Future Directions for Vaccinating Children against the American Endemic: Treating Racism as a Virus

Abstract

For Black American youth and their families, the racial terror that claimed the life of George Floyd in May 2020 is nothing new, as stories of people who look just like them have been part and parcel of their lived experience in the United States. Beyond state-sanctioned murder, Black youth were also witnessing the disproportionate transmission, treatment, and travesty plaguing their community with COVID-19 -all predictable outcomes given the inequitable systems supporting the American pipeline from cradle to grave. Why, then, were so many White Americans just coming into awareness of this deadly disease of individual and systemic racism that has ravaged Black American communities for centuries? In this work, we seek to explain in what ways racism is tantamount to a social virus and how its permeation is endemic to the American body, rather than an emerging threat, like a pandemic. We will also address how better conceptualizing racism as a virus allows for more accurate, precise, and feasible treatments for transmitters and targets of racism with respect to prevention (e.g., inoculation) and intervention (e.g., healing and vaccination). Finally, we will describe clinical therapeutic trials that will help to decipher whether our treatment of this social disease is effective, including family-level interventions and systemic shifts in prevention through clinical training.

Racial Stress and Trauma and the Development of Adolescent Depression: A Review of the Role of Vigilance Evoked by Racism-Related Threat

“…Finally, research on RST has important implications for programs that seek to dispel racism from our communities. Although a thorough description of ongoing efforts to eradicate systems that perpetuate racism is outside the scope of the current review [see 152 for a review], it is important to note that studies examining the role of vigilance may contribute to these efforts. For example, there is evidence that high quality intergroup contact (ie, social interaction between people of different races or ethnicities) can lead to a reduction in anti-Black sentiment and symbolic racism, as well as less racial profiling and stereotyping.…”

The role of discrimination and adverse childhood experiences in disordered eating

“…Future work needs to empirically examine these mediating mechanisms as well as the role of protective factors such as ethnic-racial identity development [ 52 ] and family racial socialization (e.g., [ 53 ]) to disrupt the linkages between discrimination and ED pathology. These translational and clinical efforts to prevent and intervene in harmful effects of discrimination on health need to be guided by culturally centered and culturally adaptive perspectives (e.g., [ 54 ]).…”

Effects of Racism on Child Development: Advancing Antiracist Developmental Science

“…Other forms of racism include everyday racism (e.g., microaggressions), cyber racism (e.g., online/digital racism), symbolic/modern racism (e.g., negative beliefs or stereotypes), and aversive/implicit/contemporary racism (e.g., avoidance of particular racial groups) (for a review, see Neblett 2019). These various forms of racism operate and morph unpredictably through different institutions and individuals (Anderson et al 2021).…”