The Urban Review

, Volume 37, Issue 4, pp 329–350 | Cite as

“I Think About It All The Time”: A 12-Year-Old Girl’s Internal Crisis With Racism and the Effects on her Mental Health

Article
First Online:

I conducted an ethnographic study, situated within the conceptual framework of Critical Race Theory, which illustrates one child’s experiences with racism. The study was conducted in an urban after-school program, and explores issues of racism in both the school and community settings. Utilizing the storytelling aspect of Critical Race Theory, I explore the racial experiences of a 12-year-old African-American girl, and the dichotomous emotions of sadness and anger that emerge. I describe the risk to this child’s emotional well-being, and suggest a need within the mental health field to create a framework to deal with the trauma caused by racism.

Key Words:

Critical Race Theory racism mental health schools after school programs 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Lois Tyson, Brian White and Nicholas Cutforth for their careful reading of and insightful feedback for this article.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Grand Valley State UniversityAllendaleUSA

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