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Racism + Mental Health: Framing to Support Meaningful Anti-Racist Engagement

Source: Justice Equity & Technology laboratory at Columbia University School of Social Work

Resource Type: Print Media (Brochure, Flyer, Poster)

Focus Population: BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), People who have experienced Trauma, People with Criminal Justice System Involvement, People with Juvenile Justice System Involvement

Topics: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Culturally Specific Strengths and Resilience, Trauma-informed

Dr. Courtney Cogburn (https://socialwork.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty/full-time/courtney-d-cogburn/) Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Justice, Equity and Technology Lab at Columbia School of Social Work, urges viewers to take a true anti-racist framework and discusses the impacts of racism in all aspects of life, especially mental health. She underscores and demonstrates that “racism isn’t just what happens to someone, it’s what happens around you.” To help people understand this experience of racism, Dr. Cogburn created the Virtual Reality project 1,000 Cut Journey, that brings stories from research literature and puts someone into the shoes of Michael Sterling, a Black individual, who navigates racism in three scenarios of his life (youth/adolescent, young adult, and adult). She urges us to hold whiteness accountable as a source of stress and trauma: “We must first acknowledge our narrow field of view; we must understand and see something before we can change it.”