From Dispo, Rendón, E.J. (2024). “BIPOC grief.” In Cope with hope, deal to heal: Lessons learned by a certified grief counselor. (pp. 75, 85-87). ANAK KO.

Black, Indigenous & People of Color Grief

Grief varies among cultures (Parkes et al., 2015), and other demographics within those cultures also must be considered, such as generations (ACE Flex, 2017). People who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) may grieve, not just from losing loved ones, but also from experiencing discrimination, as well as intergenerational trauma (Dispo-Rendón, 2023) and take on different forms of internalizing or emotional expression (Cheng, 2014). This review of literature and media, based on my Grief Support for People of Color course for the grief diversity curriculum that I authored, will examine roots of grief for the BIPOC populations and practices to cope. Much of the research on BIPOC grief is on African Americans (Rosenblatt & Wallace, 2022; ECU, 2010; Goldsmith et al., 2008; Laurie & Neimeyer, 2008) that has intensified with vicarious grief experienced among the general population from public hate crimes (Buckingham, 2020; The Root, 2020; TEDx, 2022). In wake of Asian Americans being targeted since COVID-19, more awareness also is drawn to their grief (Breland-Noble, 2020), but some conclusions had been previously pointed out about Chinese grief (Reid, 2015). Dutil (2019) pointed out similar grief experiences between Black and Latinx adolescents. Hispanic grief also has been explored in terms of characteristics (Springer, 2011; Springer, 2012) and how to heal holistically (Eluna Network, 2021; Gutiérrez & Mullan, 2021). Native Americans also turn to non-medical methods in times of loss. Even if grievers do not come from a culture that practices certain grief rituals, they may benefit from some, such as heart work (Johnson, 2021), Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM; Khalaf, 2019) and others if openminded and compelled to (Singh et al., 2019).

Understanding Grief of African Americans 

Both discrimination and bereavement remain reasons why African Americans grieve (Rosenblatt & Wallace, 2022). Even with the advent of affirmative action, issues, such as crime, drugs and poverty among African American communities are based on the African American discrimination that still exists (p. 171). Therefore, African Americans may tend to be reluctant to join a grief support group with Euro-Americans, according to grief researchers due to fear of racism and discrimination by white members and facilitators (p. 169). 

                Professional Grief Support for African Americans. Clinicians who serve African American grievers are recommend to use Jones and Block’s (1984) TRIOS model, which sensitizes those practitioners who train with it to become more familiar with African American cultural dimensions of time, rhythm, improvisation, oral communication and spirituality (Rosenblatt & Wallace, 2022, p. 169).  Dr. Dwayne Buckingham (2020) introduced this EAT acronym, which stands for this when serving black clients:

• E – Examine yourself 
• A – Alter negative emotions 
• T – Think about what the Platinum Rule and the Golden Rule (what the person needs and how you want to be treated, respectively)

African American Collective Grief

Martha Brown (ECU, 2010) presented these statistical findings, in terms of African American grief: 

• The belief in an afterlife is a common and fundamental aspect of death and dying in the black experience.
• Compared to whites, blacks may practice higher levels of public and private religious behaviors. 
• Southern African Americans have higher religious participation than other parts of the country. 
• Eight out of 10 African American adults pray nearly everyday, while 2% never pray.
• The 2004 leading cause of death was homicide for African Americans, as the only group with murder at the top of the list. 

Alice Mills Mai (The Root, 2020) mentioned how Ahmaud Arbery’s murder spurred on vicarious trauma and collective grief. 

Black & Latinx Adolescent Grief 

According to Dutil (2019), adolescents may experience disenfranchised grief during bereavement of peers who died by suicide, homicide, car accidents and drug abuse (p. 180). Parent loss through imprisonment is more common for black and Latinx communities than other groups (p. 181). Implementing trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) sessions into an urban school setting for minority students and their families can present the challenge of time length and advantage of implementation of cultural rituals (pp. 182-183). 

