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.

“Let’s Chat”: A qualitative study exploring intergenerational communication on social media group chats as a cancer prevention intervention opportunity among Vietnamese American families (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The adoption of mobile technology in the family context presents a novel cancer prevention opportunity. There have been few studies to our knowledge that have utilized private social media group chats as a way to promote health information. OBJECTIVE In this formative study, we investigate how family group chat platforms can be leveraged to encourage colorectal, HPV vaccination, and cervical cancer screening among intergenerational Vietnamese American families. METHODS Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with Vietnamese young adults to co-create a communication intervention for introducing cancer screening information as part of family social media group chats. RESULTS 13 of the 20 young adults (65%) reported having more than one group chat with immediate and extended family. Preventive health was not a typical topic of family conversations, while food, family announcements, personal updates, humorous videos or photos, and current events were. Young adults expressed openness to initiating conversation with family members about cancer prevention but also raised concerns that may influence family members’ receptivity to the messages. Themes that potentially could impact family members’ willingness to accept cancer prevention messages included (a) family status and hierarchy, (b) gender dynamics, (c) family relational closeness, and (d) source trust and credibility. These considerations may impact whether families will be open to receiving cancer screening information and acting on it. Participants also mentioned practical considerations for intervention and message design including the (a) Vietnamese cultural conversation etiquette of “hỏi thăm,” (b) respect for a doctor’s recommendation, (c) prevention vs. symptom orientation, (d) the FHA’s bilingual capacity, and (e) the busy lives of family members. In response to exemplar messages, participants mentioned that they would prefer to personalize template messages to accommodate conversational norms in their family group chats. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study inform the development of a social media intervention for increasing preventive cancer screening in Vietnamese American families.

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.