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16.3 Final Recording of Film Analysis Presentation

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16.3 Final Recording of Film Analysis Presentation

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Theme one: The Black Church and Mental Health

1. The black church has essentially has stunted the growth of some church goers who will attend church and pray, but won't seek out mental health care because the church only highlights faith in God, but not work in mental health.

2. Some mental health clinicians might not be able to fully understand let alone serve their clientle properly if they culturally can't understand their struggles. They're biases might arise. But, if you are culturally aware, you can help with strategies on how to eliminate or understand the issue and/or client.

3. I think one strategy that might be a solution to the Black Church is to incorporate more pillers for success like the talk about mental health. Adding in sermons that God gives us tools to be our best self and therapy is one of them. I also think is more cultural, and bias training for therapist. The last strategy is every company that provides mental health care should always give the patient an option to choose a therapist or psychologist based on background and speciality. That way people can choose someone they feel connected to or comfortable with.

4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1447305/#:~:text=The%20Black%20church%20has%20served,disease%20prevention%2C%20and%20health%20policy. Not only did this article provide solutions to the mental health stigma in the black church and community, but it also touched on the reasons why white therapist may not always be a good fit for an African American client.

5. One thing that stood out to me in this unit is that as time goes on and we evolve the norms change so what is considered a disease or mental illness changes. I did not know that earlier in the 90s homosexuality was considered a disorder.

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Abstract

Objectives. This study determined the extent to which churches in the South were providing mental health and social services to congregations and had established linkages with formal systems of care.

Methods. A computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey was conducted with pastors from 269 Southern churches.

Results. Black churches reported providing many more services than did White churches, regardless of urban or rural location. Few links between churches and formal provider systems were found, irrespective of the location-urban or rural-or racial composition of the churches.

Conclusions. Results are discussed in terms of the potential for linking faith communities and formal systems of care, given the centrality of the Black church in historical context.

The Black church has served a dominant role as an informal social service provider throughout its history, 1, 2 and its utility as an entry point for formal services has been the topic of considerable research. 3, 4 Studies suggest that churches provide a wide range of prevention and treatment-oriented programs that contribute significantly to the psychological and physical well-being of their congregants. Services provided include substance abuse assistance as well as health screenings, education, and support. 3, 5

The church and individuals associated with it have often been identified as valuable counterparts in attempts to link formal and informal systems of care for the benefit of underserved or marginalized persons. 3-6 This association is prompted, in part, by studies documenting the utility of lay persons, natural helpers, and especially religious leaders in the treatment of mental illness in a variety of settings. 7-9 The focus on religious leaders has grown out of findings that paraprofessional counselors are often as effective as professionals in fostering positive change in recipients of services. 9, 10

The importance of the Black church has been documented in 4 areas of community medicine: primary care delivery, community mental health, health promotion and disease prevention, and health policy. 11 This documentation highlights the church's potential as a valuable collaborator with formal care systems to maximize preventive and treatment-oriented services. Eng et al. 5 documented the development and impact of church health care programs in which pastors asked congregants to identify confidants within the congregation who could serve as health advisors. These "natural helpers" received training on resource mobilization, preventive and primary self-care skills, organization of educational and service-oriented activities, and interaction with health professionals. The roles of lay advisors were shaped by the needs and opinions of the congregation and were successful in fostering social support, linkage with formal care systems, and promotion of general well-being. 5 The roles of churches and the religious community in general, however, have been much less frequently described in the mental health literature.

In the early 1970s, rural individuals became more widely recognized as an underserved population despite myths regarding the superior quality of rural life. This recognition grew out of investigations of psychiatric utilization and morbidity in rural areas; these investigations continue to evolve and contribute to the understanding of rural-urban differences in mental health status. 2 Problems endemic to rural mental health service delivery are attributable to social, economic, and geographic factors. Investigation of the relative contribution of these factors has been complicated by the difficulty in disentangling the effects of poverty from effects of race and social isolation associated with rural life in the South. In addition, when treatment is received, the quality of care typically is suboptimal, particularly among minorities. 12, 13 Although this situation is discouraging, it is hardly surprising given that most rural counties lack even a single doctoral-level mental health professional and that only 3% of licensed psychiatrists practice in rural areas. 14

The interaction between race and attitudes greatly affects an individual's decision to seek mental health care. Furthermore, there is theoretical interest in the ability of White professionals to provide services to Black consumers. Early theorists argued that White service providers had limited ability to be of help to Black consumers because of their lack of understanding of Black culture, history, and the experiences of Blacks living in a largely White society. 15 This position implied that Blacks are less likely to trust White therapists and to seek their services, and thus it is in the best interest of Black consumers to receive services from Black therapists. One study confirmed that the majority of Black clients indicated a preference for Black therapists. However, that preference was based on judgments of professional competence and attitudes in addition to cultural and racial compatibility. 16 Interest in this line of research continues to grow in light of findings that Blacks are less likely than Whites to use outpatient mental health services even when the effects of socioeconomic status and insurance coverage are held constant. 17 These findings reinforce the need to consider cultural and attitudinal differences as well as systems-level barriers as alternative explanations of utilization patterns.

