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Study: Black Students at White Colleges Face Unique, Hidden Mental Health Challenges

Written by on January 20, 2016

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Black college students who attend predominantly White institutions harness a particular level of pluckiness and mental fortitude in order to achieve—usually having to prove their intellectual worth in the face of glaring or more covert bigotry. But that mental toughness and perseverance can take a toll on their psychological health, according to a new study from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

“Weathering the cumulative effects of living in a society characterized by White dominance and privilege produces a kind of physical and mental wear-and-tear that contributes to a host of psychological and physical ailments,” said study co-author Ebony McGee, assistant professor of diversity and urban schooling at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. “We have documented alarming occurrences of anxiety, stress, depression and thoughts of suicide, as well as a host of physical ailments like hair loss, diabetes and heart disease.”

Those findings were explored in the paper “Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health, Healing and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis,” which McGee co-authored with David Stovall, associate professor of African American studies and educational policy studies at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Using critical race theory, the pair challenged the celebration of “grit” as a guiding principle for achievement among Black students, saying the resulting mental health risks are often overlooked.

“We have witnessed Black students work themselves to the point of extreme illness in attempting to escape the constant threat of perceived intellectual inferiority,” McGee said. “We argue that the current enthusiasm for teaching African American students with psychological traits like grit ignores the significant injustice of societal racism and the toll it takes, even on those students who appear to be the toughest and most successful.”

The study compared such high-achieving Black students to the historical figure John Henry—a slave who literally worked himself to death trying to prove his worth.

Read the rest of the story HERE

Written by Zenitha Prince


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