Revealing Cuts Beneath the Skin: Black Collegiate Men and the Bio-Psychosocial Impact of Racial Microaggressions

• In Event: Reexamining Race-Related Stress, Trauma, and Violence: Ecological, Holistic, and Pedagogical Responses

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of racial microaggressions on indicators of early biologic dysregulation among Black male collegians. Guided by the tenets of Critical Race Theory in Education, the author utilized a Transformative Sequential Mixed Method to collect biostatiscal (saliva sample), quantitative (microaggression survey), and qualitative (focus group) data to more reliably investigate the relationship between Black collegiate males’ recognized experiences with and responses to “everyday racial invalidations” on PWIs and their relative telomere length; a biometric of stress-related (vs. chronological) aging. Recent research has established a relationship between human exposures to stressful situations and an unnatural, accelerated aging marked by rapid telomere shortening. For the study, the author recruited 44 healthy Black undergraduate men, ages 18-26, who attend a large, public, PWI on the West coast. These research collaborators provided saliva (DNA) samples and completed a survey that inquired about their everyday experiences with microaggressions on their college campus.

Given the novelty and dearth of telomere research, we were able to establish the relative telomere length among the participants using identical methods from a prior study HER completed on racial discrimination and telomeres featuring a multiethnic (Black, Asian, and White) cohort of 56 women over the age of 50 who were also breast cancer survivors (Agahee, 2018). Although the relative TL of the majority of young men in the author’s study are longer than the women from this comparison study, the two groups are far closer than anticipated given the extant literature connecting telomere length to aging. For example, while scholars consistently observe inverse relationships between telomere length and age (Chae et al. 2014) the young men in my study have telomere lengths hovering around or below individuals who are, in some cases, twice their age. Compounding this conundrum are additional findings that associate telomere shortening in a bidirectional manner to manifestations of life-threatening diseases (including cancer). Although all the men in this study reported healthy profiles, 30% of the present participants had telomere lengths similar to and shorter than women who’ve battled stage four cancer. One individual in the present study, a 19-year-old first year student, has a T/S shorter than all 56 breast cancer survivors.

The study undertakes a holistic approach to a specific problem: Black men’s experiences with race-related stress and the potential disruption of their biological systems and lifespans. This mixed method study suggests that Black students on PWIs are besieged by daily encounters with antiblack racism. The findings also speak to the importance of Derrick Bell’s concept of racial permanence and Chester Pierce’s (the person who coined the term racial microaggression) contention that Black people must be prepared to recognize and navigate a racialized climate that is inherently noxious to their existence. Moreover, it appears that the unnaturally shortened lifespans of Black men marked by the social embodiment of racism commence earlier than was previously imagined. The current findings affirm the interdisciplinary work of scholars investigating the impact of racism across various levels of societal interaction in Public Health, Social Epidemiology, and Psychology and help extend their observations to the field of Education.

Author

• Kenjus T. Watson, American University
  Presenting Author