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Understanding the Emotional Toll of Racial Violence on Black Individuals’ Health

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  • Julien Quesne

    (Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC H3N 1X9, Canada)

Abstract

This paper discusses the pivotal role emotions can play in the higher prevalence of disease and mortality in Black populations in North America. There is a large body of research on the potentially harmful effect of negative emotions upon physical well-being. However, many scholars continue to interpret this link via a biological and reactive lens of emotion. By largely disentangling the embodiment of emotions from the traditional biological framework to which they are typically tied, we seek to analyze the nexus of race, emotion, and health through political, historical, and even ontological lenses. This analysis leverages Barrett’s theory of constructed emotion to elucidate the tangible impact of emotion on physical well-being and, in conjunction with Afropessimist metatheory on race, the potential contribution to understanding premature mortality among Black populations in North America. Barrett’s theory offers insight into how the persistent experience of negative emotions related to race can disrupt the delicate balance of an individual’s body-budget. The detrimental impact of White supremacy’s affective classifications and associated emotion concepts on Black populations is a stark reality, contributing significantly to daily health challenges faced by these communities in North America.

Suggested Citation

  • Julien Quesne, 2024. "Understanding the Emotional Toll of Racial Violence on Black Individuals’ Health," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:14:y:2024:i:7:p:100-:d:1423309
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Manning, Mark & Albrecht, Terrance L. & Yilmaz-Saab, Zeynep & Shultz, Julie & Purrington, Kristen, 2016. "Influences of race and breast density on related cognitive and emotion outcomes before mandated breast density notification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 171-179.
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    1. Manning, Mark & Albrecht, Terrance L. & Yilmaz-Saab, Zeynep & Penner, Louis & Norman, Andria & Purrington, Kristen, 2017. "Explaining between-race differences in African-American and European-American women's responses to breast density notification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 149-158.

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