When racism harms mental health

BarcelonaSorrow fills Tom Diarra's speech when he recounts how he risked his life to leave his home country of Mali, drawn by the success stories told by friends who had emigrated before him and by the desire to escape the insecurity. It was 2018, and he believed everything would be easy for a strong 25-year-old, with good French and passable English learned from other traveling companions. He feels sorry for himself when he sees himself "with nothing," and admits that he often finds himself talking to himself while walking. He also becomes angry when a pedestrian gives him a look "of fear and even disgust." But the "worst" is when the look turns into a "go back to your country," or someone walks away as they pass by. These behaviors cause him sadness and despair, and he confesses that there are also blows that make him "feel very alone."

Melly Pávez also describes her state of mind as "emotional exhaustion" because five years after arriving from Bolivia, she hasn't found the opportunities or "the luck" to support her husband and two teenage children. Now only her husband works, and without a contract due to a lack of a residence permit, he only does sporadic bricklaying and gardening jobs. "I'm a nervous wreck; I can't sleep, and I'm overcome with anxiety," says the 45-year-old woman. From her visit to the clinic, she took an anxiolytic and some tranquilizers that leave her breathless during the day. So much so that all she wants to do is cry because she feels like she's "failing" her family. "And on top of that, we're supposed to feel like we came here to live off welfare, but what happens is they don't let us work and live honestly," she complains.

Racism, which despises a person because they are considered inferior due to their origin, directly impacts the mental health of those affected. This has been confirmed by the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, which in a document states that racism increases morbidity [the frequency of diseases] and premature mortality in groups such as those represented by Pávez and Diarra. To denounce situations like these, the UN commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Racism every March 21st, which commemorates the police shooting of 69 Black citizens in Shaperville in 1960. during apartheid in South Africa.

In the Psychomigration consultationPsychologist Maria Ngolong Bonilla treats migrants and people of color who directly experience racist violence from individuals and also from the government itself. They manifest this through sadness, depression, anxiety, acute stress, low self-esteem, and frustration. But she warns that it's not just a personal issue: "Racism impacts individual mental health, but not only that. It's individualized, but has a strong collective impact," she explains. That's why they combine individual and group therapy, because by talking and sharing experiences, they realize that the problem isn't just theirs, but that there's a strong racial component.

The Causes of Racism

Racist violence has various sources. According to the report presented by SOS Racism Taking advantage of the anniversary, last year a third of the 105 new cases it received (one every three days) were due to a conflict between individuals, followed by the discrimination against social rights (housing or health), hate speech amplified by the media, social networks or politicians, racism in the workplace or discrimination in public transport, banks and other proven services. While aggressions between neighbors has increased by 10%, the entity states that it remains The low reporting of police abuse due to fear of reprisals.

With data like this, Ngolong is committed to "changing the system" that focuses on the person who suffers from racism and not on the perpetrator and perpetuator of racist attacks. Thus, the psychologist affirms that racism, like sexism, works through "dehumanization and homogenization of people", to the point that migrants They are characterized only as migrants, as if his previous biography had no value and life "started from scratch" once here.

In medical consultations, there is also a tendency to "infantilize" migrants or minimize their discomfort because professionals neither have the time nor are trained to treat differences, Ngolong argues. The public mental health system is saturated, and there are no appointments and a tendency toward overmedication, according to experts. But in the case of migrants, all these factors are compounded by the fact that they are often unfamiliar with the system or have other ways of doing things or beliefs that, from the perspective of classical Western psychology, are incomprehensible and are interpreted as an illness. "There is no knowledge of how to support them, and it is often conveyed to migrants that they should be grateful to be here," Ngolong concludes.