Black Paranoia
David Chappelle told Oprah that being paranoid is a symptom of being a Black man when she asked him whether his own paranoia drove him to South Africa last year. An article in last month’s issue of The Journal of Black Psychology seems to confirm Chappelle’s diagnosis. In “Perceived Racism as a Predictor of Paranoia Among African Americans, Dennis R. Combs, as assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tulsa, and his co-authors discuss their study of 128 African-American students aimed at testing the theoretical proposition that perceived racism can act as a stressor for African Americans and may have a number of psychological effects including paranoia. Paranoia is defined as “a relatively stable mode of thinking that is characterized by suspiciousness, feelings of ill will or resentment, and beliefs in external control or influence.” The study found a “clear relationship between perceived racism and measures reflecting the lower end of the paranoia continuum (cultural mistrust and nonclinical paranoia).” In discussing the significance of their findings, the authors note that paranoia among African Americans may stem from cultural and social interactions rather than indicating a psychiatric disturbance.
I usually bristle when Blacks’ responses to racism are characterized as “paranoia” because it sounds like Blacks are reacting to imagined injuries or overreacting to real ones. But I find the growing scientific literature linking African Americans’ experience of racial discrimination to stress and to the resulting negative effects on health fascinating and important. It is now widely believed that stress contributes significantly to a host of health problems, including cancer, asthma, hypertension, and heart disease. If African Americans have elevated levels of stress caused by experiencing racism, could this help to explain their inferior health status? This emerging field combining epidemiological, anthropological, and psychological research is discovering non-genetic yet biological pathways through which experiences of discrimination may produce huge “racial” inequities in health. (This, of course, is in addition to non-biological factors such as lack of access to good health care, discriminatory treatment by hospitals and medical staff, etc.).
This interaction between discrimination, stress, and poor health may explain why, for example, self-identified Black Hispanics are more likely to have high blood pressure than white Hispanics. See Luisa N. Borrell, “Self-Reported Hypertension and Race Among Hispanics in the National Health Interview Survey,” 16 Ethnicity & Disease 71 (2006). And why Nigerians have lower rates of high blood pressure than African Americans or even white Americans. See Richard Cooper, et al., “An International Comparative Study of Blood Pressure in Populations of European v. African Descent,” BMC Medicine (2005). Yet another reason why genetic remedies for African Americans' inferior health status are off the mark!
Comments
This argument has also been used in the fertility literature to explain the higher infant mortality rate, higher incidence of low birth weight babies, and general pregnancy related complications among Black women. These differences remain even for highly educated high income Black women, so the typical demographic variables do not erase the gap. They have also made this argument called the weathering hypothesis, notes that younger Black mothers (late teens) actually have fewer incidences of pregnancy complications, low birth weight babies, etc. than Black women in their late 20s and early 30s. In contrast, white teen mothers have a higher risk than white women in the early 20s and 30s. It is a fascinating argument. One of the problems with proving or disproving this theory is methodological. Measuring the racism stress that Black women experience is very difficult, and these findings come from demogrpahic studies that do not measure or account for such stress. I think an argument can be made that racism has both structural and psychological impacts, which in turn affect mental and physical health. However, I do worry a little that they picked paranoia, since contemporary racial ideology tends to dismiss Blacks as being overly sensitive to racism. There is a slippery slope here.
Posted by: Rachel S | March 10, 2006 03:46 PM
I am a black male lawyer who works in a virtually all-white setting. I find it very stressful being the only black person, particularly male, in this atmosphere. Damn near every black person feels this way, so don't act like you don't know what the authors of this report are talking about.
Look at the MMPI, the test they give to cops. Blacks are allowed more leeway in the paranoia portion of the exam.
Also, watch the new show "Black.White." If the black father isn't paranoid, I don't know what he is. He is always "looking for racism."
Posted by: Justin | March 10, 2006 07:33 PM
This is fascinating, high fallutin' stuff.
Cocaine, crack, and weed are established causes of paranoia.
http://www.drugabuse.gov/STRC/Forms.html#Cocaine
http://www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/cocaine.html
We know none had anything to do with Chapelle's paranoia.
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | March 10, 2006 09:30 PM
'I usually bristle when Blacks’ responses to racism are characterized as “paranoia” because it sounds like Blacks are reacting to imagined injuries or overreacting to real ones.'
I agree, it's pathologizing a normal human reaction to an abnormal situation (racism)...it's just another way of "blaming the victim."
Posted by: Musings of a racial realist | March 12, 2006 06:06 PM
This article shines a light on this new phenonena of black paranoia. There are numerous black owned websites with discussion sections that focus on various subject's related to the government going after black folks. Even hurricane Katrina, according to some, was created by the government to kill or eliminate a large black population. It's damn right scary the stuff that black's feel is believable. The latest has been the new basic degree programs that is being offered to student's who don't pass the standardized test being given prior to graduation. The rumor is if the degree is not accepted, then the student will be doomed for life and will never be able to attend school again, go on to college, join the military etc. These things are impossible to do, yet there are droves of black people who are gullible enough to believe them. I've been called uncle tom, house nigger etc., because I have referred to the problem as paranoia. What next?
Posted by: Ronald Salter | June 26, 2006 07:15 PM
well isn't this a hot issue?! i am a white lady so i guess i probably don't have much authority here, but when I was younger (growing up in the 'progressive' 80's) i was taught by our local school system in Corning NY not to discriminate and to be open and accepting to all races no matter what. we had one black family in all of our town, but that didn't matter. it was a strange thing to me when i moved to a larger town and encountered someone who expected me to hate them and to discriminate against them, and they actually accused me of it, when it was so far from the truth! it actually hurt my feelings. i know that my hurt feelings are small compared to the "hurt feelings" and all of the pain the African Americans have had, but i'd like you to know that some people just are shocked about people expecting to be hurt...
-just one white lady's point of view.
~Misty in Elmira, NY (and yes i have some African American friends)
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