COVID-19 and Asian Americans: How Elite Messaging and Social Exclusion Shape Partisan Attitudes

Extending theories of social exclusion and elite messaging, we argue that Trump’s targeted rhetoric toward Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic pushes the racial group, largely “Independent” or nonpartisan affiliated, to lean more towards the Democratic Party. We support this claim by combining social media (Study 1) and survey data (Study 2) analysis. Tracing 1.4 million tweets, we find that Trump’s rhetoric has popularized racially charged coronavirus-related terms and that exclusionary, anti-Asian attitudes have increased in the United States since the pandemic began. Next, by analyzing repeated cross-sectional weekly surveys of Asian Americans from July 2019 to May 2020 (n=12,907), we find that the group has leaned more towards the Democratic Party since Trump first made inflammatory remarks towards Asian Americans. Whites, Blacks, and Latina/os, on the other hand, exhibited fewer and less consistent changes in Democratic Party-related attitudes. Our findings suggest that experiences with social exclusion that are driven by elite sources further cement Asian Americans as Democrats.

A (NÃO) CONTRIBUIÇÃO DA TIPIFICAÇÃO DO CRIME DE CURANDEIRISMO PARA A DEMONIZAÇÃO DAS RELIGIÕES DE MATRIZES AFRICANAS

The observation of the data of religious intolerance in Brazil against Afro-Brazilian religions generates curiosity about the reasons why this occurs. Inserting Criminal Law as a matter of analysis, the crime of african traditional medicine provided for in Article 284 of the Penal Code might be assessed as a possible reflection of religious racism within the legal system. Whereas, in order to classify the aforementioned crime, the protected legal good is public security, the concept of health privileged by the ordering system will stand out, in contrast to those adopted by african cults. By demonizing these religions, the practice of healing is criminalized, but also a determined way of existing, being and remaining in this the world. The main objective of the research is, therefore, to verify if the typification of the healing crime contributes to the demonization of African-based religions. For that, the bibliographic research technique and the deductive method will be used. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that the law functions as an instrument to maintain the interests of a certain racial group. With the work of political and legal forces legitimizing ethnocentrism and the persecution of AfroBrazilian religions, the typification of the crime of africn traditional medicine silences beliefs of African matrices, contributing to the increase of religious intolerance against them and perpetuating structural racism in the Brazilian legal system.

Computerization and Occupational Change: Assessing the Impact of Automation on Racial and Gender Employment Densities

The current wave of technological change is driven by automation, the process of using computers to improve the labor process, viz., increasing the quantity and quality of work “by means of computer-controlled equipment.” Automation has had and will continue to have heterogeneous economic effects across alternative social groups—altering racial and gender inequality. This study empirically examines the relationship between the racial and gender density of occupations and the probability of automation of both minor and broad occupations. Regression analysis is used to uncover correlations between future employment change and the current racial and ethnic composition of occupations, alerting us to whether future employment growth will have a negative or positive association with occupations where each racial group of workers is currently concentrated. Increases in automation are correlated with increases in labor income inequality and increases in racial and gender employment differences. Male jobs may suffer more technological unemployment than female jobs. Specifically, within each racial group high density male jobs have a greater probability of automation (and lower probability of future demand) than high density female jobs. High density White female jobs appear to be most complementary to automation, while the high density occupations of racial minority men appear to be least complementary to automation.

Fear and voting: Evidence of a threat-opportunity model of citizenship acquisition among lower income immigrants of color beginning the naturalization process

Citizenship acquisition is viewed as the key indicator of political incorporation into US society and one motivated by the desire to formally engage in the civic realm, but we know naturalization is undertaken for many reasons. What we know less about is what motivates particular groups. Through surveying 74 lower socio-economic immigrants of color initiating the naturalization process at free citizenship clinics in the Boston, Massachusetts area in the northeastern United States in fall 2019, we examine the stated motivations to naturalize. The survey data reveal that the desire to engage politically is the most commonly cited primary motivation to naturalize (44%), followed by a desire to feel safer in the US (29%). When looking at primary and secondary motivations, 66% cite the ability to vote, and 59% cite the desire to feel safer. The combined motivations of security and political engagement suggest a “threat-opportunity” model of citizenship acquisition, whereby immigrants assess the external socio-political threats and seek to neutralize them through both naturalizing and then engaging politically to change the environment. At the same time, statistically significant relationships between motivations and ethno-racial group and country of origin suggest additional factors must be examined.

Racial Differences in Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Asthma–Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Overlap

Background: This study examined the differences in the prevalence and clinical features of asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap (ACO) with identical diagnostic criteria by race and ethnicity in two nationwide cohorts of COPD.Methods: We used data from the Korean COPD Subgroup Study (KOCOSS) and phase I of the US Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene) study. We defined ACO by satisfying bronchodilator response (BDR) >15% and 400 ml and/or blood eosinophil count ≥300/μl.Results: The prevalences of ACO according to ethnicity were non-Hispanic white (NHW), 21.4%; African American (AA), 17.4%; and Asian, 23.8%. Asian patients with ACO were older, predominantly male, with fewer symptoms, more severe airflow limitation, and fewer comorbidities than NHW and AA patients. During 1-year follow-up, exacerbations occurred in 28.2, 22.0, and 48.4% of NHW, AA, and Asian patients with ACO, respectively. Compared to patients with non-ACO from the same racial group, the risk for exacerbation was significantly higher in NHW and Asian patients with ACO [adjusted incident rate ratio (aIRR), 1.17; 95% CI, 1.01–1.36, and aIRR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.09–1.71 for NHW and Asian patients with ACO, respectively]. Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) reduced the risk for future exacerbation in total patients with ACO but the effect was not significant in each racial group.Conclusions: The prevalence of ACO was similar in the two cohorts using the same diagnostic criteria. The risk for future exacerbation was significantly higher in ACO, and the use of ICS reduced the risk for exacerbation in total patients with ACO.

