The White-out: Reconceptualizing the therapeutic value of non-

response.
By Bakhet Ma’at Sat Ra
March 1, 2023

ABSTRACT
White settler research contends both active and passive coping strategies to white supremacy/whiteness
(WSW) based traumatic stress injury, in Foundational Black American (FBA) women, compound
negative mental health outcomes, and lead to maladaptive behaviors (Polanco-Roman, 2016). The
present study investigated the relationship between the pre- and post- White-Out (i.e., the reduction,
removal and/or neutralization of exposure to white supremacy/whiteness), and psychiatric disturbance in
FBA women. The White-Out is presented as a non-responsive coping strategy. The FBA women sample
(N=5) of civilian respondents were recruited through social media sites, groups, and profiles, featuring the
#Blaxit hashtag. Participants completed an online measure of self-reported, ex post facto, psychiatric;
psychological, somatic, and cognitive, disturbance, pre- and post- White-Out. This study is timely due to
the emergence of social and political movements encouraging Afrocentric liberation i.e., #Blaxit,
#ExodUS, and #YearofReturn. Quantitative frequency distribution analysis showed respondents
associated a reduction of exposure to white supremacy/whiteness (WSW), with a reduction in psychiatric
disturbance. Analysis of the results suggest the White-Out, as neither an active nor passive coping
strategy, is a therapeutically valuable, alternative intervention to WSW-based traumatic stress injury in
FBA women.

Keywords: PTSD, Traumatic-stress, Trauma, Coping behaviors, Race-based stress, Race-based trauma,
Black mental health, Black women health disparity

Key Terms Defined:

White settler - noun. a well-off incomer to a district who takes advantage of what it has to offer without
regard to the local inhabitants (Dictionaries, 2020).

White supremacy - Originating in white Christianity, it is "rage at any recognition of black humanity and
dignity, at any acceptance of black equality and citizenship, at any notion of black advancement and
accomplishment . . . a category of identity that is most useful when its very existence is denied. (Litonjua,
2022). It is marked by a fear, "and anxiety, about African sexual prowess and Black men’s desirability to
white women" (Litonjua, 2022). It is underpinned by a single sensibility that holds the other
characteristics in place; "fragility, which arouses anger, outrage, resentment, personal attacks, and even
violence" (Litonjua, 2022).

Whiteness - a chronic, "malignant, parasitic-like condition (Moss, 2021) that objectifies non-white bodies
through naming and classification. The diseased condition presents as a "constant frenzied drive to fix,
control, arouse, want, hate and terrorize" (Moss, 2021). Distinct from whiteness as a racial identity.

Foundational Black American (FBA) - A reference to the diasporic collective of Aboriginal Black
Indigenous people native to the U.S., with African Ancestry, including American Descendants of Slavery
(ADOS).

Sociodermes - The transitional unit in language change. This view is especially true, given the fact that
language is communal property, i.e., the property of the social or ethnic group which speaks it (Winters,
2011).

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WEIRD™ - whiteness-entrenched, irrational, race-based delusion(al). The etiology of whiteness.

INTRODUCTION
A significant amount of white-settler mental health research provides support for the hypothesis
that Foundational Black American women are at high risk for psychiatric illness. White
supremacy/whiteness -based traumatic stress injury is an important correlate of FBA women’s mental
health outcomes. Focused solely on socioeconomic barriers to care access, and a dispositional framework
that blamed and pathologized FBA women, whiteness-entrenched, irrational, race-based, delusional
(WEIRD™) psychologies struggle toward competent treatment interventions or coping strategies. The
WEIRD psychologies’ binary Cartesian construct, is often limited to exploring active, and passive coping
behaviors, avoiding the alternative costs associated with counseling FBA women to White-Out.
The emergence of recent social movements, and initiatives i.e., #BLAXIT, #ExodUS, and
#YearofReturn, encouraging the FBA population to separate from white supremacy/whiteness as a
method to improve mental health, suggests the White-Out is correlated with an overall improved quality
of life. FBA female expatriates (living outside the U.S. for 90+days) are in a unique position to document
the therapeutic value of non-responsiveness, outside the WEIRD binary framework, as a treatment
intervention, and coping strategy, to white supremacy/whiteness-based traumatic stress injury.

