One 2010 study found that Black women experienced accelerated biological aging due to prolonged stressors. Racism is associated with many negative health outcomes. Racial battle fatigue is defined as the “social phenomenon in which persons who experience chronic racial discrimination develop physiological, psychological, and emotional strain due to excessive amounts of energy expended on race-related stressors.” The continued and ongoing effects of navigating racist environments can have a deleterious impact on a person’s health. helplessness may be another consequence of intergenerational trauma. Programs developed for the purpose of pouring back into Black people are imperative to aid in the restoration and reparation process.įor many Black youth, especially those from deprived and under-resourced communities, learned. The impacts on sense of self and self-worth are important to consider. Enslavement did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation. Hearing stories from ancestors that experienced racism and then having to witness and experience racial mega threats like the ones on consistent display in the media, may contribute to feelings of learned helplessness. A person who feels learned helplessness, though frustrated, will stop trying to change their circumstances. Learned helplessness is the perception that no matter what a person does, they cannot change their situation or condition. For many Black youth, especially those from deprived and under-resourced communities, learned helplessness may be another consequence of intergenerational trauma. The negative racial stereotypes that have been applied to Black people throughout history may have been internalized and passed down from generation to generation. In the aforementioned book, Leary explains that one of the aftereffects of slavery that has been observed is vacant self-esteem, which can include feelings of hopelessness and depression. The results of this study have been replicated in recent decades.

The results of their study found that a large portion of the Black children showed a preference for white dolls over Black dolls. In the 1940s, husband and wife psychology researchers Mamie and Kenneth Clark conducted a study to better understand the impacts of segregation on Black children.

Intergenerational trauma example