scholarly journals Genetics of Hypertension in African Americans and Others of African Descent

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Zilbermint ◽  
Fady Hannah-Shmouni ◽  
Constantine Stratakis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African Descent ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Angiotensin System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Low Renin Hypertension ◽  
Gated Channel ◽  
G Protein Coupled

Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease in the United States, affecting up to one-third of adults. When compared to other ethnic or racial groups in the United States, African Americans and other people of African descent show a higher incidence of hypertension and its related comorbidities; however, the genetics of hypertension in these populations has not been studied adequately. Several genes have been identified to play a role in the genetics of hypertension. They include genes regulating the renin-aldosterone-angiotensin system (RAAS), such as Sodium Channel Epithelial 1 Beta Subunit (SCNN1B), Armadillo Repeat Containing 5 (ARMC5), G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 4 (GRK4), and Calcium Voltage-Gated Channel Subunit Alpha1 D (CACNA1D). In this review, we focus on recent genetic findings available in the public domain for potential differences between African Americans and other populations. We also cover some recent and relevant discoveries in the field of low-renin hypertension from our laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. Understanding the different genetics of hypertension among various groups is essential for effective precision-guided medical therapy of high blood pressure.

Red Summer and Early 20th-Century Race Massacres

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann V. Collins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Early 19Th Century

Between the turbulent months of April and October 1919, racial violence reached a peak in the United States. Some twenty-six white-on-black massacres took place across the country. Author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson dubbed this terrible period the Red Summer as a way to characterize pervasive racial hostility and for the blood spilled in its wake. Yet, racial violence has had a long and painful history in the United States. From the moment enslaved Africans arrived in the New World, whites strove cruelly and systematically to maintain power and control over their bodies and labor. Indeed, many interactions between ostensible racial groups have centered on white hostility. A type of brutality that proved especially vicious took the shape of white-on-black race massacres. First appearing in the early 19th century and fading by the end of World War II, whites used these types of disturbances to deny African Americans progress and freedom. Destruction of black communities, massive bloodshed, and lynchings characterized these occurrences. The early 20th century, and particularly the Red Summer, marked a critical moment in the history of race relations of the United States—one that proved deadly to African Americans.

The World of Hosea Easton and David Walker

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Archer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
New England ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
David Walker ◽  
The World ◽  
Free People

Hosea Easton and David Walker described and analyzed racism in New England during the late 1820s. New England had initially been more receptive to its black population than were other sections of the United States, but as their populations of free people of African descent dramatically increased, states began to reverse themselves. By the 1820s, laws forbade free people of African descent from marrying whites, employment was limited to the most menial jobs, and education—where available—was inadequate. African Americans could not serve on juries or hold public office. Their housing opportunities were restricted, and they were segregated in church seating. They were barred from theaters, hotels, hospitals, stagecoaches, and steamships. Worst of all, whites denied blacks their humanity. Their belief that people of color were inferior to themselves underlay slavery and racism.

Anatomy of The Anatomy of Racial Inequality

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 1202-1214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Raphael
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Consciousness

In this review, I summarize and offer thoughts about two arguments key to Glenn Loury's analysis of the anatomy of racial inequality. The first concerns the idea that many negative stereotypes held about blacks in the United States are self-fulfilling, despite little evidence of inherent differences between the races in human potential. The second argument concerns the proposition that the racial stigmatization of blacks is deeply embedded in the public consciousness and that such stigma racially biases socially cognitive processes to the severe detriment of African-Americans.

Public Expressions of Empathy and Sympathy by U.S. Criminal Justice Officials After Controversial Police Killings of African-Americans

2021 ◽  
pp. 0261927X2110572
Author(s):  
Edward R. Maguire ◽  
Howard Giles
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Releases

Police use of force against minorities, particularly African-Americans, has become a prominent national issue in the United States. In a number of controversial instances, such as the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, African-Americans have died under questionable circumstances due to police use of force. These incidents have fueled the growth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and have often resulted in large-scale protests and riots. In this paper, we examine statements made by four types of criminal justice officials – police executives, police department spokespersons, police union representatives, and prosecutors – in the immediate aftermath of 30 such incidents that occurred in 2020. We examine the language used by these officials in social media postings, news releases, and press conferences, focusing specifically on the extent to which they express empathy or sympathy toward the decedent or his or her loved ones, as well as the community at large. Our analysis reveals that criminal justice officials rarely express empathy or sympathy in the aftermath of these incidents, though there are noteworthy differences between different types of officials. Our findings are helpful for understanding how the language used by these officials, particularly the public expression of empathy and sympathy, fits into broader debates about race and criminal justice in the United States.