LITERATURE REVIEW
While this topic has been extensively studied, extant white-settler psychological research
continues to grapple with the ". . .need for and value of new ways to define" (Carter, 2007) white
supremacy/whiteness, and its impacts; moreover, these psychologies assume all response, relief, or
redress, involves white settler mental health professionals. Simultaneously, white-settler research
literature deploys “sociodermes” (Winters, 2022) to avoid examination of white supremacy/whiteness
accountability, as the upstream cause of all race-based traumatic stress injuries in FBA women.
A review of white settler research literature reveals Foundational Black American (FBA) women
suffer from significant negative disparities in physical, social, and psychological health outcomes
(Halloran, 2018). "Being an African American woman is associated with having greater stress and greater
racial discrimination and predicted higher amounts of psychiatric symptoms" (Copeland, 2007).
Though the literature consistently presents a prevalence of mental illness in the FBA female
population, the rates of depressive disorder among FBA women remains unclear, and the prevalence of
major depressive disorder is lower, compared to both white settler, and Latino females (Banks, 2002). It is
well documented that both Hispanics and Blacks have lower lifetime risk of psychiatric disorders than do
whites (Breslau, 2004). However, “prevalence figures are dependent on the culture in which the study
takes place, and the setting” (Beusenberg, 2012).
Since its inception, during colonial enslavement of Africans, WEIRD psychologies have
"investigated, studied, tested, probed and scrutinized" (Byrd, 2021) melanated women, to satisfy its
"voracious, insatiable, and perverse appetite(s)" (Moss, 2021).

Double Crossings: Madness, Sexuality, and Imperialism, (2001) . . .argues that as colonized
African women began to “wander” into city centers as a result of colonial famine and poverty,
they were rendered “mad strays” by European settlers. McClintock writes that “Madness became
a discourse of territoriality. For African women, to be mad was to be out of place (Redikopp,
2021, p. 27).
It is no surprise then that WEIRD psychologies struggle to connect WSW-based trauma to
particular types of acts and experiences that impact FBA women's mental health. Carter (2007) notes
scholars have sought to understand race as a concept related primarily to ethnicity, class, or nation. This
and other popular models of race theory "misse(s) the manner in which race has been a fundamental axis
of social organization in the United States” (p.9).
Stress is a central component of all race-based traumatic stress injury theories. In 1984,
Philomena Essed characterized the stress of exposure to everyday white supremacy/whiteness, coining the
term “everyday racism” (Essed, 1984). According to Essed (1984), everyday racism is a process in which
(a) socialized racist notions are integrated into meaning that make practices immediately definable and
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manageable, (b) practices with racist implications become in themselves familiar and repetitive, and (c)
underlying racial and ethnic relations are actualized and reinforced through these routine or familiar
practices in everyday situations (p.52).
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric
Association, 2000), PTSD and its related stress disorders result from the following exposure to an
extreme . . . stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened
death or serious injury, or threat to one’s physical integrity . . . the person’s response must involve intense
fear, helplessness, or horror. (p. 463).
While FBA women may adapt to the burden of consistently stressful exposure to white
supremacy/whiteness, research also suggests “its effects may persist for a long time and do cumulative
damage” (Carter, 2007). In 2020, a Journal of American Medical Association – Psychiatry study
conducted by N. Fani (2021), concluded: . . .more experiences of [exposure to WSW] was associated with
significantly greater response in the nodes of emotion regulation, fear inhibition, and visual attention,
even after accounting for trauma and the severity of PTSD. The overactive ventromedial prefrontal cortex
and middle occipital cortex of FBA women was concluded to represent a neurobiological pathway for
‘race-related health disparities’ (p. 79).

