How to Reduce Racial Stress
By: Deborah L. Plummer
Tags: Stress Management, BlackLivesMatter, Racism

How to Reduce Racial Stress

And Collectively Dismantle Systemic Racism

In the late 1990s, most likely as a way to make meaning out of the racial isolation I felt as the only black professor in our psychology department, I became interested in the ways race was considered a source of stress. My negative experiences had been frequent enough for them to be annoying, but not serious enough to warrant a discrimination complaint. For example, I wore my hair in braids for over a year and when I changed hairstyles was told by an colleague that I was now “more approachable and professional looking.” My research program was racial identity development and I had a number of articles published in the Journal of Black Psychology. The quality of the journal was seriously questioned by my department’s promotion review committee and only deemed acceptable after I pointed out that the publisher was the same publisher as some of the journals where their articles had been published. For the most part, I shrugged these incidents off and vented with trusted White colleagues in the department and with Black colleagues in other departments who had similar experiences.

Still, the cumulative impact of these incidents took their toll and I continued to wonder if one’s coping pattern for dealing with racial stress differed from how one managed general stress. My curiosity led me to solicit support from a White male colleague and friend to study patterns of coping in racially stressful situations.

At the time, we defined racial stress as the psychological discomfort that results from a situation or an event that an individual appraises as troubling because of racial discrimination or due to racial isolation as “the only one” or “first one” of your race in a professional or social setting.

Not surprisingly, our study found that Black people reported more incidents of racial stress than their White counterparts. Blacks also demonstrated more problem-focused coping strategies (accepting responsibility, confrontive coping, planful problem solving, seeking social support) and emotion-focused coping strategies (distancing, escape avoidance, positive reappraisal, self-controlling) when managing racial stress as compared to Whites. We hypothesized that the array of coping strategies utilized by Blacks was due to the fact that Blacks simply had a lot more experience in managing racial stress.

Since the time of our study, racial stress among White adults has been further explored and social scientists have moved beyond the binary of Black and White when studying race-related stressors to include other racial groups. As racism forces itself into our national discourse, race as a source of stress has become a defining issue in American politics, has exploded in our educational systems, in social media, and has oozed its way into our work settings. Today, the psychological discomfort that results from lacking the experience or the necessary competencies to successfully navigate a multiracial society would be included in the definition of racial stress.

In the Meantime, We Adapt…

Racial stress is still experienced and predominately reported by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the U.S. and Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) in the U.K. We have born the burden of resilience, the exasperation of being patient for racial equity, the physiological responses from being psychologically and physically threatened, and managed the pressures of stereotypes and unconscious biases often by overachieving and overcompensating.

Racial stress is increasingly experienced by Whites, although not at the same level of intensity, duration and consistency. Because of the ever-present visibility of one’s race and the perceived assumptions and sterotypes associated with that race, coping strategies take time to develop while adaptive strategies are more common. Adaptive strategies are self-correcting behaviors that temporarily allow individuals to cope with racial discrimination, manage racial dynamics or reduce racial isolation.

Adaptive strategies for BIPOC/BAME individuals help one to get through the everyday experiences of modern racism. They are temporary coping skills to combat racial fatigue. Racial fatigue results from the frequency in which race is singled out in preference to other aspects of one’s identity. Racial fatigue also results from constantly having to deal with the sociopolitical implications of race. Here are some examples of adaptive strategies demonstrated by BIPOC and BAME individuals:

Buffering: As a means of protection and self-defense in predominately White settings, BIPOC/BAME individuals anticipate racist attitudes, feelings, and behaviors before they actually exist. Buffering may be demonstrated by the simple act of automatically scanning the room upon entering to see if there are others who share one’s racial identity. This behavior helps to diffuse what Bryan Stevenson calls the presumption of guilt and dangerousness that comes with having black or brown skin. Code Switching: Ways of knowing, thought patterns, policies and practices that represent systemic and modern forms of racism, are temporarily accommodated by BIPOC/BAME individuals in mixed race settings. After a racially threaded situation occurs, Blacks review what happened with other Blacks who understand the nuances and who know the struggles associated with achieving racial equity. Many Blacks believe that it takes too long to unravel these situations in real time with Whites. They also report that they are tired of “educating Whites.” This results in one way of knowing and expression with Whites and another way of knowing and expression with those who share one’s racial identity. Melanie, a thirty-one year old Black woman in one of my focus groups, states it this way, “When I want to go quick and deep, I go with my Black friends.” In other words, they “get it” in ways that Whites are not able to understand. Shifting: Many BIPOC/BAME individuals express their racial identity differently depending on the setting and racial make up of the group. Shifting occurs frequently in the workplace where the prototype for success matches being a White, college-educated, heterosexual, Christian male. A comment from the classic diversity training film, The Color of Fear, illustrates the concept of shifting: “You’re not allowed to be a Black man in corporate America. Walk through the halls with some pride, you’re going to scare some people. Show that you have some intelligence, you scare people. You’ve got to shuffle…I can’t wait to get home to be a Black man again.” Bridging: In predominately White settings, becoming the “race translator” for the group or community by being able to immerse oneself into another racial group’s experience without suppressing one’s sense of racial identity is a common experience for BIPOC/BAME. Many of us have had the experience in a work setting when an race issue comes up that all eyes and ears turn to us to explain and even solve the problem. As the only Black or one of few Blacks, I’ve paid the “minority tax” by serving on considerably more than my fair share of search committees for new hires as the representative of the “underrepresented minorities” in academic medicine. Bonding and Attachment: Because we derive meaning and support primarily from our same racial identity groups, we cross racial lines more often only out of necessity rather than for social connection or emotional support. “Outside of work, it [socializing with Whites] is just not worth it,” one focus group participant said. “They walk past you like they don’t know you on the streets when they are with their White friends…That same White guy will be quick to use the N-word once he gets a few drinks in him.” As a result, all of us are racial isolationist to some degree when it comes to crossing racial lines in friendship.

