Identity-based harm

Being harmed, targeted, or discriminated against because of your race or ethnicity

Harm that came because of your race or ethnicity. Slurs, violence, exclusion, discrimination, being treated as less than, being made to feel like you did not belong or did not matter. Both the acute incidents and the chronic low level weight of navigating a world that was not built for you.

Harm because of your race arrives at every scale at once, the singular violent moments and the daily accumulated weight, and you are frequently asked to prove both. The exhaustion of carrying that while being told to move on is its own injury. Here, nothing needs proving. Your account of your own life is the record that counts.

What can follow an experience like this

No two people carry the same experience the same way. These are some of the effects that people with this experience often describe. Having some of them, all of them, or none of them says nothing about how real what happened to you was.

Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Depression Not just sadness. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there. Rage Anger that comes fast, feels bigger than the situation, or has caused harm to relationships or situations. Loss of meaning The questions that will not resolve. Loneliness This is different from pulling away. Intergenerational trauma Some wounds predate your own life.

Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.

You do not have to carry this alone.

Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.

Find a meeting Join the fellowship

Need support right now?

Related experiences we cover

See everything we cover