METHODOLOGY
The FBA women sample (N=5) of civilian respondents recruited through social media (i.e.,
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter) sites, groups, and profiles, featuring the #Blaxit hashtag,
completed an online measure of self-reported, ex post facto, psychiatric; psychological, somatic, and
cognitive, disturbance, pre- and post- White-Out. This study is timely due to the emergence of social and
political movements for liberation i.e., #Blaxit, that encourages FBA women to separate from WSW.
For this study, an exploratory, cross-sectional survey was used to gather information. Participants
were five expatriate Foundational Black American women aged 18-65 years. The convenience sample of
FBA female civilian respondents was recruited in a stratified network/multiplicity design across a two-
week invitation period. Participation requests were selectively submitted to profiles, pages, and groups,
that included the hashtag #Blaxit and #BlackExpatWomen.
Eligible respondents had attended high school in the U.S., and had relocated residency outside the
U.S. for more than 90 days: excluding military personnel, hospital, nursing home or prison residents.
Participants were directed to an online survey, via hypertext link, that forwarded the results to an
encrypted database with restricted researcher access only. Sample eligibility was verified with two
culturally specific questions, and an affirmation of self-identification as a FBA female. Respondents were
prompted to provide informed consent to publish findings, without personally identifiable information,
and finally directed to the survey.
The modified SRQ (Busenberg, 2004) scale was used to measure symptoms associated with
neurotic disorder, pre- and post- White-Out. Participants indicated the frequency of symptomatology
related to white supremacy/whiteness exposure, on a scale consisting of nine items on a five-point Likert
scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Restructuring of tense propositions and descriptions were
adopted to better align with the cultural relevance of respondents. For example, “Do you cry often?”
(Busenberg, 1994) was adapted to “How often did you experience crying spells?, and “Do you feel you
are a worthless person?” (Busenberg, 1994), was adapted to “How often did you internalize messages of
low worth?”. Modification of the factorial structure, as shown in Table 1, was encouraged by the authors
to avoid “. . .the likelihood of cultural differences in the constellations of symptoms . . .” (Busenberg,
1994).
A simple percentage analysis was conducted to obtain quantitative, descriptive statistics of
frequency distribution across categories and factors. Each response was calculated by frequency in the
category, divided by the total number of participants, and multiplied by 100%. The alpha weight of
positive association was given to responses above 40% of the total sample. The resulting bivariate
equations are represented in graphs at the end of this study.

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RESULTS
The sample reported a higher frequency of cognitive disturbance pre- White-Out, and a lower
frequency of WSW-based traumatic stress, post-White-Out, as shown in Chart 1. In relation to factor one;
items #1, #2, and #3, three respondents experienced a high frequency of cognitive stress, while two
respondents rarely, or never suffered discomfort. This indicates that 60% of respondents detail poor
cognitive functioning associated with exposure to WSW, pre-White-Out, as shown in Chart 2.
The post- White-Out measure of cognitive disturbance revealed four respondents acknowledged a
reduction of cognitive disturbance. In relation to factor one; items #1, and #2, I found that three
respondents experienced a reduced frequency of cognitive stress, while four respondents indicated a
reduction of cognitive stress, in relation to Item #3. This indicates 60% of respondents noted improved
cognitive function in the areas of decision making, and meeting daily goals, while 80% of respondents
reported an improved ability to think clearly, post- White-Out, as shown in Chart 3.
In relation to factor two; items #4, #5, and #6, three respondents reported experiencing pre-
White-Out crying spells i.e., sadness and internalized messages of low self-worth, while four respondents
noted struggling with anxiety. This indicates 80% of respondents described poor psychological
functioning associated with exposure to WSW, pre-White-Out, as shown in Chart 4.
The post- White-Out measure of psychological disturbance revealed four respondents
experienced a reduction in anxiety, while three enjoyed a reduction of traumatic stress in association with
the other two categories of factor two. In relation to items #4, #5, and #6, three respondents reported a
decrease in psychological stress in relation to crying spells/sadness, and internalized messages of low
worth. Four respondents noted a reduction in anxiety, post- White-Out. This indicates 80% of
respondents reported improved psychological functioning, post- White-Out, as shown in Chart 5.
The pre- White-Out measure of somatic stress noted three respondents suffered from headaches,
and poor digestion, while four respondents indicated poor sleep quality. This indicates 80% of
participants specified somatic manifestations of traumatic stress injuries related to pre- White-Out
exposure to WSW, as shown in Chart 6.
The post- White-Out measure of somatic symptomatology notes three respondents experienced a
reduction of headaches, while four respondents experienced improved digestion and sleep quality. This
indicates 80% of respondents reported improved somatic functioning, post- White-Out, as shown in Chart
7.

DISCUSSION

Trauma-specific interventions, designed by WEIRD psychologies, intend only to address the

consequences of trauma, rather than its origins. The present study expands the understanding of WSW-
based traumatic stress, and an alternative to the limitations of WEIRD psychological science. The coping
strategies assigned to FBA women, in response to the “psychic terrorism” (Nobles, 2013) of WSW, are
limited to,

(a) seek legal counsel to file a lawsuit or file a complaint within his or her organization or through
some other recognized body; (b) seek the services of a mental health professional for relief from
the physical, emotional, or psychological effects of the encounter; or (c) live with the encounter
and try to cope with any effects that may have arisen (Carter, 2007, p.2).