A client's racial identity has been shown to be a major factor in predicting the success of establishing a positive therapeutic relationship. 18-23 Racial identity means more than recognition of one's racial background; it includes a sense of the impact of race on intrinsic and interpersonal development. Practitioner cultural competence involves a recognition and acceptance of nonnormative behaviors in minority populations. The importance of therapist sensitivity and cultural competence is underscored by the cultural responsiveness hypothesis, 24 which asserts that the efficacy of psychotherapy is a function of a therapist's ability to communicate an understanding of cultural background. Lack of cultural responsiveness may account for observed racial differences in help-seeking, diagnosis, and premature termination of treatment. Blacks are more tolerant of psychological distress, less likely to initiate treatment, more likely to receive diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychosis, and more likely to terminate treatment prematurely than White counterparts. 24-27

Holistic understanding of psychiatric morbidity and service utilization is fostered by examination of individual-, interpersonal-, and systems-level factors. Factors at the individual level include client characteristics that predict service utilization and treatment outcomes. Individual-level factors have been the subject of considerable research and include race or ethnicity, religiosity, beliefs about mental health (e.g., stigma), and coping styles. 17, 28 At the interpersonal level, social support, stigma, and social distance influence willingness to initiate treatment and success in adhering to treatment recommendations. Social support in rural areas is central to the management of mental illness, in part because of limited access to specialty services, which is reflected in networks of informal care providers that are common in rural areas. Extended family, neighbors, and clergy often serve as alternatives to costly or inaccessible inpatient and outpatient services. 11 The effectiveness of natural helpers in promoting positive change in mental health has been documented by several researchers. 8, 9

The social support provided by natural helpers in rural Black communities is motivated by shared beliefs about mental illness and the health care system. Stigma is clearly a powerful predictor of poor utilization of care that exerts influence at both the individual and the interpersonal level. Stigma may increase reliance on social support, informal care networks, and self-reliance and also decrease the probability of a search for formal services. This hypothesis is supported by a study of help-seeking for depression that found that Blacks tolerated higher levels of psychological distress due to stigma and fear of hospitalization. 29 Those fears and tolerance for distress result in help-seeking from specialty providers only in extreme situations, which may explain the increased emergency mental health service utilization and decreased levels of case management and outpatient services among Blacks compared with Whites, Asians, and Hispanics. 27 Fear and stigma may lead rural Blacks to minimize symptoms and rely on informal support systems, frame symptoms in somatic terms, and seek ambulatory and emergency care. 30, 31 Neighbors observed that poorer Blacks were more likely than wealthier Blacks to experience severe physical, interpersonal, and emotional problems. Despite suffering greater severity of emotional problems, Blacks were 15% less likely than Whites to seek help for emotional problems than for economic, physical, or interpersonal problems. 30 Furthermore, the likelihood of many rural Blacks to seek professional assistance is limited by geographic and economic barriers that they face.

In the present study, we hypothesized that rural churches would provide fewer social and mental health services than their urban counterparts and that they would have fewer links with formal systems of care. 1, 2 Because of the centrality of the church in the Black community and the historic exclusion of Blacks from other formal service systems (e.g., schools, hopsitals), we hypothesized that Black churches would provide more social and mental health services but would have fewer links with formal systems of care than White churches.

METHOD

Pretesting and Development

The survey instrument was developed and pretested for use with the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system. Respondents were asked for information about church-level demographics (location, size of congregation, racial composition of congregation, church denomination, average attendance at weekend services, number of services held each week, annual church budget, and date the church was founded). Respondents were asked what problems they considered to be of primary importance among church members and specifically whether they had ever dealt with depression, delusions, paranoia, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, nervous breakdowns, or attempted suicide in members of their congregations. Respondents also were asked to assess the degree to which the church offered support services to address these problems and the types of links that existed with local hospitals, physical or mental health care providers, and support services such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Questions were asked about the number of referrals made to and from these support services and providers.

We constructed 4 scales to measure the number and type of mental health services offered through the church and calculated 2 variables to measure referrals made to and from the church. The first scale, Problems, measured the degree to which respondents had dealt with various mental health problems in their congregational communities in the past 2 years. A score was calculated for whether the respondents had dealt with (1) depression, (2) delusion or paranoia, (3) dementia or Alzheimer's disease, (4) nervous breakdown, (5) suicide, and (6) other mental health problems. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 6, with the total mean for the sample being 2.92 (SD = 1.74).

The second scale, Programs for Adults, measured the total number of mental health programs offered through the church. A score was calculated for whether churches offered programs for (1) alcohol and substance abuse, (2) marital counseling, (3) sex education and counseling, (4) domestic violence counseling, and (5) sexual assault counseling. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 5, with the total mean for the sample being 2.59 (SD = 1.34).

