The Trauma of Racism: Implications for Counseling, Research, and Education

Abstract

Considering the barriers to discussions of racism, this document starts by acknowledging appreciation for the feedback and insights of the editors of "The Counseling Psychologist" as well as those of the responders. Spanierman and Poteat (2005 [this issue]) note that racist incidents are "most easily comparable with the established notion of trauma when they are overt and distinct events experienced directly by an individual. Divergence from one or more of these characteristics makes the comparison with the traditional understanding of trauma less direct" (p. 517). In short, racist incidents perpetrated at the individual level by an overtly racist perpetrator that involve verbal, physical, or some other type of abuse or assault fit the standard definition of trauma. In fact, these incidents would be traumatic regardless of the motivation (racist or otherwise). However, viewing racist incidents through the narrow lens of overt, individual racism removes the responsibility of action against covert and/or institutionalized racism. To assist counselors and researchers in identifying potentially traumatic racist incidents that are nonphysical and/or covert, three pointers for psychologists to consider in addition to severity, as it is traditionally understood, with every trauma survivor, are provided.

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The Counseling Psychologist
DOI: 10.1177/0011000005276581
2005; 33; 574 The Counseling Psychologist
Thema Bryant-Davis and Carlota Ocampo
The Trauma of Racism: Implications for Counseling, Research, and Education
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10.1177/0011000005276581THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST / July 2005Bryant-Davis, Ocampo / THE TRAUMA OF RACISM
The Trauma of Racism:
Implications for Counseling, Research, and Education
Thema Bryant-Davis
Princeton University Health Services
Carlota Ocampo
Trinity College
Considering the barriers to discussions of racism, we start by acknowl-
edging our appreciation for the feedback and insights of the editors of The
Counseling Psychologist as well as those of the responders. Spanierman and
Poteat (2005 [this issue]) note that racist incidents are “most easily compara-
ble with the established notion of trauma when they are overt and distinct
events experienced directly by an individual. Divergence from one or more of
these characteristics makes the comparison with the traditional understand-
ing of trauma less direct” (p. 517). In short, racist incidents perpetrated at the
individual level by an overtly racist perpetrator that involve verbal, physical,
or some other type of abuse or assault fit the standard definition of trauma.In
fact, these incidents would be traumatic regardless of the motivation (racist
or otherwise). However, viewing racist incidents through the narrow lens of
overt, individual racism removes the responsibility of action against covert
and/or institutionalized racism.
To assist counselors and researchers in identifying potentially traumatic
racist incidents that are nonphysical and/or covert, we provide three pointers
for psychologists to consider in addition to severity, as it is traditionally
understood, with every trauma survivor.
First, we ask counselors and researchers to consider the quantity of inci-
dents or the repeated nature of the event. For example, in sexual harassment
cases, a survivor may not have been physically violated but may have
received multiple sexually explicit e-mails, letters, or comments. The repeti-
tive nature of the incidents can make the experience traumatic. In terms of
quantity of racist incidents, the counselor would need to consider the number
of microaggressions faced by the client (e.g., taxi drivers refusing to stop or
people assuming the client is the valet or janitor and/or noting the absenceof
people who look like you in textbooks, beauty magazines, and positions of
574
Thema Bryant-Davis has relocated to California State University, Long Beach.
THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST, Vol. 33 No. 4, July 2005 574-578
DOI: 10.1177/0011000005276581
© 2005 by the Society of Counseling Psychology
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power). One incident alone may not be traumatizing, but multiple micro-
aggressions can build to create an intense traumatic impact.
The second point counselors and researchers should consider is the rela-
tionship between the client and the perpetrator of the racist incident. Being
racially targeted by someone who was formerly trusted can be particularly
traumatizing even when the incident does not rate as severe from an out-
sider’s perspective (Bryant-Davis, in press). To draw a parallel with another
trauma, an incest survivor seen by Bryant-Davis did not understand why she
was having so many symptoms when her father never penetrated her; he
“only” touched her breasts. Part of the violation is based on the emotional
experience of being betrayed by someone who was trusted. Similarly for sur-
vivors of racist incidents, counselors should pay special attention when the
perpetrator of the racist incident is a dating partner, supervisor, former thera-
pist, or friend.
Finally, counselors and researchers should consider whether the incident
involved public humiliation. Again, as with other traumatic incidents, the
severity is increased when public humiliation and perhaps the lack of public
intervention are involved. All three pointers should be considered when
exploring potentially traumatizing racist incidents.
Spanierman and Poteat (2005 [this issue]) note, along with numerous oth-
ers (see S. Harrell, 2000; Jones, 1997, for a listing of modern, aversive, and
present-day forms of racism; Sanchez-Hucles & Jones, 2005 [this issue]),
that overt racism has largely been replaced with more covert, subtle, ambigu-
ous, and complex racist incidents that operate at institutional and cultural lev-
els. These forms of racism are confusing because they are among the struc-
tures that maintain the status quo in our society. We are born into these forms
and, hence, without tools of critical thinking, may not question or even recog-
nize them. But do we feel them? Yes, we feel them; they affect us. Sometimes
the manner in which they affect us may be confusing because we may not be
able to name them or once named, we may be told we are too sensitive or pow-
erless to address them.
Covert racist incidents form the social backdrop against which racially
marginalized people must function day to day. The incidents are never far
from one’s consciousness and require expenditures of cognitive energy,
hypervigilance, and coping. Thus, when an experience of overt racism occurs
or even an experience of ambiguous racism (Did that just happen? Did that
happen because I’m Latina, Black, or Indigenous?), the experience simply
jumps out of the social fabric that already encapsulates us, and we are primed
for a traumatic response. Perhaps this is why ethnic minorities are often
accused of oversensitivity to racism, because when they respond, they are
