Anger, Fear, and Sadness: How Emotions Could Help Us End a Pandemic of Racism
Most BCBAs want antiracist action but feel stuck—use ready-made CRT and anti-ableist tools to start talking race and emotion today.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors sent an online survey to 175 behavior analysts. They asked how comfy people feel talking about racism and emotion at work.
Most folks said the field should do more on racism, yet many feel uneasy mixing feelings with skin color.
What they found
Practitioners are split. Some welcome tough talks; others dodge them.
Almost everyone agrees ABA needs a clear antiracism plan that includes how clients feel.
How this fits with other research
Mathur et al. (2022) gives the next step. Their CRT-rooted curriculum shows you how to run staff trainings that close the comfort gap the survey found.
McComas et al. (2025) widen the lens. They swap the word racism for ableism and hand you an audit sheet to check your own bias with autistic clients.
Jackson-Perry et al. (2025) push even further. They call for a whole new field—Critical Behavioral Studies—so future BCBAs learn antiracism and neurodiversity side-by-side with task lists.
Why it matters
You can’t fix what you won’t name. Start by adding one emotion check-in to your intake form. Ask, "How did that make you feel?" when clients share race-based mistreatment. Then plug Mathur’s free CRT lesson into your next staff meeting. Small moves like these turn survey guilt into real cultural responsiveness.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one question about emotional impact of racism to your caregiver interview and practice the response with your team before lunch.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Racism, recently referred to as another kind of pandemic, affects the health and safety of diverse individuals within the United States and around the world. Emotions are a powerful and integral aspect of the experience of racism; however, within the field of behavior analysis, we have been hesitant to acknowledge emotion or explore how it relates to behavior and behavioral contingencies. As a result, the scope of our understanding of emotion is limited. To better understand the current experience and perception of practitioners in the field of behavior analysis, as they relate to emotion and racism, a brief survey was conducted. Findings indicated that although many may be comfortable discussing emotion and displaying emotions for themselves and others, this was not the case for everyone. Further, many were uncomfortable discussing racism. Although participants believed that emotions of racism are important and should be addressed by the field of behavior analysis, they think the field has not done enough work in this area. The results of the study lead to several recommendations, including additional antiracism research and the acknowledgment of emotional experience, as well as for how individuals can better understand, and maybe reduce, the negative emotions associated with oppression.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00581-9