Though classified by Polanoc-Roman et al. (2016) as an active coping strategy, WSW judicial
redress was intentionally designed to prevent FBA women from achieving remedy:

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 a Black female who alleges employment discrimination claiming that she was not hired because
she is a Black female may lose her case if the employer defends by showing that it has hired
Black men and that it has hired White women [under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act].

The other active coping strategy, asking FBA women to seek mental health care, ignores the
realities of WSW in psychological counseling. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) indicates
only 2 percent of the approximately 41,000 psychiatrists in the U.S. identify as Black, and just 4 percent
of psychologists (O’Malley, 2021). Assuming relief from psychiatric disturbance, caused by WSW-based
trauma, can be redressed by purveyors of WSW-based trauma, reflects the WEIRD “positional
superiority” (McDonough, 2013) that has historically dominated African knowledge, culture, and raw
materials.
WEIRD psychological research, and scholarship, on FBA women’s reduced use of mental health
care services promotes theories of barriers, and stigma, rather than contextualizing the negative
compulsory interactions with white-settler mental health care that sees a disproportionate number of
FBA’s incarcerated and institutionalized. The dispositional obsession of WSW’s overlaying rationalism,
on irrational expectations of credibility, disintegrate under the historical context of U.S. public health.

In 1940, Thomas Murrell, a U.S. public health physician noted, ‘. . .the future of the Negro lies
more in the research laboratory [rather] than in schools . . . when diseased, he should be
registered and forced to take treatment before he offers his diseased mind and body on the altar of
academic and professional education’ (Burkett, 2017, p. 6).

Simply “living with” (Carter, 2007) WSW-based traumatic stress injury, as a passive coping
behavior, bolsters the dynamics of WSW bondage noted by the WEIRD phenomenology of Freidrich
Hegel (1966), “. . . the one whose “humanity” is recognized but who does not recognize the “humanity”
of the other becomes the master while the one who recognizes the “humanity” of the other while their
own “humanity” is not recognized becomes the slave (Nobles, 2013, p. 3). As well, Polanco-Roman
(2016) revealed,

passive approaches to coping with racial discrimination such as keeping it to yourself or

accepting it as a fact of life may exacerbate the effects of the resulting stress and promote harmful
adaptations such as those exhibited in dissociative symptoms (Polanco-Roman, 2016, p.3).

WEIRD scholarship offers the active and passive coping strategy, in line with its
phenomenological limitations of the Cartesian intellect. It is neither capable or willing to conceive
alternatives to segregation, or integration. The White-Out provides a therapeutically valuable alternative:
separation. The strategy of leaving WSW and rejecting its prescribed modes of responsiveness, provides
FBA women with a biobehavioral, physiological, and psychosocial, reprieve from coping with WSW-
based trauma.

CONCLUSION
FBA female survivors of WSW-based traumatic stress injury may consider the White-Out as a
non-responsive strategy for coping with exposure to the “holy violence” (Nobles, 2016) of WSW, and a
means to improve overall health outcomes. There is an association between the White-Out, and ex post
facto reduced psychiatric disturbance in FBA women. The psychological, somatic, and cognitive damage
inflicted on FBA women in the U.S. cannot be justly reconciled within institutional settings that were

P a g e 5 | 11
created by WSW. WEIRD psychologies continue to depend solely on the domination of white people and
WSW; interests, scholarship, economies, policies, laws, and research to effectively study, and manipulate,
the trauma it has created. WEIRD clinical providers who seek a cultural competency at developing coping
strategies to neutralize the impacts of WSW-based trauma, must first attend to their own racial identity
development, as a primary barrier to accessing positive mental health outcomes in the FBA female
population. Further study, by FBA women, of this area of liberation psychology is needed.

Modified Three-Factor Structure

FACTOR 1 - Cognitive FACTOR 2 - Psychological FACTOR 3 - Somatic

Item #1 - Difficulty making Item #4 - Anxiety Item #7 - Headaches

decisions

Item #2 - Difficulty meeting daily Item #5 - Internalized messages Item #8 - Poor sleep quality
goals of low worth

Item #3 - Difficulty thinking Item #6 - Crying Item #9 - Poor digestion

clearly Spells/Sadness
(TABLE 1)

(CHART 1)

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(CHART 2)

(CHART 3)

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(CHART 4)

(CHART 5)

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(CHART 6)

(CHART 7)

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