‘How are you doing?’ Not well.

'How are you doing today?” is often a simple question met with smile and a quick, 'I'm doing well and you?” Yet, over the course of the past year this question has become challenging for me to answer. The attack on African American lives has been relentless and it has often been difficult to focus on daily activities. In all honesty, I have not been doing well for months. The burden of racial inequality in the U.S. is crushing.

For me, and for many others I have talked to, the events of June 17 were somewhat of a breaking point. That evening Dylan Roof, a young white supremacist, took the lives of nine African Americans while they were attending bible study at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr. and Myra Thompson. Roof's decision to gun down nine innocent people at one of the oldest A.M.E. churches in the country has been particularly difficult for many to process.

However, Charleston is not an isolated incident. Constant anti-black racism and discrimination create a tenuous existence for African Americans. African Americans face alarmingly high levels of racial violence. High-profile cases like the murders of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Rekia Boyd have revealed how vulnerable African Americans are to police violence. While a lack of reporting standards makes it difficult to gather concrete data, it is estimated over 300 African Americans were killed by police in 2014 alone - or almost one person a day. Numbers may be much higher if we include murders by vigilantes. In addition, of all hate crimes documented by the FBI in 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available), nearly half were racially motivated and African Americans were the most frequent targets. Overall, it is estimated that African Americans are 12 times more likely to be killed than citizens of other developed countries.

In addition to threats of violence, African Americans must manage other forms of racism and discrimination in nearly all areas of their lives. My collaborators and I have shown in published and forthcoming research that African Americans describe constant encounters with racism and discrimination at work, at school, and in public spaces. As a result, they have had to develop a complex repertoire of strategies for navigating these circumstances - the strategies they employ often depend on what is at stake.

Persistent threats of racial violence, constant disrespect and limited opportunities take a significant toll on African Americans. A growing body of research shows that regular experiences with racism and discrimination can have a negative impact on mental and physical health outcomes. For example, experiences with racism and discrimination have been linked to high psychological stress levels and high blood pressure . William A. Smith and colleagues argue that African Americans face racial battle fatigue - physical and mental exhaustion from dealing with constant racism and discrimination.

Thus, the brutal killing of nine African Americans in Charleston is further evidence that African Americans continue to be denied the full rights of U.S. citizenship, and this is a heavy burden to carry. Until our local and national leaders are ready to devote significant energy to dismantling America's racial hierarchy, the question 'How are you doing today?” will continue to be challenging to answer for many African Americans.

' Jessica Welburn is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at the University of Iowa and a member of The Gazette Writers Circle. Comments: jswelburn@gmail.com