Uprooting Racism: The Role of Nurses in Cultivating Improved Maternal Outcomes for Black and African American Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler ◽  
Angela Richard-Eaglin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Maternal Outcomes ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Practice Nurses ◽  
Individual Risk Factors

After controlling for education, socioeconomic status, and genetic factors, Black and African American patients in the United States are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth than are White patients. The literature is replete with strategies to improve maternal outcomes for Black and African American patients. Existing strategies focus on addressing poverty and individual risk factors to reduce maternal mortality, yet maternal outcomes are not improving for these patients in the United States. Recent literature suggests that a nuanced approach that considers the effects of individual and structural racism could improve maternal outcomes, especially for Black and African American patients. As nurses comprise the largest component of the health-care system, their collective power and influence can provide a powerful tool for dismantling structural racism. Some important concepts to consider regarding the care of the Black and African American population are cultural intelligence (CQ), allostatic load, and humanitarian ethos. By developing CQ and consistently including the four CQ capabilities (drive/motivation, knowledge/cognition, strategy/metacognition, and behavior/action) in all aspects of practice, nurses can help to uproot racism and cultivate experience to improve maternal health outcomes for Black and African American patients.

scholarly journals African American Women and Domestic Violence: Addressing their Voice of Silence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Kennedy ◽  
Chalice Rhodes (Former Jenkins)
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Slave Owner ◽  
American Women ◽  
Strong Black Women

Abstract Historically, during slavery, the international slave trade promoted normalization of violence against African American women. During slavery, African American women endured inhuman conditions because of the majority race views of them as being over-sexualized, physically strong, and immoral. This perception of the African American women as being highly sexual and more sexual than white women results in slave owner justifying their sexual violation and degrading of the African American women. The stereotypical representations of African American women as strong, controlling, dangerous, fearless, and invulnerable may interfere with the African American women receiving the needed services for domestic violence in the community. The Strong Black Women Archetype has been dated back to slavery describing their coping mechanism in dealing with oppression by developing a strong, less traditionally female role. The authors developed a model: The Multidimensional Perspectives of Factors Contributing to Domestic Violence of African American Women in the United States. This model depicts historically, the factors contributing to domestic violence of African American women in the United States. Also, this model addressed the African American women subscribing to the Strong Black Women Archetype to cope with domestic violence. Despite the increase in domestic violence in African American women, they focused more on the issue of racism instead of sexism in America. African American women have experienced the two obstacles of racism and sexism in America. However, African American women and men believe racism is more critical than sexism. Therefore, domestic violence in the African American population may remain silent because of cultural loyalty. However, the voice of silence of African American females is gradually changing with the upcoming generations.

scholarly journals Moderating Factors in an Anti-stigma Intervention for African American Women with HIV in the United States: A Secondary Analysis of the UNITY Trial

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2432-2442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin E. Fabian ◽  
David Huh ◽  
Christopher G. Kemp ◽  
Paul E. Nevin ◽  
Jane M. Simoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Women ◽  
Moderating Factors ◽  
Women With Hiv

Being Muslim

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Chan-Malik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
American Islam

Being U.S. Muslims: A Cultural History of Women of Color and American Islam offers a previously untold story of Islam in the United States that foregrounds the voices, experiences, and images of women of color in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present. Until the late 1960s, the majority of Muslim women in the U.S.—as well as almost all U.S. Muslim women who appeared in the American press or popular culture, were African American. Thus, the book contends that the lives and labors of African American Muslim women have—and continue to—forcefully shaped the meanings and presence of American Islam, and are critical to approaching issues confronting Muslim women in the contemporary U.S. At the heart of U.S. Muslim women’s encounters with Islam, the volume demonstrates, is a desire for gender justice that is rooted in how issues of race and religion have shaped women’s daily lives. Women of color’s ways of “being U.S. Muslims” have been consistently forged against commonsense notions of racial, gendered, and religious belonging and citizenship. From narratives of African American women who engage Islam as a form of social protest, through intersections of “Islam” and “feminism” in the media, and into contemporary expressions of racial and gender justice in U.S. Muslim communities, Being U.S. Muslims demonstrates that it is this continual againstness— which the book names affective insurgency—that is the central hall marks of U.S. Muslim women’s lives.

Down Girl

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Manne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
The United Kingdom

What is misogyny? And (why) is it still occurring? This book explores the logic of misogyny, conceived in terms of the hostilities women face because they are living in a man’s world, or one that has been until recently. It shows how misogyny may persist in cultures in which its existence is routinely denied—including the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, which are often alleged to be post-patriarchal. Not so, Down Girl argues. Misogyny has rather taken particular forms following the advent of legal equality, obligating women to be moral “givers,” and validating a sense of entitlement among her privileged male counterparts. Many of rape culture’s manifestations are canvassed—from the ubiquitous entreaty “Smile, sweetheart!” to Donald Trump’s boasts of grabbing women by the “pussy,” which came to light during his successful 2016 presidential campaign; from the Isla Vista killings in California to the police officer in Oklahoma who preyed on African American women with criminal records, sexually assaulting them in the knowledge they would have little legal recourse; from the conservative anti-abortion movement to online mobbings of women in public life, deterring the participation therein of all but the most privileged and well-protected. It is argued on this basis that misogyny often takes the form of taking from her what she is (falsely) held to owe him, and preventing her from competing for positions of masculine-coded power and authority. And he, in turn, may be held to owe her little.

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