People of Color
You have to gear up every day just to get through the day—psychologically, physically, emotionally.
You are constantly on guard for how you will be perceived and evaluated —your culture, your food, your clothes, your traditions, your hair, your size, your performance, your talk, your EVERYTHING.
How many times do you have to tell someone how to say your name? Maybe you chose a different name because you’re tired of this.
To some you aren’t to be taken seriously. To others you are a threat. And still to others you are inadequate, incapable, invisible. You know how to swim in a white world so well you may not even know the skills you’ve mastered to maneuver in it.
Maybe you feel behind. You don’t know how to build inter-generational wealth. You don’t know about systems and practices that other people just seem to know about. You wonder about how to find out about certain programs or events or activities.
Maybe you are a parent and you bear the burden of wanting your children of color to be in schools and programs with teachers and students and people who look like them.
And by the time you can close the day and set it down, there is little left over for you, your family, your children. You deal with a constant, embedded level of stress. It’s exhausting.
I don’t know a single person of color who doesn’t grind their teeth. We are stressed out.
Maybe you give a lot to your community. You help, you make yourself available. One of the most common experiences of people of color is that they get leaned on in their places of work and education to support other people of color. This is so common that people of color are frequently burnt out by just trying to support their own communities.
People of color experience higher levels of chronic stress than white people because of racism, discrimination, financial disparities, and the impact of more frequent and negative events in their lives. And more stress means less joy, less sleep, less capacity; more headaches, more fatigue, more health problems. You are less available to show up for yourself, your family, your community.
I Can Assist You With:
Racial identity exploration
Burnout due to supporting other people of color- especially in professional settings
Intergenerational cultural expectations
Just getting through the day
Multiple identities that conflict
Coping with racism
Raising kids of color
Racial trauma
Caring for kids and elders
I am a person of color. This doesn’t mean I’m going to know everything about you, but it probably means we have a higher chance for a shared basis of understanding.
You don’t have to explain.