responding not only to the incident but to the pervasive, covert, ambiguous,
and unnamed institutional and cultural events against which the overt inci-
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dents are framed. We may also be considered hypersensitive simply because
of the pervasive denial and discomfort that racism elicits.
CAN AMBIGUOUS OR COVERT INCIDENTS
OF RACISM BE TRAUMATIC?
J. Harrell (1999) has provided evidence that no significant differences
were seen in physiological responses to covert and overt racist stimuli pre-
sented to African American men and women via videotape. Racism must not
be objectively defined to produce a response in a victim. If the victim per-
ceives the event as potentially racist (a reasonable assumption for a person of
color, given the above), a response may occur.
In short, we agree with Spanierman and Poteat (2005 [this issue]) that tra-
ditional definitions of trauma emerge from a narrow view about what trauma
is and is not; therefore, our knowledge of the trauma (and other mental
health) experiences of diverse groups is necessarily truncated. Because we
are primed to view the constructs we investigate through the lenses of our
social and formal learning, we may not even have the language yet to describe
what these groups experience. Nevertheless, in response to Spanierman and
Poteat’s call to move beyond complacency to commitment with respect to
examining racism and oppression in counseling psychology up to and
including their proposal to incorporate a “general category of oppression-
based trauma” into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor-
ders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), we can
only say “hear, hear.” We point out along with Spanierman and Poteat that
examining pathologies of oppression will result in greater mental health for
people of color and will ameliorate the psychosocial effects for Whites.
Finally, we also concur with Spanierman and Poteat (2005 [this issue])
that the responsibility to expand the field with respect to research, teaching,
and practice lies not only with counselors of color but with all of us. This is
particularly true when considering the role of one’s racial identity develop-
ment in one’s ability and/or willingness to identify instances of racism. Eth-
nic minority counselors and clients who cope with racism by denying its exis-
tence may not automatically recognize that trauma symptoms are connected
to racism, just as not all Whites will recognize the connection. We are all
responsible for education and training with respect to the trauma of racist
incidents. However, we also note that while the belief that all people of color
possess innate knowledge or awareness of racism is a form of stereotyping
(as noted by Sanchez-Hucles & Jones, 2005 [this issue]), people of color
often make important contributions to the formation of hypotheses and
research agendas by virtue of their personal experiences.
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TREATING RACIST-INCIDENT-BASED TRAUMA
Wade (2005 [this issue]) notes that conceptualizing racism as trauma
implies that the treatment of racist-incident-based trauma should be similar
to that for other forms of trauma. We concur inasmuch as counselors should
be knowledgeable about the available treatment tools when working with cli-
ents exhibiting posttraumatic symptoms. In keeping with the previous sec-
tion, we add that as the field expands beyond current paradigms of trauma,
new treatment constructs grounded in the racist-incident experiences of cli-
ents of color will emerge and develop. We should be informed, but not con-
strained, by existing treatment models. With respect to assessment, we
wholeheartedly agree with Wade that all intake evaluation should encompass
experiences of racism or other pathologies of oppression. Our future levelof
mental health as a society may depend on our serious consideration of the
impact of pathologies of oppression in the lives of all our clients.
THE UNREALITY OF RACE; THE REALITY OF RACISM
Casas (2005 [this issue]) addresses race as a sociopolitically constructed
reality. The concept of race itself is a product of a racist world view. In fact,
race is one of the most powerful determinants of a person’s life course,
opportunity, and health status. However, psychologists should be aware that
the deconstruction of race has often been appropriated by persons who glo-
rify color blindness to avoid confronting the racist mechanisms that drive our
sociopolitical and economic realities. For these reasons, we must be espe-
cially careful about deconstructing race with our students and clients. A sci-
entifically racist inaccuracy—the historical construct of race—has become a
lived sociopolitical reality that has affected the lives of everyone. For our stu-
dents and clients of color, deconstructing race may be construed as denying
their reality and blaming victims of racism. Conversely, we believe that
exploring race and racism can illuminate the experiences of victims, active
perpetrators, and those who passively benefit from racism. Understanding
these experiences is the foundation for appropriate prevention and interven-
tion in the area of racial oppression. We concur with Casas, Wade (2005 [this
issue]), and Sanchez-Hucles and Jones (2005 [this issue]) that we can and
should realistically work toward a more appropriate use of race as a variable
in our empirical investigations, starting with greater consensus on what the
term means and how we use it.
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EXPANDING THE DSM-IV
Once we have generated a solid research base for understanding the
trauma of racist experiences, our field must adapt to incorporate this new
information to improve diagnosis and treatment. Spanierman and Poteat
(2005 [this issue]) propose a category of oppression-based trauma for the
DSM-IV. Sanchez-Hucles and Jones (2005 [this issue]) offer several concrete
suggestions for expanding clinical definitions of trauma, including TypeII
traumas, complex posttraumatic stress disorders, safe world violations,
cumulative trauma, and postcolonial syndrome, all of which are variously
related to constructs of postslavery syndrome, intergenerational trauma, and
historical trauma. These constructs, once operationalized for research, offer
great potential for understanding the mechanisms of trauma in the context of
historical oppression. A groundwork in expanded conceptions of trauma has
already been laid that is more than sufficient. In our Major Contribution arti-
cle (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005 [this issue]), we argue that racist inci-
dents should be recognized as potentially traumatizing by highlighting their
similarities to other forms of trauma, but we agree with Sanchez-Hucles and
Jones that the microaggressions of racism also make the experience of rac-
ist-incident-based trauma complex and unique. Hopefully, as we expand
traditional definitions of trauma, this complexity will be incorporated into
research, treatment, education, and training.
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