Chapter 3: Black Lives Matter: The Public Health Crisis of Anti-Black Racism

In this chapter, I examine the impact of structural anti-Black racism on the spiritual, emotional, mental, and psychological health and well-being of Black people by putting a spotlight on the psychology of oppression. This chapter highlights how minority status and chronic racism represent an intrinsic stressor that may well precipitate psychiatric disorders. Using findings from the original research I conducted, as well as other studies from Canada, the UK, and the USA, this chapter examines the pain and rage that result from experiences of anti-Black racism. This chapter also takes up calls from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement about the urgent need to respond to anti-Black police violence and other forms of anti-Black racism faced by Black communities as an urgent public health crisis. I conclude this chapter by exploring how mental illness is experienced by Black women and Black men.