Table 4.

Physical and Mental Health Effects Attributed to Racial Microaggressions.

Attributed Effect	Description/Explanation
Insomnia	For days to months
Social isolation	Being avoided by WP, needing to avoid WP
Hypertension	Diagnosed, or “feeling BP go up . . .”
Weight loss	“Lost 39 lbs” after discriminatory events
Neck and shoulder pain	Immediately or chronic
Depression	Sad, listless, unable to work
Perceptual shock	Disbelief, suddenness of stressful interaction
Social ambiguity	Uncertainty of meanings and motives of others
GI problems	Reflux disease, upper and lower GI conditions
Helplessness, hopelessness	Feeling vulnerable; pessimism
Over-planning	“Mental space” and time in avoiding criticism
Stress regarding appearance	Hair, clothing, not looking “too Black”
Psychological effects of slavery	Self deprecation; lack of cultural pride
Burden of self care	“The stress of not getting stressed.”
Downward life/health trajectory	Cascading negative events leading to illness
Feeling judged	“Need to be twice as good.”
Anger	Upset, annoyed, furious, aggravated
Tension	Physical tightness, anxiousness
Sense of betrayal	Broken or diminished relationship with WP
Hypervigilance	Social guardedness, scrutiny, watchfulness
Traumatic stress	“I have PTSD.” Intrusive recall of prior traumatic race-related events
Preoccupation	Ruminating on incidents, days to months
Stigma in health encounters	“He acts like he won’t touch me.”
Lesser quality of care	Physician leaves care solely to assistant

Note. WP = White person; BP = Black person; GI = gastrointestinal; PTSD = posttraumatic stress disorder.