The third scale, Programs for Children, measured the frequency of support services offered specifically for children. A score was calculated for whether churches offered (1) weekly programs, (2) monthly programs, (3) group meetings several times a year, (4) individual conferences, (5) family conferences, and (6) other support services for children. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 6, with the total mean for the sample being 1.14 (SD = 1.57).

The fourth scale, Programs for Teenagers, measured the frequency of support services offered to teens. A score was calculated for whether churches offered (1) weekly programs, (2) monthly programs, (3) group meetings several times a year, (4) individual conferences, (5) family conferences, and (6) other support services for teenagers. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 6, with the total mean for the sample being 1.37 (SD = 1.55).

We measured the exchange of referrals between the church and formal health and mental health services by means of 2 variables. Referrals In reflected referrals made to the church that originated from formal care providers. The distribution of scores ranged from 0 to 4, with the mean for the sample = .85 (SD = 1.16). Referrals Out measured the number of referrals made by the church to formal support services. The distribution of scores ranged from 0 to 4, with the mean for the sample = 1.05 (SD = .89).

Sampling Design and Method

For our purposes, the South was defined as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. To locate rural Black churches, a cluster sampling technique was used by which geographic regions with known demographics were selected and a sample of churches drawn from within those regions.

A total of 2867 churches were targeted for contact from the national listing. Attempts to contact 2657 of these churches resulted in 269 completed interviews. There were clear differences in interview completion rates among the church categories. White churches in urban areas were the easiest to reach, with about 6 such churches targeted for every completed interview. For urban Black churches and rural White churches, the ratio of targeted to completed interviews was approximately 8 to 1. Rural Black churches were the most difficult category to reach, with about 14 churches targeted for each completed interview. This result was due in part to a slightly higher rate of refusal among rural Black pastors to complete interviews, although locating accurate telephone numbers and actually reaching someone was by far the greatest barrier. These churches generally had no full-time staff on the premises.

A useful feature of this sampling was that the White churches were drawn from the same geographic areas as the Black churches. In other words, the study did not compare White churches in suburban areas to Black churches in the inner city or more remote rural areas. Rather, the churches were all from the same set of zip codes, and the White churches were drawn from a subset of the zip codes that supplied our Black church samples. Black churches were oversampled for use in analyses not presented here.

RESULTS

The first step of our analysis involved calculation of descriptive statistics for the entire sample and for major subgroups. Respondents represented a total of 269 churches, of which 181 were predominantly Black and 88 were predominantly White. Of the total, 95 churches were located in urban areas and 174 in rural areas. Among total respondents representing urban White churches (45), urban Black churches (50), rural White churches (43), and rural Black churches (131) (Table 1 ▶), 231 were pastors or ministers, 10 were deacons, and 28 had other leadership positions within their churches. All of the 269 respondents classified their congregations as Protestant. Of these, 87 were Baptist, 76 were one of the various independent Protestant denominations, 57 belonged to the Church of God, and the remaining 49 were Methodist.

There were substantial differences in church size and annual budget. A 2 × 2 factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to test differences between Black and White as well as urban and rural churches. For church size, the main effect for racial composition of churches was nonsignificant (F[1264] = .027; P = NS). However, the main effect for location was significant (F[1264] = 35.83; P < .001), with rural churches being substantially smaller than urban churches. The interaction between racial composition of the churches and location was nonsignificant (F[1 264] = .003; P = NS). For annual church budget, the main effect for racial composition of churches was significant (F[1249] = 12.34; P = .001), with White churches reporting substantially larger annual budgets than Black churches. The main effect for location was also significant (F[1249] = 49.81; P < .001), with urban churches reporting substantially larger budgets than rural churches. The interaction between the racial composition of the churches and their location was nonsignificant (F[1249] = .722; P = NS). In light of these findings, church size and annual budget were used as covariates in the subsequent analyses.

Next, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed using the 4 scales (Problems, Programs, Programs for Children, Programs for Adolescents) with church size and budget as covariates. The main effect for location was nonsignificant (F[6213] = 1.142; P = .209). However, the main effect for racial composition of churches was significant (F[6213] = 4.53; P < .001), with Black churches offering significantly more services to their congregations than White churches. The interaction between the racial composition of the churches and their urban or rural location was nonsignificant (F[6213] = .705; P = .646).

For the variables measuring the number of referrals made between the church and other forms of formal support services, no effects were found to be statistically significant. For Referrals In, 82.9% of the churches surveyed reported receiving less than 10 referrals in the past year. Similarly, for Referrals Out, 84.7% of respondents reported making less than 10 referrals to formal support services. However, the modal response for each variable was zero, which suggests that all churches generally lack links with formal providers of health and mental health services in either the specialist or generalist sector. The simple effects that make up the multivariate result are given in Table 2 ▶.

