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How Racism Leads To PTSD

by — Last updated: 2013-09-09 in Mental Health

Table of Contents

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a well-known phenomenon among soldiers, rape victims, and survivors of natural catastrophes. Changes in the diagnostic criteria for PTSD recognize that the disorder can also result from chronic racism.

Researchers found that “chronic exposure to racism” has an effect on people that is similar to the pressure soldiers face on a battle field in 2011. Through a survey, it became clear that African Americans who reported more instances of racial discrimination had a markedly higher risk of being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).


The GAD diagnosis was apparently fitting, because these people could not identify a single traumatic event that may “earn” them the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Read More: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Therapies & Meds

Indeed, chronic exposure to racism within an environment in which racial hatred is persistent has cumulative effects on a person. In other words, racist events can build on one another in such a way that the victim ends up with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

A combat zone carries an obvious risk of imminent death or injury, but frequent racial discrimination can lead a person to feel like they are constantly in danger as well. The world around becomes a constant mental “battle field”.

This is more than a feeling, of course. Racist behavior and comments may indicate the perpetrator's willingness to carry out racial attacks, or may in fact lead to racist attacks. Even if no physical harm is done, the mental harm inflicted is becoming increasingly apparent.

Under the previous DSM (the DSM-IV) there was a requirement that the person experience fear, helplessness, and horror following adverse events. Now that this requirement has been eliminated, the full consequences of frequent exposure to racism can be recognized.

PTSD: Different Causes, Same Effects

Imagine. You are an American Muslim woman who wears a hijab. Your physical appearance provokes negative reactions in people all the time, so much so that you feel like a walking outcast. 

Frequent air travel is an integral part of your job, and you're on a plane at least once a week. Every single time you fly, you're singled out for the extra “random” body search or scan.

You're subjected to uncomfortable pat-downs and intrusive questions about why you are flying. You're going to Jamaica on a medical mission? Are you sure? Who would go to Jamaica on a medical mission? The interrogation leads you to nearly miss your plane. For the third time in the month.

In the end, you start arriving at the airport earlier than other people in anticipation of “random” searches. The treatment you are subjected to at airports is only one example of the discrimination you face on a daily basis. While it's not the worst by any means, it does give you the impression that the racism you face is somehow government-mandated. Stares and comments about terrorists are an integral part of leaving the house, and PTSD is the result.

This is not a theoretical scenario — it's something one of my friends calls “daily life”. The effects are real, and not at all dissimilar to the symptoms I experienced after years of childhood sexual abuse (a euphemism, really, for something that should just be called “rape”). Perhaps, she'll be able to receive the counseling that she needs and that I did benefit from enormously, because unlike her, I could point to identifiable traumatic events. In short, the changes introduced by the DSM-5 have the potential to make big positive changes in people's lives.