Race, racism, and health outcomes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley A. Hill
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Socioeconomic Position ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Black People ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Black Health ◽  
Major Argument

Race is irrefutably linked to health outcomes, and this chapter looks at the origins of race along with the growing intraracial diversity of African-Americans. The major argument is that black people live in a highly racialized society where racial stereotypes and discrimination are everyday parts of life, leading to high levels of social stress. Institutional racism operates in many settings and has a dire impact on black health, regardless of socioeconomic position.

African Americans and the Crisis of Modernity

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Eric S. King
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Family ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity

This article examines Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun by exploring the conflict between a traditionally Southern, Afro-Christian, communitarian worldview and certain more destabilizing elements of the worldview of modernity. In addition to examining the socio-economic problems confronted by some African Americans in the play, this article investigates the worldviews by which these Black people frame their problems as well as the dynamics within the relationships of a Black family that lives at the intersection of racial, class, and gender inequality in Chicago during the latter 1950s.

Racial Discrimination Predicts Mental Health Outcomes Beyond the Role of Personality Traits in a Community Sample of African Americans

2021 ◽  
pp. 216770262095731
Author(s):  
Yara Mekawi ◽  
Courtland S. Hyatt ◽  
Jessica Maples-Keller ◽  
Sierra Carter ◽  
Vasiliki Michopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Mental Health Outcomes ◽  
Hierarchical Regression

Despite a consistent body of work documenting associations between racial discrimination and negative mental health outcomes, the utility and validity of these findings have recently been questioned because some authors have posited that personality traits may account for these associations. To test this hypothesis in a community sample of African Americans ( n = 419, age: M = 43.96 years), we used bivariate relations and hierarchical regression analyses to determine whether racial discrimination accounted for additional variance in depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms beyond the role of personality. Bivariate relations between personality traits and racial discrimination were small and positive (i.e., rs ≈ .10). Regression results demonstrated that racial discrimination accounted for variance in depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress independent of personality traits ( ps < .01). These results suggest that personality traits do not fully explain associations between racial discrimination and negative mental health outcomes, further supporting the detrimental impact of racial discrimination on the mental health of African Americans.

Masks and racial stereotypes in a pandemic: the case for surgical masks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Leah Christiani ◽  
Christopher J. Clark ◽  
Steven Greene ◽  
Marc J. Hetherington ◽  
Emily M. Wager
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
White Male ◽  
Elevated Risk ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Surgical Masks ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Male Model

Abstract To contain the spread of COVID-19, experts emphasize the importance of wearing masks. Unfortunately, this practice may put black people at elevated risk for being seen as potential threats by some Americans. In this study, we evaluate whether and how different types of masks affect perceptions of black and white male models. We find that non-black respondents perceive a black male model as more threatening and less trustworthy when he is wearing a bandana or a cloth mask than when he is not wearing his face covering—especially those respondents who score above average in racial resentment, a common measure of racial bias. When he is wearing a surgical mask, however, they do not perceive him as more threatening or less trustworthy. Further, it is not that non-black respondents find bandana and cloth masks problematic in general. In fact, the white model in our study is perceived more positively when he is wearing all types of face coverings. Although mandated mask wearing is an ostensibly race-neutral policy, our findings demonstrate the potential implications are not.

Medical and Social Determinants of Brain Health and Dementia in a Multicultural Community Cohort of Older Adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
James E. Galvin ◽  
Stephanie Chrisphonte ◽  
Lun-Ching Chang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Screening Program ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Medical Comorbidities ◽  
Race Ethnicity

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES), race, ethnicity, and medical comorbidities may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) health disparities. Objective: Analyze effects of social and medical determinants on cognition in 374 multicultural older adults participating in a community-based dementia screening program. Methods: We used the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and AD8 as measures of cognition, and a 3-way race/ethnicity variable (White, African American, Hispanic) and SES (Hollingshead index) as predictors. Potential contributors to health disparities included: age, sex, education, total medical comorbidities, health self-ratings, and depression. We applied K-means cluster analyses to study medical and social dimension effects on cognitive outcomes. Results: African Americans and Hispanics had lower SES status and cognitive performance compared with similarly aged Whites. We defined three clusters based on age and SES. Cluster #1 and #3 differed by SES but not age, while cluster #2 was younger with midlevel. Cluster #1 experienced the worse health outcomes while cluster #3 had the best health outcomes. Within each cluster, White participants had higher SES and better health outcomes, African Americans had the worst physical performance, and Hispanics had the most depressive symptoms. In cross-cluster comparisons, higher SES led to better health outcomes for all participants. Conclusion: SES may contribute to disparities in access to healthcare services, while race and ethnicity may contribute to disparities in the quality and extent of services received. Our study highlights the need to critically address potential interactions between race, ethnicity, and SES which may better explain disparities in ADRD health outcomes.

