This project discusses multiple dimensions of racism and how that contributes to the disproportionately high anxiety levels. State institutions such as hospitals, schools and criminal justice system has allowed racism to fester with minimal changes or repercussions. This thesis shows how these governmental institutions in North America perpetuate structural and ideological racism against its black citizens which causes a higher level of anxiety when compared to other cultures. I will show that health professionals give different level of care to black patients as oppose to their white counterparts’ and how this raises anxiety within the minority community. This thesis will show many black students in the United States universities denying their ethnic background and replacing it with a nationalistic one because of how they feel black is viewed and treated. I will show how this affected these student’s anxiety levels. A director of a nursing school recognized the difference in treatment (within the medical field) that healthcare workers were giving black patients. He understood there were many healthcare workers that have unconscious biases depending on the patient they are helping which resulted in a separation of health outcomes. A test was created for nurses so they may be able to notice their biases, in hopes that once they recognize their own biases, that is the first step to treating everyone equally. The co-chairmen of the BNA’s Medical students Committee also noticed inequality when it came to the treatment of black patients. He discusses why students needed assistance in avoiding and dealing with racial harassment and racial discrimination. I will illustrate that trust is a large part in fixing the relationship between providers and black patients thus lowering the anxiety level of the patients. I will also show how the Tuskegee experiment further hindered the relationship/trust between black people and medical providers. Understanding the healthcare system did something bad intentionally to the black population causes anxiety when a black person needs to receive healthcare. This thesis will mention different ways that should help stop and/or slow down the ramped racism in these institutions so that anxiety levels would lessen for black people within North America. I also will show how mass incarceration (due to racism) has not only had a negative mental effect and raise anxiety levels on the black population. I show that slavery was never abolished, it was only rebranded and reintroduced as a part of the criminal justice system and how that effects anxiety.

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