By Russell King

Were murdering each other in many ways, but one way too often goes unnoticed:
prejudice. Yes, institutional racism and individual bigotry are very real and prove
deadly in the lives of minorities. In fact, while a few people engaging in acts bigotry,
often violently, get all the news attention, the effects of nearly all of us engaging in
more subtle, even unconscious, bigotry is far more lethal.
Minority stress is the result of conflict between dominant groups and minority
groups, and it kills. Studies confirm the apparent: Minorities experience a high
degree of prejudice, which causes stress responses that accrue over time,
eventually leading to poor mental and physical health. While most of the research
has focused on racial trauma, a growing body of evidence shows the effects of
prejudice kills in other minority groups, such as women and those in the LGBTQ
community.
Psychologically, this trauma:

increases risks for depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, humiliation, poor

concentration, irritability, feelings of persecution and paranoia, distrust of
social institutions (schools, police, etc), sensitivity to threats and being
disrespected, drug and alcohol dependency, aggression, defiance, attempts
to look tough and violence;
disrupts child development and quality of emotional attachment in family and
social relationships;
may lead to the loss of feeling like you have a future; and
can result in PTSD.

Physically, this trauma: impairs the immune system; shifts brains to emotional,
rather than rational, dominance; raises blood pressure; and increases incidence of
breast cancer, heart disease, problems breathing, pain pain-related issues.
Health care, too, is diminished by prejudice: For instance, minorities, compared to
white people with the same ailments, are less likely to be given pain medication,
heart medicine, bypass surgery, kidney dialysis, or transplants, and more likely to
get less-desirable procedures, like amputations for diabetes. This inequality costs us
a lot: One estimate indicates racial prejudice alone drains more than $410 billion
from the economy annually.
Research shows that LGBTQ people who are harassed, bullied, victimized,
discriminated against or rejected by family and friends are more likely to attempt
suicide. According to surveys, 4.6% of the U.S. population has self-reported a
suicide attempt, but among lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents its as high as
20%, and among transgender people 41%.

We know how our prejudice kills. For example, the reasons transgender people are
at higher risk for suicide are pretty consistent across multiple peer reviewed studies.
They include: rejection by friends and family, discrimination, physical abuse, being
viewed by others as non-conforming, and internalization of negative messages from
our culture. The thread that ties those factors together is our prejudice.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that: Suicidal
behaviors in LGBT populations appear to be related to minority stress ....
Increasingly recognized as an aspect of minority stress Is institutional
discrimination resulting from laws and public policies that create inequities or omit
LGBT people from benefits and protections afforded others.
The past is never dead wrote Faulkner. Its not even past. We now know that
trauma changes our genetic expression and traumas effects can be passed on to
future generations. Traumas reach has been measured as long as 60 years. So,
while our prejudice is harming people today, it is also harming their children and
grandchildren; likewise, the traumas inflicted of the Jim Crow era and the struggles
of women, LGBTQ and other minorities in the 1950s and 60s are still hurting us
today.
We try to deny our prejudice: Only racists show bias, we say, or its just a few bad
apples and not a social, institutional, and historical problem. Prejudice is a problem
other people have in other neighborhoods in other eras. We are wrong.
Family Service Madison offers trauma-informed therapy, including services sensitive
to the LGBTQ community, but our services typically get used after damage has
been done. Helping people heal from the trauma of prejudice one-by-one only goes
so far, and it doesnt get at the cause of the trauma. We cant equip people to
manage ongoing acts of prejudice.
What we need, instead, is to understand that our prejudice kills, how we might rise
above it, and how we can help heal the damage thats already been done. Admitting
our prejudices, facing the consequences of our prejudices, and working to overcome
our prejudices, are hard tasks, but they are no less obligatory for being arduous.
Lets add prejudice to the list of ways were killing each other, and then get serious
about removing it.
King is president and CEO of Family Service Madison, a private nonprofit full-service
behavioral health clinic specializing in trauma-informed care and offering programs
tailored to the LGBTQ client.