‘The NDNAD Has No Ability in Itself to be Discriminatory’: Ethnicity and the Governance of the UK National DNA Database

Sociology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 976-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Dna Profiles ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
Ethnic Appearance

This article explores the place of ‘ethnicity’ in the operation, management and contestation of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD). In doing so, it examines the limitations of bioethics as a response to political questions raised by the new genetics. The UK police forensic database has been racialised in a number of distinct ways: in the over-representation of black people in the database population; in the classification of all DNA profiles according to ‘ethnic appearance’; in the use of data for experiments to determine the ethnicity of crime scene DNA; and in the focus on ethnicity in public debate about the database. This racialisation presented potential problems of legitimacy for the NDNAD but, as the article shows, these have been partly neutralised through systems of ethico-political governance. In these systems of governance discussion of institutional racism has been postponed or displaced by other ways of talking about ethnicity and identity.

scholarly journals Implications of institutional racism in the therapeutic itinerary of people with chronic renal failure

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Bruno Santos Ferreira ◽  
Climene Laura De Camargo ◽  
Maria Inês Da Silva Barbosa ◽  
Maria Lúcia Silva Servo ◽  
Marcia Maria Carneiro Oliveira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renal Failure ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Semistructured Interview ◽  
White People ◽  
Comprehensive Health Care ◽  
Medical Specialties ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Comprehensive Health

Objective. To understand the implications of institutionalracism in the therapeutic itinerary of patients withchronic renal failure (CRF) in the search for diagnosis andtreatment of the disease. Methods. Descriptive, qualitativestudy developed with 23 people with CRF in a regionalreference hospital for hemodialysis treatment in NortheastBrazil. Two techniques of data collection were used: semistructured interview and consultation to the NEFRODATAelectronic medical record. For systematization andanalysis, the technique of content analysis was used. Results. Black and white people with CRF showedsignificant divergences and differences in their therapeuticitineraries: while white people had access to diagnosisduring outpatient care in other medical specialties, blackpeople were only diagnosed during hospitalization. Inaddition, white people had more access to private health plans when compared to black people, which doubles the possibility of access tohealth services. Moreover, even when the characteristics in the itinerary of blackand white people were convergent, access to diagnosis and treatment proved tobe more difficult for black people. Conclusion. The study showed the presence ofinstitutional racism in the therapeutic itinerary of people with kidney disease inwhich black people have greater difficulty in accessing health services. In this sense,there is a need to create strategies to face institutional racism and to consolidate theNational Policy for Comprehensive Health Care of the Black Population.

scholarly journals Subjective social mobility and health: Mind over matter?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Präg ◽  
Alexi Gugushvili
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Socioeconomic Position ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Status Mobility ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Subjective Appraisals

One’s current socioeconomic position is intimately tied to one’s health status. Further, childhood living conditions also exert lasting effects on the health of adults. However, studies on changes in one’s socioeconomic position over the life course rarely find important effects of social mobility for individual health and wellbeing. Such studies always draw on objective measures of social mobility and do not consider subjective appraisals of social mobility by individuals themselves. Using cross-sectional, representative German survey data, we explore the question as to how subjective perceptions as opposed to objective accounts of occupational status mobility affect five self-reported health and wellbeing outcomes differently. We show that objective and subjective accounts of social mobility overlap, yet this association is far from perfect. Further, there are relatively small associations between objective and subjective mobility accounts and health outcomes. Associations between subjective mobility perceptions and health outcomes are intriguingly independent of objective social mobility trajectories. Mismatches between objective and subjective mobility are also correlated with some health outcomes. We discuss implications of our finding that social mobility is associated with those aspects of health which are more closely related to psychological wellbeing rather than physical health.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document