How Does Racism Affect Black Mental Health?

Some Savvy Psychologist listeners have rightfully wondered why  a mental health podcast has been silent on racism for a while. After all, racism cuts deeply into mental health, and it’s impossible to truly talk about one without the other. And in 2020, of all years, the many wounds of racism are publicly opened, again and again, reminding those of us who are privileged that people who experience racism don’t get to look away or forget.

Structural racism is the very picture of chronic trauma.

Racism is a topic too big and too important to cover reactively. Now, knowing that there is still much to learn, I'm here with a three-episode series on racism and mental health.

In this series, we focus specifically on the Black and African American experience. Of course, racism affects many other groups too, including non-Black groups and people of African descent around the world. My own cultural frame of reference is informed by what's happening in the U.S., and with such a complex topic, I thought it would be most productive to mostly hone in on one geographic area and one racial group. So, today, I'll be using the term Black broadly to encompass Black and African people who experience racism around the globe, and the terms "Black American" and "African American" to talk about research that specifically focuses on these groups.

Let's start here with the groundwork: How does racism affect Black and African American mental health?

Racism is detrimental to mental health

It may seem obvious that experiencing racism would be detrimental to mental health. After all, racism is the totality of ways that society discriminates and commits violence against Black people. It withholds justice, fairness, and resources. It marginalizes and gaslights. Structural racism is the very picture of chronic trauma.

But our understanding of the effects of racism goes beyond intuitive knowledge—there's research to support it. A 2018 briefing paper by the Synergi Collaborative Center introduced the existing research well. In brief, experiencing racism makes a person more likely to have depression, psychosis, and substance misuse.

Digging in with more detail, we find some interesting patterns. In 2015, a group of British researchers pooled data from almost 300 studies into one mega-study. They found that experiencing racism is associated...

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