DISCUSSION

Community organizations including churches provide informal services in the de facto mental health delivery system, particularly in rural areas. 32 The role of churches and pastors in provision of these services is well recognized among lay and professional health care providers. However, the place of the church in the delivery of mental health care is not well understood. Churches occupy a unique position because they offer counseling and guidance along spiritual lines and often provide support in a nonstigmatizing way. Few studies have examined the relative merits of receiving services through churches and how churches link with formal systems of care when congregants need more specialized services.

Some of the difficulty in establishing functional relationships between churches and other providers is structural and has its roots in historic antecedents. In the South, but also elsewhere, churches have been divided along racial and ethnic lines. Black churches are overwhelmingly Black, with few White members, and White churches are equally segregated. Indeed, the integrated church is a rarity. The quasi-political role that churches played during the civil rights movement in the middle part of the last century-often serving as the primary social and political outlet for Whites and Blacks alike-no doubt reinforced this pattern. 33

A second barrier to establishing relationships between churches and formal providers is incongruent conceptualizations of the nature, cause, and treatment of mental health problems within the framework of religion, as contrasted with traditional mental health services. An environment of distrust between mental health professionals and church leaders has developed. Clergy have not enthusiastically endorsed ideologies expounded by formal mental health providers or referred individuals for formal mental health services. At the same time, mental health specialists have characteristically made little or no attempt to include clergy or church members in their treatment for individual members of congregations when in fact such links could improve outcomes.

Despite this historic separation, any observation of day-to-day life, particularly rural life, highlights the naturally expanding and contracting patterns of interaction which involve informal networks that frequently include pastors and other church leaders. As mental health services research moves out of its infancy, the myopic view of examining mental health services only through the lens of specialty providers and the formal health care system is changing. This view is slowly giving way to a broadened understanding of how different types of people with varying types of problems seek help.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this survey of Black and White churches reveal continuing gaps between formal providers and clergy. Black churches were found to provide many more supportive programs than White churches, both in terms of numbers and in terms of types of programs offered. This effect was robust even after controlling for differences in church size and annual budget. The result for rural location was not significant after controlling for large differences in annual budgets and congregation sizes between urban and rural churches.

Linkage between any churches and specialty mental health providers was starkly absent. Clergy reported very little interaction with the formal mental health service delivery system. The formal system of care may not view referrals from clergy in the same way as referrals from other professional groups, and there is anecdotal evidence that some antipathy and mistrust exists between mental health professionals and clergy. Future efforts at building coalitions between providers of health and mental health services and faith communities should focus on this apparent absence of communication. Further research is needed to more fully illuminate the barriers to a more free exchange between these groups.

Although it is not possible to fully construct a data-driven explanation for these findings, we suggest that urban pastors may have more formal education and counseling preparation than their rural counterparts and may be more attuned to dealing with mental health problems. The fact that Black churches provide more supportive programs than do White churches implies that these services may not be as accessible to Black congregation members in the community at large as they are to Whites. It may also be that Black churches have a clearer image of themselves as service providers, and that this image is not dependent on linkage with other agencies. It is also possible that community services that are available to Blacks are less acceptable. It seems clear that Black and White churches perceive their missions differently. The continuing gap in referrals between mental health service providers and clergy highlights a potential site for strengthening the linkage between pastors and the formal service delivery system. Black individuals are clearly at a disadvantage if they need mental health services. Rural individuals are reluctant to seek specialized mental health care and appear to be more willing to seek general health care from primary care providers; there are not only few rural mental health specialists but also few supportive programs provided by other community organizations. One approach to improving mental health services for Blacks would be to link pastors and other church leaders to primary care providers, thereby strengthening the capacity for this network to provide effective mental health problem identification and treatment.

Creative approaches to effectively link formal health providers with informal networks are essential to ensure appropriate, accessible, and effective health and mental health care. Enlisting the expertise and complementary service capacity of churches and health providers in the design and provision of community-relevant integrated health and mental health care is a fruitful strategy in these critical times.

Churches in the South are well recognized as central to the social order and character of their region. They are strongholds of cultural and community identity and, because of congregational commitment, hold great promise for influencing the attitudes and behaviors of members. The lack of available services and the stigma associated with mental health problems in rural areas are complex problems. Any solution will require creative partnerships between social organizations, such as churches and formal health care providers, with expertise in providing informal care.

Acknowledgments

This research was completed at the Southeastern Rural Mental Health Research Center, University of Virginia, with support from the National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH49173).

Human Participant Protection ...Institutional review board approval for the conduct of this study was obtained through the Human Investigation Committee of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center.

References

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15. Banks JA, Grambs JD, eds. Black Self-Concept: Implications for Education and Social Science. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1972.

17. Padgett DK, Patrick C, Burns BJ, Schlesinger HJ. Ethnicity and the use of outpatient mental health services in a national insured population. Am J Public Health. 1994;84:222-226. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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Articles from American Journal of Public Health are provided here courtesy of American Public Health Association

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Alternative Mental Health Services: The Role of the Black Church in the South

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Objectives. This study determined the extent to which churches in the South were providing mental health and social services to congregations and had established linkages with formal systems of care. Methods. A computer-assisted telephone interview ...

