The Impact of Hate-Motivated Behavior on

Racism takes a toll on the brain, research shows

The chronic stress of structural racism and discrimination damages brain circuits and mental health

Racism has negatively impacted generations of people, leading to discrimination, lost economic opportunities, racist policing and incarceration, and in many cases, death. But even when the impact of racism is not so apparent or in the headlines, the pernicious effects of racial discrimination and structural racism take a toll on the brain and mental health, emerging research shows.

The data are already concerning.

Experiences of racial discrimination are consistently linked with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, substance use and PTSD, as well as physical ailments such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Black Americans, for instance, are about twice as likely as White Americans to develop dementia.

Racism is its own stressor and one that cannot be easily avoided.

“Even as a kid, you’re experiencing discrimination related to your skin color, you can’t really change that,” said Arpana Gupta, associate professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/16/racism-brain-mental-health-impact/

The Other California: The Persistence Of Anti-Black Hate Crime

Black people only represent 6% of the state’s population but were targets of 44% of all reported race/ethnicity/ national origins-based hate crime events in 2021, according to the annual Hate Crime in California report, published by the Office of the Attorney General. They were also subjected to 41% of racially motivated hate crime offenses, crimes which involving reported acts that cause harm to an individual or property.

This report is even more noteworthy as virtually all categories of hate crimes rose during the same period and impacted other communities of color, sexual minorities, and faith communities. It gets worse. Hate crimes are generally not just under-reported, but the reporting system does not reflect the intersectional identity of Black men and women who are straight, gay, or transgender.

Anti-Black hate crimes are hard to reconcile with the broad embrace of Black creativity, innovation, and success. The very contours of the state’s popular culture include the celebration of Black entertainers, adulation of Black college and professional athletes, and the mainstreaming of Black culture. Still, the data expose a nagging contradiction about the state that many people apparently are ignorant of or otherwise choose to ignore, but Black men, women, and children must endure as part of everyday life.

2021 was not an exceptional year for the large number of anti-Black hate crimes. Black people have been targeted for hate crimes far out of proportion to their share of the population. Between 2012 and 2021, they accounted for 50% of all racially-motivated crimes and nearly one-third of all hate crime offenses that were motivated by bias against a particular group, according to reports from law enforcement agencies in the state. In aggregate, anti-Black hate crimes consistently make up the single largest number of all reported bias crimes in comparison with other racial/ethnic populations and religious communities. This comparison is in no way intended to minimize the impact of hate crimes on other communities or populations, but to point out that the excess of anti-Black hate crimes is an enduring feature of the social landscape of hate in the state.

Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglashaynes/2022/07/07/the-other-california-the-persistence-of-anti-black-hate-crimes/?sh=731a9ca07a97