How Does Racial Bias Affect Mental Health?
It’s a beautiful day outside. You woke up in a great mood and you are ready to tackle the day. You have some free time so you decide to tackle that grocery shopping list that you need to get done.
At the store, you are minding your own business just going through the list of things you want to get picked up for your family and their lunches and dinner this week. You glance up from your list and can’t help but notice a few people casting glances your way.
Not this again.
For any other skin color, they may not give it a second thought. It was just making eye contact with another person at the same exact moment. Or maybe this person was staring off into space and wasn’t even paying any attention to you.
But for a person of color, this glance often means more than just a friendly stare.
You know the stare. When you are out doing something and people keep glancing your way. Or if you are a male POC, you can’t help but notice how a woman of other ethnicities automatically clutches their handbags a little tighter toward them.
This is the reality of what many BIPOCs face in today’s world. And here is how it affects our mental health.
Bias makes us question ourselves
At the end of the day, we just want to exist peacefully. White, black, Asian, purple, green, alien…regardless of who you are, you just want be able to exist in your own life.
But when racial bias clearly still exists in sometimes very subtle ways, it makes it hard to do this. When you feel like you can’t go outside your own home without being inadvertently questioned as to why you are in a certain place, it can really take its toll on you. As if you need to be able to justify that you are at a grocery store at 7pm night. Or that you are walking down the sidewalk to your car from work.
You constantly feel on guard
Constantly having to watch your own every move gets exhausting.
Did I move too suddenly?
Did I just accidentally show a facial expression that could be interpreted as hostile?
Am I saying something that could be taken the completely wrong way?
When you feel as if everyone is tuned in to your every move and word, you feel as if you always need to be on guard. Every word and action that you take needs to be calculated and weighed against the risk it could impose. Why? Because that’s the society we live in. It’s our reality that we have to be more careful at all times because otherwise, it could unintentionally cause us harm.
Having to constantly be on guard is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting things a person can do. You don’t get to truly relax, ever. You spend more time with your thoughts and actions before you even do them. Causing you to question whether or not you are making the exact right choice you need to.
Racial bias causes anxiety and depression symptoms to rise
Because of all this and more, more POC are experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms at alarming rates. Racism is very much still alive and we all know it. The fight for equality is far from over. And part of this fight calls for breaking down the walls of the subtle but real racial biases that still exist. For some, it might just be a “glance,” but for those of us who know better, it’s far more than just something friendly.
If you are a BIPOC and dealing with mental health issues, don’t hesitate to reach out for help through anxiety therapy or depression treatment.