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TEMPLATE Psych 110 FALL 2021 Film Analysis.pptx

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Theme one: Minority Health Disparities

1. The outcomes of institutionally racist policy choices that exclude the needs of low income minorities include patients not getting the proper care or properly diagnosed due to medical professional's unconscious or conscious bias. African Amercian community not have access to fresh food. Broken trust with the African American community when patients have dealt with racist medical professional or dealt with microagressions while at an appointment or on the phone with customer service.

2. We tend to have more chronic illness for lack of education and lack of access to healthy food paired with untrust in the medical field. A lot of people from our community tend to eat unhealthy from culture. And there are some people who are not being educated that what we eat out of access, convenience, and culture, causes a lot of diseases , heart failure and cancer from long term consumption. And once we wait too long to get to a doctor, the illness is more likely progressed into a chronic illness.

3. Free education for African American's Health a long with marketing so African Americans can find out about it and attend. Stricter policies and training about implicit bias in the workplace made mandatory by all medical facilities and enforced by state and government. Replacing some of the liquor stores in the lower income neighborhoods and replacing them with stores that promote healthy organic fruits and vegetables.

4. This resource is pretty recent and explains actual research and survey of African American clients and Kaiser being treated differently then there white counter part and how Affrican Americans are more likely to due 5 years before White people.

https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/how-present-day-health-disparities-for-black-people-are-linked-to-past-policies-and-events/#:~:text=A%202023%20KFF%20survey%20found,question%20ignored%20(Figure%202).

5. What stood out to me the most in this unit is the education portion. So many people in my community don't even know the soul food we love so much is really unhealthy for us. We don't find out after something manifest itself in our health. We often get the education too late. And some people eat unhealthy out of neccesity because they do not have access to healthy food wether because of social-economic resources, or limited finances.

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Today's health and health care disparities are rooted in a long history of U.S. policies and events and reflect the ongoing impacts of racism at multiple levels, including in systems, structures, policies, and interpersonal interactions. Understanding this past and how it shapes present-day disparities can help inform and guide efforts to address them. It also is important to recognize the resilience of marginalized people in the face of these challenges and disparities and to consider how to build on their strengths by prioritizing community engagement and leadership to mitigate disparities and improve overall health and well-being. This brief examines how past policies and events are linked to present-day disparities among Black people in health care and health outcomes. It is based on KFF's interactive timeline of How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and KFF's 2023 Racism, Discrimination, and Health Survey.

Today, Black people face persistent disparities in health care and health outcomes. These include higher uninsured rates, being more likely to go without care due to cost, and worse reported health status (Figure 1). Their life expectancy is nearly five years shorter compared to White people (72.8 years vs. 77.5 years). Black infants have a more than two times higher infant mortality rate than White infants (10.6 per 1,000 v. 4.4 per 1,000 as of 2021), and Black people are nearly three times more likely than White people to die due to pregnancy-related reasons (39.9 vs. 14.1 per 100,000 live births between 2017-2019).

Health and health care disparities faced by Black people today are rooted in and reflect historic racist and discriminatory practices and beliefs. Race is a social construct and there are no biologic differences by race. However, many historic policies and events were rooted in since disproven beliefs about biologic differences by race and white supremacy. These inaccurate beliefs contributed to false ideas, such as Black people feeling less pain than White people, and to historic abuses and mistreatment of Black people by the medical system. For example, in the 1800s doctors experimented on enslaved Black women to develop new surgical techniques, low-income women of color were subjected to forced sterilization during the early 1900s, and the federal government left poor Black men untreated for syphilis to study the disease progression under the infamous 40-year U.S. Public Health Service Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee that began in 1932.

Although science has since disproven these theories, these beliefs continue to permeate the U.S. health care system today. As recently as 2016, a study found continued widespread beliefs among White medical students, residents, and laypeople in biologic differences between Black and White people, including believing that Black people have thicker skin than White people or that their blood coagulates more quickly. Race also continues to play a role in medical education and clinical decision making through provider attitudes and biases, disease stereotyping and nomenclature, and as part of clinical algorithms, tools, and treatment guidelines.

This history also continues to be reflected in people's experiences seeking health care. A 2023 KFF survey found that Black adults are more likely than their White peers to say they were treated unfairly or with disrespect by a health care provider due to their race and ethnicity and to report certain negative experiences, including being refused pain medication they thought they needed or having a request or question ignored (Figure 2). Over half of Black adults say they feel they must be very careful about their appearance to be treated fairly during health care visits, and roughly three in ten say they prepare for possible insults from providers or staff during health care visits. Reflecting these experiences, Black adults are more likely than White adults to view racism as a major problem in health care and less likely to say they trust providers to do what is right for them and their community, although the majority still trust doctors and health care providers to do what is right at least most of the time.

