Race-based traumatic stress, also known as Racial Trauma, is the impact of experiencing and/or witnessing racism, discrimination, or persistent prejudice (implicit or explicit). It can have a profound impact on the mental health of individuals, and racism is a public health issue affecting our students.
In recent years, inherited trauma has begun to be commonly recognized. Inherited trauma is transmitted across generations within communities that have suffered major assaults on their culture and well-being. Caregivers whose family members were directly exposed to historical traumatic events such as slavery, Jim Crow, and the Holocaust, may have inherited biological changes in response to trauma in the form of heightened stress responses, for example. As those caregivers’ environments have been shaped by both perceived and real threats to their safety, they can transmit implicit and explicit social messages to their children.
Our students are shouldering the accumulation of inherited racial trauma, exposure to police violence, racist rhetoric from political leaders, and their own first-hand experiences of discrimination. It is imperative to recognize the effects of racial trauma in order to restore equity and well-being.
Common traumatic stress reactions reflecting racial trauma include increased vigilance and suspicion, increased sensitivity to threat, a sense of a foreshortened future, and more maladaptive responses to stress such as aggression. While it is important and likely that students are aware of current events, they can also be triggering for students of color.
Counseling In Schools is committed to providing spaces to learn and honestly discuss the effects of racism, both for our partners as well as for our own professional development as it relates to Racial Trauma.