“…Racial discrimination is a social stressor that racial and ethnic minority people are commonly exposed to in the United States. By putting chronic strain on the autonomic nervous system, exposure to discriminatory events has been linked to numerous negative psychological and physical health outcomes, including psychological distress (Berger & Sarnyai, 2015; Chae et al., 2016; Priest et al., 2013), low birth weight (Alhusen et al., 2016), cardiovascular disease and hypertension (Chae et al., 2010, 2012; Dolezsar et al., 2014; Lewis et al., 2014; Orom et al., 2017; Udo & Grilo, 2017), obesity (de Bernardo et al., 2017), leukocyte telomere length (Chae et al., 2016), and oxidative stress (Szanton et al., 2012). Specific exposures to discrimination and other racism‐related experiences are characterized as acute social stressors that activate biological stress responses, but which accumulate over time when chronic to accelerate disease and aging processes (Goosby & Heidbrink, 2013; Harrell et al., 2011).…”