Research suggests that having a more diverse health workforce may help to address some of these challenges. KFF 2023 survey data show that Black adults who have more visits with providers who share their racial or ethnic background report more positive provider interactions (Figure 3). They also are more likely to trust doctors and other health care providers to do what is right for them and their community all or most of the time. Other research suggests that patient and provider racial concordance may contribute to improved health care use and health outcomes including lower emergency department use, reductions in racial disparities in mortality for Black infants, and increased visits for preventative care and treatment. However, Black adults are less likely than White adults to have most of their visits with a provider who has a shared background due to underrepresentation in the health care workforce.

The lack of diversity in the health care workforce today is rooted in historic actions. Prior to desegregation of public education, colleges and universities were established to educate Black students, and, by the late 19th century, there were seven medical colleges focused on training Black doctors. In 1910, the Flexner report, a study funded by the American Medical Association and the Carnegie Foundation to assess the state of medical education in the U.S. and Canada, was issued. The report recommended closing most of the historically Black medical schools, resulting in just two surviving-Meharry Medical College and Howard University. The number of Black physicians declined in the wake of these closures, and despite actions in more recent years to increase diversity of medical students, Black physicians remain underrepresented relative to their share of the population. The 2023 Supreme Court ruling against the use of affirmative action policies in higher education could exacerbate this issue, with experts concerned that the ruling will erode progress in diversifying the health care workforce.

Beyond these experiences within the health care system, Black people face an array of underlying structural inequities in social and economic factors that are major drivers of health. One of the most significant factors is ongoing residential segregation. A large share of the Black population lives in urban areas that have less access to resources that support health and that pose more exposure to health risks. Today's residential segregation reflects past policies-in particular, redlining. Under legislation passed in the 1930s, residential neighborhoods were graded based on their mortgage risk, with higher risk neighborhoods marked in red-the origin of the phrase "redlining." One of the factors that determined this grading was the racial make-up of the community, with Black neighborhoods more likely to be redlined. This made it difficult for people living in and near Black neighborhoods to access mortgage loans, and at the same time Black families were blocked from buying homes in newly developing suburbs. While the Fair Housing Act passed in the 1960s eventually prohibited housing discrimination, by then many Black families were priced out of suburban neighborhoods due to rising housing prices.

Today's housing patterns continue to reflect these past discriminatory policies and leave Black people facing increased health risks. As a result of ongoing residential segregation and disinvestment into areas where Black people are more likely to live, they are more likely to live in areas that have more limited educational and employment opportunities, more limited access to healthy food options, less access to green space, and more limited transportation options, which in turn make it more difficult to access health coverage and care and pursue healthy activities. Moreover, many of these areas pose increased environmental and climate-related health risks, including increased exposure to extreme heat, lead, pollution, and toxic or hazardous materials.

Looking ahead, Black people could disproportionately benefit from new medical advancements given higher rates of many health conditions , but they face increased barriers to access ing them . One contributing factor to this disparity is underrepresentation in clinical trials. This underrepresentation reflects structural access barriers such as more limited access to trials sites, less access to transportation or technology, and limited eligibility for trials, if being uninsured or having an underlying condition excludes individuals from participation. They may also have less knowledge of trials because physicians are less likely to discuss them with patients of color and/or have concerns or reluctance about participating in them due to the medical system's historic abuse, and mistreatment of Black people. Black people also face disparities in accessing new drugs and therapies when they come to market. New drugs often have high out of pocket costs, which may create more financial barriers for Black people due to underlying inequities in coverage and income. Biases in clinical decision-making processes and limitations in access to providers may also inhibit access.

As clinical algorithms and artificial intelligence are increasingly used to guide clinical care and treatment decisions in health care, it will be important to assess how they may impact disparities. Algorithms can lead to biases in treatment. For example, some have historically incorporated race as a factor in ways that contribute to disparities in treatment. One of the most well-known examples of this practice is the use of different measures to test kidney function for Black patients; a practice which is beginning to be phased out at many institutions. Algorithms may also result in biased treatment if they are built on underlying data that are biased or that are not representative of a diverse population. However, there is the opportunity for carefully designed algorithms to reduce bias in treatment and care.

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How Present-Day Health Disparities for Black People Are Linked to Past Policies and Events | KFF

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This brief examines how past policies and events are linked to present-day disparities among Black people in health and health care.

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13.5 Film Analysis Outline Template (Insert Name Here).docx

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Padlet Prompt Option 2: African American Birth Discrepancies

1. There are reasons why African American women have disparities compared to other races among the amount of medication receives dates all the way back to slavery times where the myth of black people didn't feel pain, or the way other people do. This was done to make the slave owners feel better about inflicting pain on black people. A lot of doctors and nurse work from a place of implicit bias and rasicm.

2. The reason black women and their babies are dying at a high rate the other races women are many. One reason is planning and knowledge about prenatal care or the access to. Because there is a higher rate of black women not using condoms or other contraceptives which manifest unplanned pregnancies. Or even not knowing their pregnant till later on. Other reason is the stress of a black women dealing with negative racist interactions and discriminations that have a negative impact on the body and baby. And the last one I'm going to speak about today will be the racist medical industry as a whole that allows workers to use implicit bias and unconscious racism to make decisions that affect peoples lives.