Adaptive strategies for Whites allow them to moderate the emotional weight of being the historical and present-day architects of systemic racism. Heightening racial awareness of one’s indirect or direct role in creating and perpetuating systemic racism is the first step toward a positive, healthy White racial identity resolution. If Whites deny, remain passive or are not working on healthy racial identity, then these adaptive strategies are really maladaptive behaviors that result in maintaining the status quo. Here are some adaptive strategies demonstrated by Whites:

Racial Identity Confusion: Born into membership as the dominant or majority culture, Whites are unaware of themselves as racial beings. White is conceptualized as a “not” (not Black, not Native, not Asian, not Latinx…). Whites are just American or British or Canadian or better yet, just human. Whiteness is the default value and not understood or discussed except within the context of being an oppressor, racist, or bearers of social privilege. Absent a positive and healthy racial identity, many Whites are left with confusion about this aspect of the self. Some liberal Whites swallow whole the fallacy that there is no such thing as a positive White identity and believe that being White makes one inherently racist. They believe this even while knowing that this characterization does not match their concept of how they experience themselves in the world. With the necessary and aggressive push for racial equity, White Ally and White Anti-racists groups are becoming increasingly popular. These groups are productive adaptive strategies when they are focused on unraveling racial identity within and apart from racism. Racial Fragility: We are all racially fragile in that most of us lack the language, emotional resilience, group-dynamic skills, fortitude, thick skin, and solid experience from living and interacting in racially diverse settings. Most of us are also inherently good people who do not want to hurt other people’s feelings and want to act out of our best selves. Because of this, honest dialogue across racial lines is challenging. When it comes to race issues, we often feel like we are skating on thin ice. This is especially true for Whites. As an adaptive strategy, White fragility exists but its source is not always a dogged adherence to social power and racial privilege. However naïve, sometimes White fragility stems from aspirational thinking and the deep desire to experience the beloved community of Dr. King, where racism doesn’t exist and being racially facile is the norm. I’ve experienced this kind of white fragility from my family members, co-workers, and friends. White fragility can also result from a profound sadness, often experienced as guilt, that comes from whites’ realization that racism does exist and that it is perpetuated by those who share their same racial identity. I’ve witnessed this kind of racial fragility with White medical and nursing students who have cried, been appalled, and visibly upset when learning about racial disparities in healthcare that they previously had no idea existed. This awareness of their own fragility in learning to be culturally competent builds the racial stamina they’ll need to confront these disparities. I have every confidence that they will work in their professional lives toward that goal. Differentiating: It is easy for most Whites to differentiate themselves from the Tiki-torch carrying Whites at the Charlottesville Riots or from Derick Chauvin’s kneeing George Floyd to his death. They are clearly unlike these racists individual in their behavior and thinking. However, systemic racism does not have an individual, identifiable perpetrator which makes it hard for Whites to see their role in creating and maintaining racism and easy for them to disclaim being racist. As an adaptive strategy, Whites readily practice differentiating by claiming how they are unlike those considered to be racists. However, while the majority of Whites are not antagonistically racists, Whites could benefit from entertaining how they have participated in or perpetuated practices that keep systemic racism in place. Race Neutrality: When Whiteness is considered synonymous with just being human, and especially when layered through a religious lens, neutralizing the significance of Whiteness in society becomes a trusted and go-to adaptive strategy. “We are all God’s children,” is a common deflection. “I treat everyone the same,” is the mantra, as well as being “color-blind” is set as a norm. These adaptive thinking styles can only be maintained living in a bubble of racial utopia that simply does not exist and will never exist.

Managing Racial Stress and Dismantling Systemic Racism

Adaptive strategies are band aids masking the underlying, deeper wounds of systemic racism. As long as systemic racism exists, racial stress will persist. Adaptive strategies are coping mechanisms for successfully navigating a racialized society and only gesture toward the necessity of dismantling systemic racism as the root cause of racial stress. Unlike general stress where one can work to remove or eliminate the stressor or change one’s beliefs about the stressor, we cannot remove our race and focusing on positive race affirmations only feeds racial fatigue and misdirects where our energy needs to be placed.

There are many U.S. public policies related to wealth creation, healthcare, housing segregation, criminal justice reform, voting rights, and education that are designed to perpetuate racial inequities. We live in this system where political and economic advantages are embedded into our current day practices like baking powder in a cake. It makes racism hard to recognize, unravel and dismantle once it is integrated into our systems and normalized in our everyday lives.

Systemic racism is invisible to its beneficiaries and a persistent, pervasive and annoying presence to its recipients. In our current racially charged society, racial stress remains an everyday experience for BIPOC/BAME individuals and for Whites struggling to achieve racial equity, and even for those Whites who spend their energy attempting to deny the existence of systemic racism. Systemic racism affects the quality of all of our lives.

Here are 5 coping strategies we can all use to individually manage racial stress and collectively chip away at systemic racism: