“The media’s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.” — Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)

Each February, we honor Black History Month as a collective opportunity to reflect on the brilliance, resilience, and complexity of the Black experience. The stories we tell and consume can profoundly shape our sense of self and well-being. Indeed, my latest research, “Black Muslims in Canada: The Intersectional Trauma of Racism and Islamophobia,” highlights how critical narratives around perception and representation are central to mental health.

In our study, we found that Black Muslims exhibited notably higher levels of trauma compared to their Black Christian and non-religious counterparts—driven largely by more frequent encounters with both everyday and major discrimination. Anti-Islamic sentiments are perpetuated by the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media and popular culture (Hopner et al., 2023). Despite facing comparable racial microaggressions as other Black Canadians, Black Muslims found these experiences quite toxic, underscoring how repeated exposure to intersectional prejudice can wear down even the........

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