Childhood trauma M7 written

Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) often experience racial stress and trauma in our current society due to discrimination in institutions (school, work, government, etc.), microaggressions in day-to-day life, and the legacy of racism and oppression in American history. Children and teens are not removed from these stressors and may also experience race-based stress.

In an essay of 4-5 pages, you will explore and analyze how BIPOC (or a specific racial/cultural subgroup of) children and adolescents are likely to be impacted by a race- and/or culturally-based event or situation in our current U.S. society. To develop your essay, please do the following:

Choose an issue, event, or situation that can lead to racial stress or trauma for a child or adolescent of color. For example, you may focus on the killing of unarmed Black people by police, family separation or forced deportations of immigrants or refugees as a result of U.S. immigration policies and practices, or experiencing racial microaggressions in schools.
Describe how you think these experiences could be perceived by a child or teen. Consider both the experience of those who are directly involved in these events/situations (i.e. a child who is in an immigration detention center or who has been the target of racial aggression) AND the experiences of those who have witnessed such events either in person or through media exposure.
Drawing on and referring to the required reading for module 8, Content Guides 1 and 2, and the podcast interview with Resmaa Menakem, provide an analysis of how a child or teen could be impacted by the events/situations you describe. How might a child perceive or understand the situation? What might make the experience of trauma better or worse for the child? And what stress or trauma symptoms might the child have?
Finally, apply what you have learned about how parents and professionals can help children cope with trauma to this situation. What can adults do, formally and informally, to support children and teens who experience the kind of racial stress or trauma that you have been discussing in your essay?
Your paper should be 4-5 pages in length and cite scholarly using APA formatting. You should rely primarily on scholarly sources but may use non-scholarly sources such as newspaper articles and reports from reputable organizations as well. To determine if a source is appropriate, please refer to this resource on the ESC online library, Evaluating Information Sources.

ANSWER

Micro aggressions in Schools

Introduction

Over the years, Black and Indigenous People of Color experienced racial trauma, which led to responses to unsafe events and perceived or real experiences of racial discrimination. Racial trauma has been linked to severe psychological and physiological harm among BIPOC populations. The harm is severe since it’s linked to identity and immutable characteristics, leading to consequences that can worsen over time. This paper will focus on an event of racial trauma, micro aggression in school among BIPOC adolescents, its effects, and the role of parents in helping cope with the racial trauma.

Racial Trauma

Racial trauma results from the ongoing experience of racial stressors such as racial micro-aggression, racist bias, racism, violence against people of color, discrimination, and racist abuse. This creates an environment where people of color can feel unsafe simply due to their skin color. Racial trauma has been experienced through indirect or direct exposure to racist abuse or discrimination, exposure to ethnic or racial stereotypes, and media depictions of racism, such as law enforcers’ violence against the unarmed black person (Comas-Díaz, Hall, and Neville, 2019). A person who has encountered racial trauma can experience physical and psychological symptoms. These include trauma-related distress, avoiding things that remind one of trauma, intense depression or anxiety, or negative thoughts about oneself. Physical symptoms include digestive issues, hypertension, pain, and cardiovascular disease. The effect of experiencing discrimination and racism can build to high levels of stress (Jernigan and Daniel, 2011). At this point, the body can produce a constant stream of stress hormones to maintain a hyper-vigilant state in reaction to the anticipated threats and past. Due to racial trauma, the mind remains on high alert as if there is a constant danger.

Event of Micro-aggression in the Classrooms

Microaggression in school settings has created a hostile and invalidating learning experience. This is because it has detrimental impacts on students’ academic success and mental health. Microaggression in the classroom is committed against students of color and has continued to be challenging. Microaggression can be considered as brief everyday behavioral, stated, and environmental humiliations, whether unintended or intended that communicate offensive, unreceptive, or undesirable racial insults or slights to the target individual (Steketee et al., 2021). Sometimes people who try to be nice to others may offend a person of color without knowing since statements carry a lot of weight. Some of the common micro-aggressions in school include malicious comments, inappropriate jokes, singling out students, and stereotyping. For instance, in this case, a teacher complimented a black student who had performed well in their class. The teacher said, “Everyone can succeed in their studies if they work hard enough, but most black students are not as intelligent as you are.” Microaggression is a verbal comment stigmatizing or hurtful to a marginalized person or group. For instance, commenting to a student that they are so smart for a black student is, in a way, a discriminatory statement that is hurtful to the BIPOC population. The outcome of micro-aggressions is frustration, anger, and withdrawal by those who receive insensitive actions and comments. In racial micro-aggression, words are meant to empower students.

Racial microaggressions vary from other forms of racism that can often be subtle insults that are nonverbal and verbally directed towards people of color. Many black students encounter micro-aggressions in school through differential treatment and the feelings of being stereotyped (Banks, Cicciarelli, and Pavon, 2020). The micro-aggressions have a spiritual and psychological effect on the students’ experience in schools and other outside settings. Ideally, racial micro aggressions impair students’ performance by sapping recipients’ spiritual and psychic energy through the creation of inequities. The daily discrimination instances lead to intolerance, which creates social anxiety disorder and may increase the effect on one’s sense of self.

Impacts and Perception of Racial Microaggression among Teens

The micro aggression experience could be perceived by a teen who has witnessed discriminative and offensive behaviors since they come from marginalized groups. These experiences shape the beliefs and attitudes of teens that witness them, thus affecting their future experiences. They tend to develop feelings of not being safe or being accepted by others of a different color. The moments of micro aggression bring about the experience of dehumanization, oppression, and exploitation (Banks, Cicciarelli, and Pavon, 2020). The media exposure shows how unjust social systems have played a major role in providing a structural basis for individuals to add on the acts of micro aggression. The use of micro aggression appears to be linked to psychological forces associated with producing inequality through intentional discriminatory behavior and actions.

