Mundane routine racism causes chronic psychological and physical harm

Evidence

Everyday racism is not about extreme incidents. The crucial characteristic of everyday racism is that it concerns mundane practices. This does not make everyday racism a racism of a more humane kind. Although everyday racism has such an informal ring that it may sound as if it concerns relatively unharmful and unproblematic events, it has been shown that the psychological distress due to racism on a day-to-day basis can have chronic adverse effects on mental and physical health (Fulani, 1988; Jackson et al., 1996). According to Thomas La Veist (1996) several studies have demonstrated a link between exposure to racism and high blood pressure. Everyday racism, though felt persistently, is often difficult to pinpoint. As a result these microinjustices become normal, fused into familiar practices, practices taken for granted, attitudes and behaviors sustaining racial injustice. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1467

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the broader literature on microaggressions and on slow, ambient harms (cf. the noise/silence readings about chronic low-level exposure). — connects to: Everyday racism operates through mundane, difficult-to-pinpoint microinjustices that damage health. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1467; Online racial abuse triggers measurable physiological stress responses — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 15
• DEFINE: Sharpens the definition of everyday racism by what it is NOT (extreme incidents) and why that makes it insidious.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1467