Anti-Black violence, discrimination, and sleep difficulties amongst racially diverse Americans: The aftermath of the murder of George Floyd

Following the murders of George Floyd and other Black Americans during the summer of 2020, there was unprecedented exposure to media-disseminated depictions of anti-Black violence. Little is known about the impact of this widespread form of vicarious racism that was pervasive during that historic time. The present study applies the concept of vicarious racism to study this secondary exposure to anti-Black violence. We investigated negative impacts of anti-Black violence (NIAV) and personal experiences with discrimination in association with sleep difficulties, a critical intermediary health process. Racially diverse Americans (N = 487) were recruited to participate in a cross-sectional study using an online survey given between December 11, 2020 and February 11, 2021. Black participants endorsed greater NIAV than Asian, Latinx, and White participants. Moreover, Black, Asian, and Latinx participants reported greater direct discrimination than White participants. NIAV and direct discrimination were each associated with more sleep difficulties. Although associations between NIAV and sleep difficulties did not vary by race, race moderated the association between direct discrimination and sleep difficulties. In addition, direct discrimination moderated the association between NIAV and sleep difficulties in an unanticipated direction: the link between NIAV and sleep difficulties was weaker for those experiencing more direct discrimination. Findings suggest that anti-Black violence and police brutality not only impact direct victims but have widespread vicarious impacts on racially diverse Americans, and highlight that vicarious anti-Black racism and discrimination are important issues of public health.