Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Racism (Questions & Answers)

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Forced to suppress how you feel. You may find that you can't show or even fully feel your natural responses to your experiences. To avoid more abuse, and keep yourself safe, you may feel like you must not react to racism. This can leave you feeling numb, or mean that the experience stays with you for a long time. Not having enough money can have a negative effect on your health. This also contributes to people with first-hand experience of racism being under-represented in management jobs. Which makes it less likely that services will meet people's needs.

Covert racism can affect young people’s self-esteem and support the idea that’s it’s okay to challenge a person’s experience. Do you feel able to be honest about your experiences of racism with them? For example, do they help you feel at ease? Expectations and pressure around who we should turn to for support, like elders and spiritual leaders This type of racism is subtle and can make it seem like it’s okay to dismiss racial prejudice or discrimination with comments like, ’it’s in your head’, or telling someone they’re ‘playing the race card’. There's no universal definition of racial trauma. Some professionals use it to mean all the effects that encountering racism can have on how we think, feel and behave. Others, like those using the race-based traumatic stress injury model, use it to describe a specific group of symptoms.Learning about race, racism and privilege can lead people to consider what else they can do to combat discrimination. Sometimes, the next step can involve committing yourself to becoming actively anti-racist but it’s not always clear what that means. But when people talk about being anti-racist, it includes:

Unwelcome, lonely or isolated. Especially if people or organisations have said or implied that you don't belong. Be conscious or subconscious. You might not realise that some of your negative feelings stem from internalised racism or colourism.Contribute to the pressure we feel to change or downplay parts of ourselves. This can include our hair, clothing, accent or even our skin. When society compels people in a minority to act like people in the majority, it's called assimilation. It can feel like we must 'fit in', to protect ourselves from racism.