The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almeda Wright
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Adolescent Spirituality ◽  
Church And Society

The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans unearths the ways that African American Christian youth separate their lives and spirituality into mutually exclusive categories, with the result that their religious beliefs and practices do not directly impact their experiences of communal and systemic injustices. Yet this work argues that youth can and do teach the church and society myriad lessons through their theological reflections and actions. This book takes seriously the harsh realities of African American youth, who are often marginalized and even dehumanized within society and religious institutions. It draws upon in-depth theological reflection with adolescents and recent research on adolescent spirituality to examine the crucial role of spirituality in adolescent identity formation and the practical ways that youth negotiate the world around them. Listening to the voices of young African Americans, including activist and poets, pushes us to consider specific examples of fragmentation, including how young African Americans can reconcile their faith in God with their experiences of police brutality and ongoing violence. In conversation with young African Americans, this book also mines the resources of African American religious and theological traditions, and shows how collectively they can help youth to navigate fragmentation and respond to systemic injustice. In particular, abundant life, or choosing the way of life abundant, offers a vision of life and hope for young people who are too often surrounded by death. This work concludes with a critical pedagogy for integrating spirituality and fostering abundant life with African American youth.

scholarly journals Teacher Discrimination Reduces School Performance of African American Youth: Role of Gender

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Cleopatra Howard Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
School Performance ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Males And Females

Background: Gender may alter African Americans’ vulnerability to discrimination. The type of outcomes that follow exposure to discrimination may also be gender-specific. Although teacher discrimination is known to deteriorate school performance, it is yet unknown whether male and female African American youth differ in the effect of teacher discrimination on school performance. Objective: This cross-sectional study explored the moderating role of gender on the effect of teacher discrimination on school performance in a national sample of African American youth. Methods: The National Survey of American Life-Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A) enrolled a nationally representative sample (n = 810) of 13–17-year-old African American youth. Demographic factors, socioeconomic status, teacher discrimination, and school performance (grade point average, GPA) were measured. Linear multivariable regression models were applied for data analysis. Results: Males and females reported similar levels of perceived teacher discrimination. In the pooled sample, higher teacher discrimination was associated with lower school performance among African American youth (b = −0.35; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.49 to −0.22). Gender interacted with perceived teacher discrimination (b = 12; 95% CI = 0.24–2.02), suggesting a significant difference between males and females in the magnitude of the association between perceived teacher discrimination and GPA. In stratified models, perceived teacher discrimination was associated with worse school performance of females (b = −12; 95% CI = −0.03 to −2.78) but not males (b = 0.01; 95% CI = −0.07 to 0.08). Conclusion: In line with previous studies, gender was found to alter the vulnerability of African American youth to perceived discrimination. African American boys and girls may differ in their sensitivity to the effects of teacher discrimination on school performance.

Racial Discrimination and Trajectories of Problematic Alcohol Use Among African American Emerging Adults: The Role of Organizational Religious Involvement

2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812110516
Author(s):  
Danielle R. Busby ◽  
Meredith O. Hope ◽  
Daniel B. Lee ◽  
Justin E. Heinze ◽  
Marc A. Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Problematic Alcohol ◽  
Stable Class ◽  
Problematic Alcohol Use

Racial discrimination jeopardizes a wide range of health behaviors for African Americans. Numerous studies demonstrate significant negative associations between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans. Culturally specific contexts (e.g., organized religious involvement) often function protectively against racial discrimination’s adverse effects for many African Americans. Yet organized religious involvement may affect the degree to which racial discrimination increases problematic alcohol use resulting in various alcohol use trajectories. These links remain understudied in emerging adulthood marked by when individuals transition from adolescence to early adult roles and responsibilities. We use data from 496 African American emerging adults from the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS) to (a) identify multiple and distinct alcohol use trajectories and (b) examine organizational religious involvement’s protective role. Three trajectory classes were identified: the high/stable, (20.76% of sample; n = 103); moderate/stable, (39.52% of sample; n = 196); and low/rising, (39.72% of the sample; n = 197). After controlling for sex, educational attainment, and general stress, the interaction between racial discrimination and organized religious involvement did not influence the likelihood of classifying into the moderate/stable class or the low/rising class, compared with the high/stable class. These results suggest organized religious involvement counteracts, but does not buffer racial discrimination’s effects on problematic alcohol use. Findings emphasize the critical need for culturally sensitive prevention efforts incorporating organized religious involvement for African American emerging adults exposed to racial discrimination. These prevention efforts may lessen the role of racial discrimination on health disparities related to alcohol use.

Examining the role of parental factors on depression among Urban African American youth living in public housing

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 494-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony T. Estreet ◽  
Dawn Thurman ◽  
Sapphire Goodman ◽  
M. Taqi Tirmazi ◽  
Takisha J. Carter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
Parental Factors

Public Opinion toward Equal Opportunity Issues: The Role of Attitudinal and Demographic Forces among African Americans

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Susan Fine
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Opinion Dynamics ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Disadvantaged Populations ◽  
The Impact

This paper explores African American opinion toward equal opportunity issues using a demographic-attitudinal focus. Previous explorations have focused on black-white opinion comparisons. In this analysis, attitudinal forces, particularly core values, are identified as playing an influential role in policy support. Further, these patterns of values tend to reflect those expressed by whites on similar questions: the more individualistic and conservative one is, the less likely one is to support government intervention on African Americans behalf. In responding to questions concerning governmental responsibility, higher SES African Americans express stronger support than do their lower SES counterparts. This finding suggests that those who are experiencing “glass ceilings” are concerned about government guarantees of equal opportunity, despite their individualistic beliefs. This is inconsistent with previous explorations that analyze these beliefs among disadvantaged populations. The implications of social changes in the African American community and the impact of these changes on opinion dynamics are discussed.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almeda M. Wright
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Young People ◽  
Black Church ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Highly Active

Young African Americans regularly experience racism, poverty, sexism, violence, and other affronts to their humanity. Though they are often highly active and vocal contributors to their churches, schools, and neighborhood communities, they are often silent about the possibility of God working to address the injustices in their lives. The disconnection between the issues young people face, their community involvement, and their conceptions of God point toward the pervasiveness of “fragmented” spirituality among African American youth. Spiritual fragmentation does not necessarily inhibit healthy development or functioning. However, the African American community and church are at risk if they fail to challenge the myth that the personal and the communal or the spiritual and political are in fact disconnected. But why are African American Christian adolescents experiencing spiritual fragmentation? Is spiritual fragmentation symptomatic of an irreparable chasm between the Black church and Black youth? Or are there other factors at play?

Race and Relevance: Arthur Garfield Hays and the Integration of the American Bar Association, 1938-1943

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F Hamm
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
World War ◽  
Public Issue ◽  
The Press ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
Do So

Abstract This article explores the role of Arthur Garfield Hays and mostly Jewish lawyers in dismantling the American Bar Association’s prohibition of African Americans becoming members. By publicly resigning from the organization and encouraging others to do so over the ABA’s treatment of African-American applicant Francis Rivers, these lawyers made the color bar a public issue in the press. While earlier efforts in the late 1930s had failed, World War II contributed to the success of the activists’ campaign in the early 1940s, as the struggle against Nazi racism had begun to undercut American racial practices. In August 1943 the ABA changed its procedures governing admission that had previously functioned to exclude African-Americans. Other legal professional organizations soon followed its example. Thus the legal profession refashioned itself into part of the liberal order emerging in the wake of World War II.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document