Racism as a Clinical Syndrome

This paper examines the clinical effects of racism on its targets and, in particular, on its agents, the individuals who, wittingly or not, partake of the culture of racial privilege. It proposes a paradigm shift in regard to the clinical study of racism, and presents a structural model of racism, analogous to addiction as a disease, which holds that racism has an etiology and a clinical taxonomy that lends itself to differential diagnosis and treatment of those who manifest symptoms.