Ethnic and Racial Groups

2018 ◽  
pp. 364-368
Author(s):  
S. Nassir Ghaemi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychotropic Medications ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Diagnostic Aspects

In specific ethnic and racial groups, there may be differences in response to psychotropic medications, partly based on pharmacogenetic differences, but also due to cultural variations in the experience of psychiatric symptoms. These differences should be taken into account when extrapolating from research conducted mostly in the United States and Europe. Most research on psychotropic medications has been conducted in Western industrialized countries, mostly on Caucasians. It is reasonable to ask about the relevance of this research to other ethnic and racial groups. In Western countries, specifically, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians have been the most studied of these. There is limited research in Africa and the Middle East on the effects of psychotropic medications. In this chapter, available research will be reviewed with a focus on its relevance for clinical treatment as well as on diagnostic aspects.

Ethnicity and hypertension

ESC CardioMed ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 2895-2898
Author(s):  
Bert-Jan van den Born ◽  
Charles Agyemang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Society ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Renin Angiotensin System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Angiotensin System ◽  
Hypertension Prevalence ◽  
Blocking Agents ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
And Control

Worldwide, large differences exist in the prevalence of hypertension and hypertension-mediated complications, both along geographic boundaries and between different ethnic groups. Urbanization and dietary changes have led to a genuine increase in hypertension prevalence in many low- and middle-income countries, whereas migration has been associated with disparities in hypertension prevalence, awareness, and control in different, multi-ethnic populations in Europe and the United States. Depending on the geographic area and definition of ethnicity results can be quite heterogeneous and are susceptible to generalization, but data in both Europe and the United States consistently show higher prevalence rates of hypertension and hypertension-mediated complications in populations of West African descent. These ethnic differences in hypertension susceptibility may in part be attributable to quantitative differences in other risk factors such as obesity and dietary salt intake, but may also relate to differences in physiological traits, in particular salt sensitivity and vascular contractility. While there is little evidence for a different reaction to blood pressure-lowering therapy in other ethnic groups, thiazide diuretics and calcium channel blocking agents are generally more effective in sub-Saharan African descent populations compared with renin–angiotensin system blockers and beta-blocking agents. The 2018 European Society of Hypertension/European Society of Cardiology Guidelines recommend to start withsingle-pill combinationtherapy in most hypertensive patients and to start with thiazide or thiazide-like diuretics and calciumchannel blockers in sub-Saharan African descent populationseithercombined with each other or with a renin–angiotensin system blocker as they make the latter more effective. The observeddisparities in hypertension prevalence and treatment responsesmay also help to increase our understanding of the complex pathophysiology of hypertension and improve strategies aimed at the selection and control of hypertension in the population at large.

Citizenship and the Right of Entry into the Public Sphere

Eco-ethica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Robert Bernasconi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right

The emergence of citizenship out of subjecthood at the end of the eighteenth century presented a series of problems for which the United States, among other countries, seems to have been unprepared: it was unclear who qualified for citizenship, what privileges it afforded, and what duties it demanded. Nevertheless, this uncertainty could be manipulated pragmatically to take advantage of any given situation without regard for consistency or future implications. By examining the obstacles placed on the path to citizenship of Native Americans, African Americans, women, and Chinese Americans, this article shows how the (non-)category of the non-citizen was weaponized. Indeed the mistreatment of non-citizens becomes the best indication of the value of citizenship.

Verán ustedes las chozas más humildes. El discurso de pobreza en la diplomacia pública cardenista dirigida a Estados Unidos

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The New Deal

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.

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