Weathering also happens to people:

Dr. Arline Geronimus, public health researcher, is the author of Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society.

Her work describes the physical effects – the weathering – that occurs from being subjected to injustice. “It literally wears down your heart, your arteries, your neuroendocrine systems so that you become chronologically old at a young age."

Dr. Geronimus explains that feeling unsafe, or unwelcome, can trigger an evolutionary “fight or flight” response where the heart beats faster, breathing becomes heavy, and blood flooded with fats and sugars pumps to large muscles. The immune system is activated and compromised. This body's automatic response to threat is intended to last moments, not be ongoing. It takes a toll on physical and mental health.

Studies and research connect the stress of injustice to chronic disease and infant and maternal mortality.

The stress from injustice hurts individual people, schools, employers, health systems, our sense of peace and security - everything and all of us.