For the teens directly involved in the events of micro-racial aggression, the cumulative effect of the micro-aggressive behavior is devastating to the teens’ well-being. This is because they are at risk of conforming to the negative stereotype. The incidents of micro aggression lead to low self-confidence, poor self-image, depression, anger, hyper-vigilance, trauma, avoidance, anxiety, and internal frustration. Most teens consider micro aggression as an institutional and systemic form of racism presented through the teachers’ practices. These teens question their sense of belonging and safety because the daily exchanges and interactions attack their identity and belonging (Nadal et al., 2014).

Stress over discriminatory behavior has added strain to the mental health of most black teens. Racial micro aggression leads to experiences of depressive symptoms since they find it challenging to manage the race-related engagements. There is a lot of fear during interactions since there is the likelihood that they will be treated disrespectfully due to their race and be overlooked. For instance, in schools, most teens are likely to encounter anxiety disorders due to discomfort and experiences of fear. Racial microaggressions have affected how black teenagers understand and respond to race-related engagements, which has caused anxiety symptoms.

Micro aggressions can result in racial trauma among teens that encounter these behaviors in school. Trauma is a victim’s perception of a particular traumatic encounter that might lead to a person’s feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and desire for a sense of safety. Racial trauma impacts people of color and can lead to psychological, physiological, and emotional damage. Coping mechanisms are effective in making the experience of the trauma better. For instance, embracing self-care practices such as mindfulness and reducing exposure to race-related items can reduce the experience of trauma. Inter-generational effects can have an impact on the experience of the trauma and the adaptation style.

Micro-aggression and Trauma Symptoms

Trauma from micro-aggression can appear in different intensity levels and ways from one teenager to another. Not everyone will act out on their concerns. Sometimes a symptom that something is going on can be just an evident or subtle change in behavior. Ongoing emotional distress such as anger, episodes of fear, irritability, and sadness without any apparent cause are some symptoms of trauma. Most teens with trauma due to micro-aggression tend to put themselves down and assume their worth is lesser than their peers. They have trouble concentrating and show high levels of generalized and social anxiety, making them withdraw from social situations.

Trauma leads to situations where one has heightened sensitivity to their environment and is much hyper-vigilant, which includes restlessness and jumpiness. Students with trauma due to micro-aggression are seen avoiding specific activities or places such as sports clubs or sports or see no point in going to school. They also express safety issues and fear of becoming hate crime targets. Teens who have trouble focusing at school, even on activities they usually enjoy, and excessively focus on protecting themselves can be trauma victims due to micro-aggression (Woodbridge et al., 2016). Relatively teens with lower self-esteem who express physical symptoms such as pains and aches, insomnia, appetite changes, and other sleep issues or change their routine behaviors without an apparent reason can be a victim of micro aggression.

Coping Mechanisms

Parents and therapists play a great role in helping children and teens cope with racial trauma that results from micro aggression. Connecting a child with a therapist who has specialized in trauma-informed therapy is a great place to start. Therapists that are culturally aware can help the children and teens contextualize their encounters and assist them in developing strong self-identity. Offering a strong support network of understanding and validating family and the parent-child relationship is always effective in helping them cope with racial trauma (Scott, Wallander, and Cameron, 2015). They develop a more nuanced and complex understanding of humanity and race which helps them challenge their prejudice. To protect children from the harmful impacts of racial trauma, parents need to begin talking about discriminative behaviors and micro-aggression at school early. This plays an important role in supporting the emotional well-being of the child, which reduces the experienced of sadness, worry, fear, and anger, thus coping well with racial trauma.

Conclusion

Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) often encounter racial trauma in their daily lives in the current society due to discrimination in institutions such as school and work. Racial microaggressions are one of the common events in school which have led to racial trauma for children and teenagers of color. Inappropriate comments and jokes about people of color have led to racial trauma, affecting the physical and psychological condition of school adolescents. These lead to high anxiety, fear, anger, low concentration, low participation in school activities, and high sensitivity among teens of color. Parents and Therapists should focus on eliminating the experiences of trauma among adolescents and children by helping them cope with trauma.

References

Banks, B. M., Cicciarelli, K. S., & Pavon, J. (2020). It offends us too! An exploratory analysis of high school-based microaggressions. Contemporary School Psychology, 1-13.

Comas-Díaz, L., Hall, G. N., & Neville, H. A. (2019). Racial Trauma: Theory, research, and healing: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 74(1), 1.

Jernigan, M. M., & Daniel, J. H. (2011). Racial trauma in the lives of Black children and adolescents: Challenges and clinical implications. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 4(2), 123-141.

Nadal, K. L., Wong, Y., Griffin, K. E., Davidoff, K., & Sriken, J. (2014). The adverse impact of racial microaggressions on college students’ self-esteem. Journal of college student development, 55(5), 461-474.

Scott, S. M., Wallander, J. L., & Cameron, L. (2015). Protective mechanisms for depression among racial/ethnic minority youth: Empirical findings, issues, and recommendations. Clinical child and family psychology review, 18(4), 346-369.

Steketee, A., Williams, M. T., Valencia, B. T., Printz, D., & Hooper, L. M. (2021). Racial and language microaggressions in the school ecology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5), 1075-1098.

Woodbridge, M. W., Sumi, W. C., Thornton, S. P., Fabrikant, N., Rouspil, K. M., Langley, A. K., & Kataoka, S. H. (2016). Screening for trauma in early adolescence: Findings from a diverse school district. School Mental Health, 8(1), 89-105.