3. The main thing that can improve the African American birth rate and the over all health care the black women receive is change the health care system all together from the inside out starting with the education that doctors and nurses receive in school to make sure they are aware and check their bias before they choose a career in this field. Also enforcing reprimandments at work when it is observed that people are being treated different because of their race no matter what the worker's title is.

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_od3Jy0L8yQ This is a good resource because it gives some names of organizations who fight the discrimination that black mother face.

5. This really touched me because I have been a victim of institutional racism. The first time I got pregnant at 19 i had a stillborn with my daughter at 5 months. And because of the lack of education, the lack of planning, lack of support and prenatal care, the stress of property and being in an abusive relationship, when I went through my birth, I couldn't even fully comprehend what was happening and the health care service I received because of the neighbor hospital in community didn't have the nicest nurses I had to deal with that trauma for a long time. I just had my son this year on mothers day and he is healthy and beautiful and meeting his milestones. But the whole pregnancy I was sick and during labor I had a nurse that was very nonchalant when I told her I fel as if I would pass out and it took them almost 40 mins to let my boyfriend in the birthing room even though we arrived together. Knowing so many other Black women go through this same thing is really heartbreaking and needs change.

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Infant mortality report shows black babies dying at high rate

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1. I believe that there are many reasons that religion and spirituality are ingraved more in the black community than others. One thing is even though we had strong roots to spirituality and religion in most parts of Africa, we were forced to practice Christianity during slavery by slave owners in attempt to control the slaves. And many slaves practiced their own religion in private and Christianity in public. And because there were so many similarities between different African religions and Christianity, a lot of AA people used religion to get them through a life of oppression and abuse. I believe that these traditions were past down from generation to generation to help with the mental and emotional health of AA who dealt with racism and oppression.

2. I also think there are many reasons why millenials exhibit different religious behaviors than the elders from our community. I believe one reason is millenials are more likely to question what they have been taught in search for the truth or their truth. More millennials are getting educated and learning that are parents and grandparent practice Christianity because they where told to do so by their parents and never asked any questions. The more we learn about our history, the more we learn that some of the religions from Africa was deemed evil and witchcraft from slave owners, which a lot of black people have carried into the present time. So a lot of history being lost has contributed to the elders of our generation only practicing Christianity and deeming other religions, wrong, or evil.

3. Attending church normally has a positive effect on the black community outside the LGBT black community. For everyone else, church tends to be motivational, gives others a moral compass, instills hope and faith, and gives a positive community for people to interact, worship, and receive knowledge and resources. For the the black LGBT community the church might have the opposite affect making them feel unaccepted like an outcast because of many black churches frowning upon it.

4. https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-913?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780190277734.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780190277734-e-913&p=emailA4N1KNc1Dhi3U#:~:text=Summary,Louisiana%2C%20and%20points%20in%20between.

This resource connects the need for religion and spirituality and the connection to slavery and how it changed the religions of many who where enslaved.

5. One thing I learned in this unit was the main difference between African religious and Christianity which is that Christianity focus is on doing well in this life to receive a good afterlife. And African religions focus on doing good in this life because that's what your suppose to do. Also that Orishas are used as a middle man between nature and God. How God in African is not seen as a single object but God being everything everywhere whereis Christanity looks at God as one individual being that sees all and knows all.

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Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History

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African Religions in Early America and the United States

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“African Religions in Early America and the United States” published on by Oxford University Press.

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1. Codeswitching is when a person who speaks multiple langauges alternates between the two. It can save your life like the speaker pointed out, and it can sometimes determine your individual upward mobility. Code switch when you go to work can make others more comfortable if you work with predominantly white people and determine weather you get promotions or not.

2. Code switching can threaten diversity because it can make someone feel as there culture or who they are, are unimportant and/or threatening. Eventually a person can be disconnected from their culture to conform to social norms from the new environment they are currently in. So loosing your culture can erase what you would bring into the community thus declining the diversity.

3. The Effects of code switching can cause stress and anxiety. Having to learn a new language and when to use it as well as when to not can be stressful. It can also cause depression because a person can start to feel down for not be accepted for their authentic self. This can also cause feeling of low self worth or guilt trying to appease a certain group of people for status for neglecting your own culture.

4. https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/83386/The%20Switch-Code-Switching%20and%20its%20effects%20on%20African%20Americans%20in%20America.pdf?sequence=1#:~:text=Many%20interviewees%20described%20code%2Dswitching,that%20highlighted%20whiteness%20as%20correctness this journal entry because it discusses code switching and the debate between aave being it own language and standard English. It also takes about where the need to code switch comes from in the Black community and how it affects the Black community.

5. A strategy I would use to express cold switching to the Black community is I would talk about all the people who have lost their lives because of their inability to code switch. I would also talk about where it is rooted from back in the chattel slavery days where it wasn't safe for us to speak our language and express our culture for we could and would be killed for it. I would also bring up the fact that we are not the only minority to code switch. Most of us have to code switch to make upward mobility in our family especially if your a minority.