Political ideology moderates White Americans’ reactions to racial demographic change

An emerging body of research finds that exposure to the shifting racial demographics of a nation can engender concerns about racial group status among members of the dominant racial group. The present work revisits this finding, probing a broader set of group status concerns than has been examined in most past research. Three experiments exposed four samples of White Americans to racial demographic information or race-neutral control information, then assessed their perception that the relative status of racial groups in the nation would change and the extent to which they were alarmed by such a status shift—that is, status threat. Consistent with past work, what we now term perceived status change increased in response to salient racial demographics information, relative to race-neutral control information, irrespective of participants’ political ideology. Departing from past work, however, the perceived threat associated with changing racial demographics was moderated by political ideology. Specifically, politically conservative White participants demonstrated high levels of group status threat in the neutral control condition that either increased (Study 1a, Study 2) or stayed equally high (Study 1b, Study 3) after exposure to information about a racial shift. In contrast, in all studies, politically liberal White participants demonstrated a modest level of group status threat in the control condition that was attenuated upon exposure to a racial shift. Taken together, these results suggest a polarization of responses to the increasing racial diversity of the nation, one that was not observed even just a few years ago.

Racial and ethnic disparities in nasopharyngeal cancer with an emphasis among Asian Americans.

118 Background: Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is characterized by a distinct geographic distribution which reflects genetic predispositions, with highest incidence in Southeastern Asia and Southern China. It continues to cause a significant health burden among Asian Americans (AAs), which is a fast growing but understudied racial group. Prior studies investigating NPC combined all AA groups which may mask heterogeneities among AA subgroups. We aimed to examine the disparities in NPC by dividing AAs into four major ethnic groups - Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Japanese Americans. Methods: NPC cases were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) 18 database from 1975-2016. Information regarding age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income, % of foreign born, marital status, region of SEER registry, stage, histology, grade, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy were extracted. Multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazard regression and Fine-Gray sub-distribution hazard models were used to calculate overall and cause-specific mortality. SEER*Stat was used to calculated age-adjusted incidence. Results: Among a total of 11,737 NPC patients, 42.2% were non-Hispanic White (NHW), 10.7% non-Hispanic Black (NHB), 7.1% Hispanics, 18.9% Chinese, 7.6% Filipinos, 4.8% Vietnamese, 1.0% Japanese and 7.7% other Asians. AAs continue to have the highest NPC incidence among all racial groups despite of an overall decreasing trend. Japanese were significantly more likely to be diagnosed at localized stage, having low grade tumor and having keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma histology compared to other AAs. Compared to NHW, Filipino Americans had decreased mortality (HR = 0.90; 95%CI:0.84-0.98). Chinese (HR = 0.95; 95%CI: 0.90-1.01), and Vietnamese (HR = 0.94; 95%CI: 0.86-1.03) also observed marginally reduced mortality but not Japanese Americans (HR = 1.09; 95%CI: 0.90-1.32). No differences in NPC-specific mortality by race/ethnicity groups were found. In addition, Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese Americans with NPC were less likely to die of other cancer and cardiovascular disease than NHW, but no such differences were observed among NHB, Hispanics or Japanese Americans. Conclusions: Asian Americans have been historically studied as one single racial group mostly due to limited sample size, despite that it is consistent of a diverse population with different genetic makeup, socioeconomic status, cultural background, health behaviors, and health care access. Our novel finding that significant disparities exist within AA NPC patients in regard to demographic and clinical features, overall and cause-specific mortality underlines the importance of adequate AA-subgroup specific sample size in future studies in order to understand the prognostic role of ethnicity in NPC, and advocates more ethnically and culturally tailored cancer care delivery.

Race, Evidence, and Epistemic Injustice

This chapter starts off with a definition of “racist evidence” that includes: (1) evidence that suggests one racial group is inferior to or superior to another racial group in any way, (2) products of structural racism, (3) racially disparate evidentiary burdens in proving one’s racialized reality, and (4) the ways that racism distorts observation, perception and—accordingly—belief, which is then utilized as a basis of proof in legal proceedings.” Based on this definition, the chapter identifies and analyzes the epistemic problems posed by racialized factfinding and relates them to the broader notion of cultural cognition. This discussion focuses on the epistemic failings of “racial character evidence” and the unequal evidentiary treatment of white—as opposed to Black and Brown—“racialized reality evidence,” especially on matters of structural racism and race relations with law enforcement. While white racialized reality evidence receives “implicit judicial notice” and is fast-tracked to the jury box, the racialized reality evidence of Black and Brown people is subject to the full rigors of evidentiary scrutiny and often times suppressed. This system results in apervasive type of epistemic injustice.

Why We Gather: Educational Empowerment and Academic Success Through Collective Black Parental Agency

Though previous literature has explored the importance of parents in education, scholarship has failed to empirically demonstrate the influence voluntary parent groups have on the educational trajectory of Black students. Using institutional agency and community cultural wealth frameworks, the author qualitatively evaluates a Black parent group’s self-initiated efforts to influence the academic outcomes of high-achieving students. The author illustrates how one parent organization negotiates an environment in which their racial group comprises less than 5% of the population to effectively guide and support families as their students navigate academic success. Findings show that at least three critical components— accountability, alliances and networks, and legitimacy—are vital in the provision of collaborative support and agency on behalf of high-achieving students.