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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Social Science & Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed Review article Appropriated racial oppression: Implications for mental health in Whites and Blacks ∗ H. Shellae Verseya, , Courtney C. Cogburnb, Clara L. Wilkinsc, Nakita Josephb a Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, USA b School of Social Work, Columbia University, USA c Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Racism has been examined in its many forms. Scholarship regarding how individuals personally experience, cope Appropriated racial oppression with, and manage racial oppression is still developing. The term “appropriated racial oppression” reframes the Internalized racism construct “internalized racism” as a process whereby members of a group appropriate a dominant group's Health disparities ideology, adapt their behavior, and perceive a subordinate status as deserved, natural, and inevitable. The Health expression of appropriated racial oppression is based on a variety of complicated and interacting processes, such Racism as incentivized societal norms, critical consciousness, and racial socialization. We conceptualize appropriated Race Coping racial oppression as a mediated process that yields both direct and indirect health outcomes for both non- Stressor dominant and dominant groups. The latter is critical because little research examines how racism affects Intersectionality dominant groups and their health. In this commentary, we examine two examples where appropriating racial oppression may confer both negative and adaptive outcomes. Although we highlight examples rooted in White and Black racial experiences, we briefly consider implications for intersectional and multiple marginalized identities as well. Future research recommendations for psychology, public health and interdisciplinary research are discussed. 1. Introduction thoughts, behaviors, and ways of presenting themselves to the world. Drawing from this premise, we posit that appropriated racial oppression Racism occurs in multiple forms and operates across structural, can be an instinctive response to, or a deliberate strategy for, navigating group, and individual levels (Jones, 2000). The current article examines normative Whiteness ideals embedded in our society. how racism contributes to several responses – both adaptive and ma- This essay supports emerging research that recommends adopting a ladaptive – and why this distinction is important to consider in future new framing for understanding appropriated racial oppression (Banks research on racism-related outcomes. We argue that in the long term, and Stephens, 2018; Tappan, 2006). The novelty this article offers is despite immediate efforts to cope, managing racism may be as harmful twofold. First, we briefly discuss examples in which White supremacy to health as exposure to racism. Therefore, understanding the impact of affects both Whites and oppressed groups, highlighting ways in which racism on the self is more nuanced than focusing on a single dimension appropriated racial oppression compromises mental health (Pyke, alone (e.g., self-hatred) (Padilla, 2001; Pratto et al., 2006; Pyke, 2010; 2010). Secondly, we suggest that exploring how racism influences at- Speight, 2007). titudes and behaviors in a range of ways presents new opportunities for Appropriated racial oppression is a “process by which an in- research in psychology and public health. For oppressed groups in dividual's racial self-image is based on direct and indirect stereotypical particular, we provide examples of how racism is negotiated on an in- messages experienced throughout one's life that in turn influence the dividual level - beyond what has traditionally been conceptualized as individual's self-image and worth, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors” self-hate. Finally, we discuss implications and suggestions for further (Rangel, 2014). This definition suggests that racial messages are ‘taken study. in’ through repeated exposure and then reflected through individuals' ∗ Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, 207 High Street, Judd Hall, Room 404, Middletown, CT, 06459, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Shellae Versey). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.014 Received 15 October 2018; Received in revised form 23 February 2019; Accepted 10 March 2019 H. Shellae Versey, et al. 2. Brief overview 3. Widening the scope 2.1. What's in a name? 3.1. Appropriated racial oppression Racism, a form of structural oppression, is a system of dominance If appropriated racial oppression is not self-hatred, what is it? and privilege based on racial group designations (Essed, 1991; Harrell, Several scholars argue for widening the scope to describe a process by 2000). Racism is maintained through media, ideology, policies, norms, which systems of oppression rely on the “taking in”, or appropriation, and practices that preserve systems of inequity and racial dominance. of societal messaging centered on Whiteness (Helms and Cook, 1999; Less is known, however, about how racism affects individuals’ sensi- Pyke, 2010; Rangel, 2014). Whiteness is a central ideology that un- bilities, ways of being, and everyday experiences. dergirds and maintains appropriated racial oppression, and the ideal by Traditionally, “internalized racism” has been described as beliefs which all other groups are judged, contributing to how individuals about one's own inferiority, weaknesses, or shortcomings as a function “see” themselves (see also Social Mirror Theory) (Bonilla-Silva, 2012; of membership in an oppressed group (Jones, 2000). Comprised of Feagin, 2010; Mills, 2003; Whitehead, 2001). Put another way, people negative self-beliefs, and in some cases, preferences for out-group of color are socially rewarded based on their degree of conformity to norms and practices, internalized racism has been discussed as pri- Whiteness. marily impacting marginalized groups (Krieger, 2000). Recently, Therefore, we further suggest that appropriated racial oppression can scholars have proposed a shift in terminology from “internalized ra- be any instinctive or deliberate reaction in response to normative Whiteness cism” to “appropriated racial oppression,” to avoid narrowly limiting ideals embedded in society. This framing expands previous research on the focus of individual experiences of racism to negative messaging internalized racism that neglected to identify Whiteness or White su- (Campón and Carter, 2015; Pyke, 2010; Tappan, 2006). We believe that premacy as the source from which negative thoughts and actions this change in terminology also avoids limiting the impact of racism to emerged. Therefore, rather than the result of some cultural or biological people of color only. In doing so, the ways in which racial oppression is weakness, inferiority complex or shortcoming, appropriated racial op- taken up, or appropriated, by oppressed groups and non-oppressed pression is an expected and inevitable response to White oppression in groups becomes the larger focus of study. which individuals consider themselves in relation to their environment. In this vein, we suggest that appropriated racial oppression affects This conceptualization is decidedly broad, and arguably a necessary dominant groups. Whites, for example, can appropriate and reify racial characterization for understanding how groups use a range of tactics to oppression by demonstrating attitudes and actions that maintain White navigate and cope with racism. Furthermore, if racism is the smog that supremacy, privilege, and systems of inequity. We contend that shifting we all breathe – to what extent do individuals and groups navigate, the focus from internalization to appropriation supports a more accu- rather than accept it? rate representation of processes previously considered to be restricted to oppressed groups, effectively blaming those groups for their own 3.2. Naming White supremacy oppression, rather than recognizing the ways in which it shapes out- comes for everyone in society. Naming White supremacy as the driver of racism and race-related stress is important. First, naming identifies the system of oppression in which racism occurs. Second, connecting White supremacy to appro- 2.2. Early research on internalized racism priated racial oppression links a range of beliefs and behaviors about domination and subordination to that system, rather than being per- Franz Fanon was among the first scholars to describe a ‘peculiar ceived as rooted within individuals. Prior research focusing on inter- sensation’ in his writings about colonized mentality, the process of nalized racism emphasized individual pathology while diminishing the accepting a dominant group's declaration of superiority through at- significance of White racism, which has contributed to victim blaming. tempts to identify with and emulate the actions of oppressors (Fanon, For example, a child identifying a White doll as being “good” does not 1970; Fanon et al., 1963; Memmi, 1965). Work in this tradition later necessarily equate to poor self-worth, but may reflect a degree of racial expanded to include theories of racial inferiority and self-aversion when awareness and environmental priming as a result of living in a racist oppressed groups “turn on themselves,” and their own existence re- society (Bonilla-Silva, 2012; Hraba and Grant, 1970; Sellers et al., sulting in psychological distress (David, 2013; Leary and Robinson, 1998). Similarly,