Steele was likely experiencing the effects of “weathering.”

The term describes how repeated exposure to stressors leads to poor health outcomes. A related concept, racial weathering, points to racism as a major stressor among Black Americans, contributing to their historically high rates of chronic disease, viral infection and premature death.

A weathered body is weaker, ages faster, and is more prone to chronic disease, said Arline T. Geronimus, a public health researcher and professor at the University of Michigan who first proposed the hypothesis in 1992.

When a person experiences consecutive life-threatening situations like an eviction notice or physical violence, they become weathered. These situations trigger a fight, flight or freeze response and causes the body to work harder to help a person escape the threat or to fight back. Stress hormones are released and excess oxygen flows to major muscles like the heart. Blood thickens to prevent death from injury.

The fight, flight or freeze response is only helpful against an occasional threat. When flipped on and off again, it becomes a problem. The fluctuation of chemicals wears the body down into a “weathered” state.

Geronimus said Black Americans are at greater risk for weathering than their white counterparts due to societal pressures.

“Populations that have been racialized or stigmatized or are subject to structural and systemic, as well as interpersonal racism, are the ones that are likely to weather the fastest and the worst,” she said.

Racial weathering and its toll on generations of Black Americans | Health News Florida

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