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BLEND
Race Based Stress and Trauma in the Veteran Population
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This webpage is to raise awareness about, and encourage healing from, experiences of racial trauma. This page is not an alternative to mental health treatment, but rather is an adjunctive means of support.
While there is no resource that can completely end or shield someone from the impact of racial trauma, these resources can hopefully in some small way help people to cope, and live healthier and more fulfilled lives in the face of racial trauma. While never forgetting that the real work is to change our communities, society, country and world so that resources like these become unnecessary.
UNDERSTANDING RACIAL TRAUMA
Racism is when people are treated badly or unfairly because of their race. Racism can be expressed in obvious actions, insensitive comments, or other microaggressions. Racism can also be structural. For example, when policies lead to unequal opportunities for different groups.
Racial stress includes a range of reactions that can result from experiencing racism. In some cases, racism can lead to trauma symptoms, such as avoidance, feeling on guard, or having negative thoughts and feelings. Unlike traumatic events that happened in the past, racial trauma is often ongoing in the present.
Veteran Jeffrey Jones describes what racial trauma means to him.
