A Colorado professor wondered how racist rhetoric stoked by the 2016 presidential election was impacting Latino students, so he conducted academic research that found exposure to racism often led to self-hatred and acceptance of the offensive cultural beliefs lobbed at young Latinos from politicians, the media and their community.

“Although most people might intuitively know that racism negatively affects Latino undergraduates, the findings of this study provide empirical evidence of racism’s impacts,” said Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado, an associate professor of counseling at the University of Colorado Denver. “Little by little, it begins to chip away at that sense of self.”

Hipolito-Delgado’s interest in studying the subject piqued during the lead up to the 2016 presidential election and after Donald Trump referred to Mexicans as rapists, drug dealers and criminals. In Colorado, white supremacist and other extremist organizations have been more emboldened now than in past years, data show, and the incidents of hate and bias in the state is rising dramatically, experts said.

The study’s participants, 350 first-generation Latino undergraduate students from colleges across the country, took a survey designed to determine whether exposure to racism and encouragement to accept and assimilate to racist notions were predictive of internalized racism.

Questions included whether participants believed certain racist stereotypes, how much they felt like an American and whether or not they’d endured racist experiences like a clerk following them around a store, expecting them to steal.

The survey’s results indicated that participants did internalize hatred directed at them in a way that was statistically significant.

The study defines racial internalization as the conscious or unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy that values white people above people of color. Internalized racism has been linked to marital dissatisfaction, increased depressive symptoms, increased stress, decreased self-esteem and decreased life satisfaction, the study said.

Luis Estrada, an electrical engineering student at Metropolitan State University of Denver, was joined by about a dozen undocumented and refugee college students earlier this month at downtown Denver’s Auraria Higher Education Center to share stories and insights with the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

Estrada pulled up an internet meme of a Spongebob Squarepants character on fire who appeared unbothered by the flames.

“This climate we’re in feels like this,” the first-generation college student said. “You just get used to it. I’ve made peace with the fact that I can’t control anything. I can’t control Congress. I can’t control the president’s mood. I am just trying to find internships for myself and work hard.”

Dan Baer, executive director of the state’s higher education department, acknowledged the difficulties marginalized students face.

“We’re living through a really unsettling political environment that’s not welcoming or comfortable, and it’s especially important we have conversations like this because the people around this table don’t have direct power to change what’s going on in Washington, but we do have the ability to support each other,” Baer said to the group of students and members of his staff.

Hipolito-Delgado hopes the study will encourage counselors to intervene by helping Latino undergraduate students talk through discrimination they face.

Saira Galindo, a senior at MSU and an undocumented student, said counseling and access to mental health care was crucial as she worked through the stresses of the political atmosphere and everyday life of being a Mexican immigrant living in the United States.

“It’s been life-saving and life-changing to attend the free counseling services MSU offers because of our lack of access to health insurance,” Galindo said. “We don’t always have to be strong. It feels like it because we’re so busy taking care of our families and working so hard against all this, but there are resources out there.”

Hipolito-Delgado plans on further studying the impacts of racism and bias on academic achievements and the pursuit of college.

“My hope is for the student to realize that racism is not the student’s fault,” Hipolito-Delgado said. “It is not a reflection of the student’s culture or heritage, but instead is the product of a biased perpetrator and a racist society.”