking at. When I guessed that he didn't realize what he was doing (there was my white privilege showing), I moved over a little bit and he moved with me, keeping his body in between me and anything I seemed interested in.
I didn't test beyond that - like turning around to immediately start looking at the items on a rack behind me where he wouldn't have time to get between me and the merchandise. I exploded. Screaming in a dumb tourist trap t-shirt shop on Broadway south of Times Square.
I was an associate at a big law firm at the time and very recently finished with paying off my student loans. I saw a funny shirt I thought I might pickup for a relative. The lesson was way more valuable than the shirt ever could have been.
1
By corollary this would suggest that white men should never have high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke. My point is that we all encounter frustrations and aggressions as we go about our daily lives that will result in the same physiologic response. Any evidence that it is worse among the aggrieved?
49
Lots, including increased incidences of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular diseases and stressed related mental health problems and diseases.
4
Your proposed corollary is not logical. If A is an apple, then A is a fruit. That does not imply that if A is a fruit then A is an apple. You should not present it as if it were a logical deduction.
2
Remember the recent highly publicized study about the declining health of white men due to their perception* of their diminishing prospects? That cited higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. and might provide an answer to your question.
*(based on objective fact, e.g. without a college degree it's tougher than ever to get a decent job, and blue-collar jobs are getting more & more scarce, but also based on the subjective feeling that white people are losing their favored status in the US --- in other words, that as the playing field that white males always thought was level actually starts to level out, they feel like now the field is tilted against them.)
3
We've become a very harsh, stressful country in so many ways. These are sad times for way too many people, and I'm not sure if the country can recover.
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I can only begin to imagine the toll it takes when you cannot avoid it. As a white woman, who constantly engages others (on FaceBook and in life) about their views, I feel drained by the effort and I KNOW it is NOTHING like the day-to-day grind of living it. In fact, I could completely avoid this feeling of astonished disaffection with my fellows, if I could just shut up. But, while my fellow humans with varying skin colors struggle to be equal, I just cannot be silent and although it is tiny - at least it gives me some insight into the real world
31
The human animal always wants to one up another person, so the bullying that has gone on in society for as long as humans have existed seems to be getting worse, rather than better. It matters little, whether it is about race, religion, gender, etc. no one has been immune to it many times in their life, and has experienced it in one form or another. Males have suffered, females have suffered, and children have suffered. I believe that is why people are eating and drinking themselves into a fit, as we haven't evolved enough to be human beings who care about each other, understand each other, and help each other. It is now about the me culture and celebrity culture.
23
I don't know where we've gone wrong. Faced with discrimination, Martin Luther King fought to overcome it. Today's victims call in sick. Where is the spirit that moved us to fight for our rights rather then to complain that the struggle causes pain to the pancreas?
7
This country was founded and built on genocide of the indigenous peoples who lived here first, coupled with a particularly brutal form of slave labor.
Those original sins have never been properly addressed nor remedied.
We need Truth and Reconciliation. But mainly we need the full Truth. so we can truly Reconcile.
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Michjas, just wondering, do you happen to know Rev. King's blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and trigycerides? The health status of his kidneys and pancreas? Any signs of rheumatoid arthritis? Just because he was fighting for justice doesn't mean he was healthy. We don't know whether a stroke or heart attack or diabetes was on its way to take him too young, because his assassin happened to get there first.
This article about racism was published with black ink.
If it had been a positive article, white-washing the topic, would it have been written in white ink?
Last year, one of my relatives visited the Smithsonian. The young black men who work there wore blue blazers and ties - and spoke in an articulate manner. When my relative left the Smithsonian, he was confronted on the sidewalk by a poorly-dressed hoodie-wearing white skin-head, who was aggressive about being given some money, allegedly for a coffee.
My relative now thinks that people who dress well and are polite are what counts. Is he wrong to rely on these surface impressions?
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People who dress well and are polite have a much better chance of being hired, getting in the apartment high rise you want, and the list goes on. Someone poorly dressed who cares little about the impact of their words and actions will fall at the other end of the spectrum. These are basics taught in classes in prison and rehab. Each one of us has to decide where we want to be on that life scale.
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"All men are created equal" is enshrined in our constitution.
It's not surprising that we get sick when we stray from the basic precepts of our national ethos.
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That is absolutely correct. It is what happens afterwards that is the problem.
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Those words were written by hypocrites who didn't exactly take the message into their hearts.
phrase is from Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.
