The Necessity of Economic Reparations for African-American Families from an Abolitionist Praxis

Racism has caused untold societal problems throughout U.S. history, damaging reputations, job prospects, livelihoods, and the physical and mental well-being of millions. While economic reparations will not wholly resolve the problem, they will serve as an acknowledgment of the problem and the associated damages that have been caused as a result of the manifestation of racism in every arena of life. The degree to which racism is present in the United States has been an ongoing and repeated problem within the country since the 1600s. Racism leads to inequality in public resource allocation; inequality in public resource allocation goes against the founding principles of the nation and are still evident in today’s society. Current efforts to address systemic racism are most frequently viewed as points of contention, which disproportionately decreases the ability to effectively resolve the problem by fostering and creating an environment in which people are pitted against one another instead of working in conjunction to address the problem. One way that this divide can be addressed is through the provision of economic reparations made by the upper class. From an economic praxis, members of the upper class must pay reparations to African-American families due to their historic use of racism as a means of exacerbating wealth inequity.

Using Advisory Boards to Develop a Faith-Based Toolbox to Support African American Families Facing Dementia

For this project, we are designing and testing the feasibility of employing components of a Faith-based Home Activity Toolbox (Faith-HAT). The goal of this NIH stage 1 intervention development project is to go beyond the four walls of the church to find ways to meet the spiritual needs of persons living with moderate and severe dementia “where they are” to help them remain religiously and spiritually engaged. This mixed-methods project is designed in 2 phases: (a) developing a prototype Faith-HAT and (b) testing the feasibility and exploring preliminary effectiveness. To successfully conduct this project, we have included a community advisory board of church leaders, caregivers, and persons living with dementia as members of the research design team to advise on the design and implementation of the Faith-HAT. Brainstorming workshops with the board are used to ensure the research is meeting the needs of the African American families affected by dementia.

Acceptability and Willingness to Pay for a Meal Kit Program for African American Families with Low Income: A Pilot Study

Food insecurity is a persistent issue among individuals with low income and is associated with various nutrition- and health-related consequences. Creative approaches to increasing food access should be investigated as possible solutions. Meal kits, which are boxes or bags of fresh and shelf-stable ingredients for one or more meals, along with a step-by-step recipe showing how to cook each meal at home, may serve as a creative solution. Meal kits have historically been marketed to higher-income demographics. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the utilization, acceptability, and willingness to pay for a healthy meal kit program among African American main food preparers with children and low income (n = 36). Participants received a healthy meal kit with three recipes and ingredients, a cooking incentive, and a nutrition handout weekly for six weeks. Data were collected on participants’ use, acceptability, and willingness to pay for the meal kits and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The intervention was highly utilized, and participants reported high acceptability ratings for most recipes. After the intervention, participants were willing to pay $88.61 ± 47.47 for a meal kit with three meals, each with four portions, which was higher than indicated at baseline and similar to the cost to produce the kits. Meal kits may offer a creative solution to improving food access if affordable for families with low income.