Latinx Grief 

Latinx grief professionals offered their expertise in supporting grievers from Latinx cultures. According to Ligia Houben (Springer, 2012) mental health professionals who offer intercultural grief support should bear in mind their grievers’ values and traditions from their native country and their religion. Although Marian can be used to describe something that pertains to Mary, the mother of JESUS, in Christian denominations, Dr. Carmen Vasquez (Springer, 2010) introduced the term, marianismo, as the gender-specific expectations for females and the opposite of machismo. Cindy Pérez Waddle (Eluna Network, 2021) of the Children’s Bereavement Center of the Rio Grande Valley—which I found out about during my own grief of my first unborn child Ángel (whose miscarriage threat was brought to my attention exactly five years ago on the date that I typed this)—pointed out that the saludo de beso greeting with kisses establishes a sense of community among family members and extension of support. 

Asian Grief Examples  

More research is needed to explore Asian grief. Here are a few instances that I came across: 

Asian Bereavement 

Singh & Wise (2019) pointed out that food in large groups, permission to cry and a prayer songs are ways to grieve for a loved one from the Sikh culture in South Asia (p. 66), but one-on-one support is not commonplace. Dr. Jon Reid (2015), who addressed Chinese cultural grief practices, acknowledged these bereavement practices: 

• Don’t speak ill about the dead, or they’ll haunt you.
• Mourning used to last longer but may be limited to a few days due to modern lifestyles and long distance travel

Asian Racial Grief 

Internalized racism, such as Gutiérrez’s (2022) example of La Jolla, Caifornia-based Generation-X cisgender male, Enrique’s intergenerational trauma from his Filipino immigrant parents and their pressure on him all the way to medical school, is characterized by fraudulence, inadequacy and unworthiness (p. 157). 

Native American Grief 

Wally Brown (2018) acknowledged that fear has been commonly associated with the dead and dying. The Native flute has helped with the Tribal approach to grieving. Hyapatia Lee (2020) referred to mental health as native strength in terms of bereavement. Lee (2021) discussed denial during grief, in terms of resisting reality, and alluded to the medicine wheel, with these directions pointing to the following approaches: 

• North for mental  
• South for emotional 
• East for spiritual 
• West for physical world 

International Grief Practices 

Grief practices vary globally, but cultural customs may inspire others to adopt certain traditions from across the world. Rochelle Wong (ACE Flex, 2017) pointed out these cultural memorial tradition examples: 

• African and French influenced jazz funerals in New Orleans
• Mongolia and Tibet sky burials
• Ghana fantasy coffins 

Dr. Helen Hsu (Breland-Noble, 2020) mentioned an Asian-American student joining Latinx club to talk at the Día de los Muertos ceremony about his sibling who died as a cross-cultural universal thread example of bereavement. 

Grief Support Strategies for People of Color 

Grief Physiological Effects 

Dr. Anis Khalaf (2019), who declared that the lungs can be affected by emotions associated with grief and trauma, also mentioned that other organs could manifest on each other through motions when reacting to loss or other traumatic situation, including the large intestine, liver, kidneys, as well as the eyes and ears. 

Prolonged Grief Disorder 

Goldsmith, Morrison, Vanderwerker, and Prigerson (2008) distinguished that a striking difference from normal grief was that interpersonal support and religious practices did not prevent Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD; p. 362), which is not the same as the following, but it may appear concurrently with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder (p. 353). Ashley McGirt (TEDx, 2022) concurred that racial trauma and grief not being mental illness or diagnosable, but they can lead to anxiety or depression. Cheng (2001) asserts that while grief is a healthy response to loss, melancholia is pathological, so, as Freud has said: “in grief, the world becomes poor and empty; in melancholia, it is the ego” (pp. 7-8). Identification can be considered as both a compensation for and an expression of grief because it 

• includes fulfillment yet reminds grievers of their losses, such as a grave that is a “substitution” of the lost loved one
• makes sense out of a melancholic griever’s contradictory impulses  
• may provoke multiple reactions, such as anger, denial, love and rejection (p. 178). 

