A not so academic diary

Celeste Little

02.27.18

 https://www.manrepeller.com/2018/02/the-effects-of-racism-on-the-human-body.html

In November 2017, NPR published an article about how racism can have physical implications for those subjected to it. “In studying black women, for example,” they reported, “[social epidemiologist Amani Nuru-Jeter] found that chronic stress from frequent racist encounters is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation — a little like having a low fever all the time.”

 trauma can be passed down through generations.

When I interviewed Kaari about her experience on the playground in Athens, Lisa told me she had read somewhere that “being black is bad for your health.”

 when a body experiences trauma — whether physical, emotional or verbal — it prepares to fight, flee or freeze. 

Dr. Babbel says there are major health impacts when individuals face long-lasting, pervasive abuse like the name-calling and bullying that often dovetail everyday forms of racism, explaining that “we get stuck in a state of fight, flight or freeze. When we always have stress hormones, what does that do? It attacks the body. It hijacks the logical brain. The nervous system has to be addressed.”

Dr. Babble explains that when our nervous systems — the network of nerves that web throughout each of our bodies from our spines to our limbs to our brains and our skin, brown or otherwise — are worn down by chronic stress, we begin to think and feel differently. We experience symptoms like chronic pain, thyroid dysfunction and immune disorders. We can become depressed or hypervigilant.

In her 2003 book, Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman’s Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic and Fear, psychologist Angela Neal-Barnett points out that black women respond to stress in a way that is distinct from others. After finding common ground with other women and nurturing those around us (which is common among women of all races), black women eventually stuff down our pain and commit ourselves to rising above bias. Such is the making of what Neal-Barnett refers to as the “Strong Black Woman”:

 By Mona Chalabi

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/white-culture-statistics-vegetables-alcohol?CMP=fb_gu

 *Trechos que me chamaram a atenção:

Now I live in the United States, a country that is 61% white. Non-whiteness is much more visible here, and suddenly the contrast of whiteness is too. But I’m still struggling to make the shift from my previous mindset, where white is the default, the presumed, the baseline. You don’t notice normalcy; you see the deviations from it. So the word “white” could always be hopped over as an adjective.

Now, “white” still feels like an absence: an absence of color, an absence of food that is “different” and an absence of a mum who pronounces your name differently from the way your friends do. But if my friend can use “white” as an adjective, then what exactly are they describing? What is white culture, exactly?

I decided to find out by asking the questions that I and many other non-white people have been asked over and over again. I looked for answers in data.

Q: What do white people eat? A: Vegetables.

The only thing that white people seem to love more than vegetables is dairy. 

That same study also found that white Americans are four times more likely than black Americans to live in a census tract that has a supermarket.

Q: What do white people drink? A: Alcohol.

 “Are Jews White?”

 Remember Amanda? I mentioned her earlier – she’s my colleague with the contempt for guitars. In 2015, she interviewed black psychologists to ask their opinion about Rachel Dolezal, a white academic who purposely misrepresented herself as an African American.

“For white [American] youth, who are disconnected from European heritage or legacy, it often feels like whiteness as a concept is empty,” Thomas added in a quote that has really stuck with me. It seems to tie together some disparate thoughts I have had on “white” as an adjective.

Dolezal was treated as if she were a “bizarre” outlier, but she’s part of a much bigger pattern of white behavior.