Editorial: The Relationship Between Internalized Racism and Mental Health Symptoms in Black Adolescents

Abstract

Since the 1890s, scholars such as W.E.B. DuBois have understood that Black people living under conditions of pervasive White supremacist oppression are subjected to constant assaults on their self-image.¹ In the intervening years, Fanon,² Morrison,³ and many others have described the complex psychological consequences of Black Americans attempting to live and adapt to the dominant culture, which devalues Black lives and Black cultural traditions, and how these devaluing messages reaffirm their inferior status in society. The pioneering doll studies conducted by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s⁴-in which Black (and White) child participants expressed a preference for White dolls over Black dolls-demonstrated to a broad audience that Black children, by the age of 5 years, understand that being Black is a marker of inferior status. The Clarks' groundbreaking work brought attention to racism's impact on childhood identity development, opening the door for further explorations. The term internalized racism (IR) is widely used today in mental health research to describe how members of racially subordinated groups (eg, Black Americans and people of color) can consciously and unconsciously accept the dominant culture's view of their inferior status and hold associated negative self-evaluations (eg, less beautiful, less intelligent, etc), beginning in the earliest years of life.⁵.