Perhaps the day when we’ll come to realize that human laws are no match for what the gods created. Pushing hard on something only causes it to push back even harder. Supposedly only the Pope is infallible, but that’s just supposed while our lawmakers are convinced they are. I too and sick and tired of feeling guilty for being human. Maybe the reason we all don’t get along is because maybe we wern’t meant to. Nothing wrong with it if you just let nature take its course and see where it goes. The continents supposedly all started as one and then went their own way, maybe we should try and reunify them too. There’s only one person who can play God, the rest of us just pretend to.
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Treat others as you would like to be treated and then, at least for me, I don't have any guilt about being "human." I put human in quotes because I personally don't find individuals acting very human these days and in relation others who are different from oneself, too many people act down right inhuman and ugly too
As a white, I realize how very privileged I am. Although I believe I'm not racist, I know I probably am guilty of micro-aggressions - but truly not intentionally. Just as I never know the appropriate verbal response to a person's grief, and am afraid of offending by my lack of experience with that person's suffering, I feel even more awkward about it. My point is, please continue to educate folks like me.
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Do not do unto others, what you would not want done to you.
Do not say things to others you would not want said to you.
Do not make assumptions about who or how someone is, based on what they look like. How would you feel if someone made assumptions about you based on your looks and how might that feel?
Before asking a sensitive question, ask yourself, how you would feel being asked something similar? Try walking in another's shoes - metaphorically.
Remember that you color and your culture flavor your expressions as much as people from different backgrounds color theirs.
We all deserve to have our humanity recognized. We have more in common than we do not.
First step is opening our eyes and listening. Really listening. Good luck, Julie!
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You have to take the responsibility of educating yourself. Michael Eric Dyson's, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America.
Sometimes the reason a mess is called a mess is because it’s a mess. It explains everything.
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And helps nothing, does it?
Racism was supposed to be eradicated from developed and educated countries like America and Europe so far, but it still exists why?
The reason is political, because religion, racism, discrimination etc provides a solid ground for politician. Any of these agenda can be a substantial vote bank for them and those agenda flourishes even in this age of globalization.
It is not necessary to mention here that racism is two , three times more in Under developed and developing countries.You can blame them for many problems in this earth but no one and no country is indifferent.
All are interrelated.
But all the civilized and educated communities should believe or believes in globalization, democracy, rule of law, it is duty of all responsible civilized world to fight against racism. The whole world should come together for the development of science and technology, population control, environment control, fight against terrorism, racism etc If we don't we should understand we are heading towards our end.
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I wonder if, to some degree, some measure racism is natural to humans as well. I doubt there exists any human being who completely, 100%, lives up to the "post-racial ideal" in all conduct, all the time, and in all private conscious and subconscious/unconscious thought.
I am not convinced, however 'nice' the idea might sound, that all racism is learned behavior. but who knows, maybe I am incorrect about that.
We have the equivalent of a race "industry" in the country. Thousands of Americans whose existence and livelihoods is dependent on finding racism and showcasing it. One party is notorious for its "War on...." strategy, which perpetuates the idea of Americans as victims of someone.
Might they not be a part of the problem?
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Those respondents who reported they'd experienced unfair treatment in the past month?
It wasn't "because of their race." It was actually because of someone's racism.
Their race is the same as yours and mine: human. It was the racist belief in separate races, each capable of relative superiority, in the minds of others that perniciously causes the unfair treatment.
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"It wasn't "because of their race." It was actually because of someone's racism." A distinction without a difference because the effect is the same on the victim.
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Are we the human race or the human races?
@DavidH - it's a distinction that makes all the difference. Race is a social construct in the mind of the racist. It's not a biological fact.
As the rate of 'biracial' people grows and grows, it must become increasingly untenable to insist on 'race' as a thing that exists beyond the social construction of racists.
These victims need to know that it's nothing about them that made them victims; it is something in the mind of the bigot.
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This is just speculation, but it seems to me that the first health risk is experiencing racism or even the perception of it; the second, and perhaps more powerful impact it seems to me, is the feeling someone has when they are told their perceptions of being discriminated against are unwarranted.
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I wonder what it is for people accused/insinuated of hate crimes, only to find out it was just another hoax?
Perhaps we should ask the kids at the military academy about how they felt?
We use expressions like "making one's blood boil," "getting under one's skin," "turning one's stomach," and the like to describe visceral reactions to offenses. Turns out, these are not just metaphors.
Racism is a pathology, and its effects are suffered by innocents just for being themselves.
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