What do people get out of racist costumes?

Can you talk a little bit about the impact on people of color who experience these costumes? Is there any research that you’ve done that talks about the cumulative stress of racism on individual people? “I don’t have any particular research on this topic, but there’s a lot of reason to think that the reason these things are impactful because it’s often a person from a dominant group, a powerful group in society that’s making fun of a group with less power. It’s precisely because there’s that power dynamic that the whole thing takes on even more significance. In this case, it’s using your power to make a statement about just how powerful you are over another group.”

Kristina Olson in What do people get out of racist costumes? A cognitive psychologist explains (Colorlines)