Chronic Discrimination

For racial minorities, chronic perceived discrimination is stressful and leads to mental and physical changes (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). Perceived discrimination and experiences with racism change neural emotion circuits, which may contribute to the race gap in achievement (Johns et al., 2008). The mere anticipation of racial discrimination can create a stress response (Sawyer et al., 2012). When discrimination is perceived, the threat response is activated leading to increases in both cardiovascular activity and activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Specifically, activation of these systems signals for the release of cortisol and DHEA. Cortisol is a hormone that is released and notifies that brain to engage in flight or fight and DHEA is a cell repairing hormone correlated with cortisol (Hucklebridge, Hussain, Evans, & Clow, 2005). DHEA is released to combat the negative impact that cortisol has on tissue (Carlson, Speca, Patel, & Goodsey, 2004). The emotional stress from experiencing racial …show more content…
For example, a longitudinal study examining racial similarities and differences in cortisol patterns found Black high school students had flatter diurnal cortisol slopes and lower cortisol peaks in the morning compared to their non-Black peers (DeSantis et al., 2007). Flatter diurnal cortisol slopes reflect adrenal fatigue from the constant production of cortisol such that the body no longer produces enough cortisol to adequately respond to stress. Lower peaks of cortisol in the morning also reflect adrenal fatigue and dysregulation of the HPA axis, because cortisol needs to spike in the morning to awaken the body and to combat the stress of daily living (Adam et al., 2015; DeSantis et al., 2007). It is not known whether DHEA correlates with cortisol and also shows flatter spikes and slopes after chronic perceived