References [not all cited in aforementioned excerpt, but is a comprehensive list of people of color grief sources]

American Institute of Health Care Professionals. (2023, May 23). Black grief and minority trauma in the United States videogram. AIHCP. https://youtu.be/ljmT2Ywl0nY?si=t8wfw4_u_AvA6SEF

ACE Flex. (2017, September 29). Death and dying: Cultural and religious perspectives. Geriatrics ACE Flix. https://youtu.be/gR8zPWCGHEs

Breland-Noble, A. (2020, July 16). Ep 17: Grief across cultures, Asian mental health & 13reasons why- A conversation with Dr. Helen Hsu. Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee. https://youtu.be/6RaBb4WYGRU

Brown, W. (2018, October 8). Traditional Navajo view on death and grieving. Navajo Traditional Teachings. https://youtu.be/1muGlca1ibI

Buckingham, D. (2020, June 14). I Can’t Breathe: Understanding cultural trauma, grief and mourning experienced by African Americans. Dr. Dwayne Buckingham – The E.R. Doctor. https://youtu.be/d9vzM5x14Q0

Cheng, A. A. (2014). The melancholy of race: Psychoanalysis, assimilation, and hidden grief (Race and American Culture). Oxford University Press.

Dispo-Rendón, E. J. (2022). AIHCP Grief Support for BIPOC. EJDispoPhD. https://youtu.be/jzzJeJlr4bg

Dutil, S. (2019, July 26). Adolescent traumatic and disenfranchised grief: Adapting an evidence-based intervention for Black and Latinx youths in schools. Children & Schools, 41(3), 179-187. DOI: 10.1093/cs/cdz/009

ECU. (2010, June 4). Death, dying and bereavement – African American. East Carolina University. https://youtu.be/OdsiRBK3EGc

Goldsmith, B., Morrison, R. S., Vanderwerker, L. C., & Prigerson, H. G. (2008). Elevated rates of prolonged grief disorder in African Americans. Death Studies, 32, 352-365. ISSN: 0748-1187 print/1091-7683 online DOI: 10.1080/07481180801929012

Eluna Network. (2021, October 19). Eluna community conversation: Grief through the lens of Latino culture. The Moyer Foundation. https://youtu.be/53KSbWJg3Jo

Gutiérrez, N. Y., & Mullan, J. (Foreword). (2021). The pain we carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color (The Social Justice Handbook Series). New Harbinger Publications.

Johnson, M. C. (2021). Finding refuge: Heart work for healing collective grief. Shambhala.

Khalaf, A. (2019, October 18). Grief and traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture Fit. https://youtu.be/Jr5cIHWWEmA

Laurie, A., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2008). African Americans in bereavement: Grief as a function of ethnicity. OMEGA, 57(2), 173-193. DOI: 10.2190/OM.57.2.d

Parkes, C. M., Laungani, P., & Young, B., Eds. (2015). Death and bereavement across cultures (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Purdue Global Ambassadors. (2023, October 9). Indigenous Day Meditation.

Reid, J. (2015, May 4). Dr. Jon Reid: Chinese culture and grief. Open to Hope. https://youtu.be/pxQlJ04tt5E

The Root. (2020, May 13). How Black people can process collective trauma and grief. The Root. https://youtu.be/X69xclzB31M

Rosenblatt, P. C., & Wallace, B. R. (2022). African American grief (Series in death, dying, and bereavement) (1st ed.). Routledge.

Schultz, M. [Director]. (2023, February 20). Lost one. [Season 5, Episode 12]. All American. [TV show]. CW.

Singh, A., Wise, T. (Foreword), & Sue, D. W. (Afterword). (2019). The racial healing handbook: Practical activities to help you challenge privilege, confront systemic racism, and engage in collective healing (The Social Justice Handbook Series). [Chapter 4]. New Harbinger Publications.

Springer. (2011, October 10). Interview with the Authors: Grief Therapy with Latinos. Springer Publishing Company. https://youtu.be/60ibgJA5K10

Springer. (2012, April 12). Interview: Counseling Hispanics Through Loss, Grief, and Bereavement by Ligia Houben. Springer Publishing Company. https://youtu.be/XaqFc_wUjRk

TEDx. (2022, January 11). Understanding and healing from racial trauma | Ashley McGirt | TEDxUofW. TEDx Talks. https://youtu.be/pxhi-dYzwOk