6. What was most interesting from this unit was that what I grew up learning is ebonics and ghetto talk is actually a langauge. Not only is it a language but, its just a language that doesn't follow standard English rule like most other languages. And knowing AAVE makes you bilingual. Being you cant code switch if you arn't bilingual.

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1. What was interesting from this unit was that when talking about about numbers, there are nowdays more educated black women then black men. Women are more likley to be focused on school then building a family and tend to wait later. Educated black men are more likely to date outside their race which leaves a limted supply of marigable black men because there is a big percentage of black women that prefer black men for marriage. How women are willing to date outside their education and men are more willing to date outside their race. There are some women in my life who are in their late thirties or early 40s and have masters who do not have a boyfriend let alone a husband. But I also have friends who are educated and married. Often I do see women date a man who doesn't make as much as them or that doesn't have equal or better education.

2. Because the media has portrayed black women as, hoes, strippers, and baby mothers, some men tend to over sexualize us and look at us as an sexual object more than a wife or a mother. They tend to overgeneralize black women before they get to know them. An example of this is I have dated many men outside of my race. And majority of them would take me out on dates, bye me things, try to sleep with me but very few introduced me to family/ friends or wanted a long term relationship with me. I would be good enough to sleep with but not marriage material in their eyes.

3. There are many contributing factors to why the women are still unmarried. One thing is interpersonal trust. Being hurt in their past by abuse, infidelity, men not being finacially responsible in the relationship, and seeing women around them dealing with this issues in their relation creates and motivate an untrust in men all together. There has been men say that some women are so eager to find a man that they come off desperate. Other men have said that its because black women are controlling, nagging, and their expectations are too high. Some women say they are more likely to focus on their education and career which then makes them less appealing to men because they tend to view them as competition. As well as black men are more open to date outside their race then black women.

4. There is a stigma with gay black people because they are dealing with intersectionality of both the discrimination of being black as well as being gay. Dealing with racism, sexism and homophobia all collides and affects the mental health of the individual and overall quality of life. All are oppressed groups that deal with discrimination. Even in the LGBT community black people still deal with racism. In the Black community LGBT individuals deal with homophobia. Also black communities are less likely to accept their children or family members to be gay. Which greatly impacts the individual's self worth and self esteem.

5. https://law.stanford.edu/press/black-women-face-marriage-challenge/#:~:text=But%20black%20women%2C%20according%20to,pronounced%20among%20African%2DAmericans).

this resource is important because it touches on the same topic of the unit about the marriage gap with black women. Because of international relationships, the incarceration of black men, and the fact that economic trends have benefited black men more than black women there is a shortage of black marriagable black men.

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Black Women Face Marriage Challenge | Stanford Law School

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Professor Rick Banks spoke with Michael Smerconish of the Boston Herald about his new book, “Is Marriage for White People? How the African Americ

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1. Strengths: A strength of the black community is resilience. Because alot of the proverty that black people face was systematically designed, and there are many who learn how to adapt and still achieve upward mobility be reframing there mind and changing their circumstance. From slavery until the present time, we have learned how to survive.

2. Weakness: A weakness that some black communities we face is lack of resources, like affordable mental health resources, or classes to educate and support parents and other community members. A solution to this would be more of the community voting to change laws that would benefit them and their community. As well as more marketing of the nonprofits made to support black families. How are you gonna benefit from resources if you are not aware they exist in your community.

3. Opportunities: One way black neighborhoods can play a role in the progressive movement is encouraging one another. Especially when you see one in your community down on their luck. Two is more free healthy food give aways giving people in the community access to healthy food and possibly other resources. Third would be more resources for affordable child care and other recreational opportunities to give youth an opportunity to thrive, learn, and stay out of trouble.

4. Threats: Gentrification can have negative effects on the Black community if the rent is increased and the people in that neighborhood can no longer afford to live there, therefore moving them out. High crime rate can hurt the Black community making the mental health of the people living in these communities decline due to lack of trust and feeling safe. Also a bad relationship between the community and law enforcement can effect the community in a bad way. Police brutality and racial profiling of the people in the community can cause tension, mistrust, and an over an unsafe environment for the people in it.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqrhn8khGLM&t=633s

This YouTube video explains the racial wealth gap and events that impacted black communities finacially.

6. I learned about redling and how it was used to segregate naighborhoods and keep black people in lower income neighborhoods.

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Explained | Racial Wealth Gap | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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9.6 Thesis Direction and Resources for Critical Analysis Project

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9.6 Thesis Direction and Resources for Critical Analysis Project

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Micro aggressions

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Micro aggressions

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1. Mental health problems such as PTSD, anxiety, depression and imposter syndrome are some of the psychological consequences of experiencing subconscious racial slights as a person of color.

2. That black men are hypersexual or they don't take care of there kids. Black women are lazy and angry.

That as black people we are unintelligent and if we are we are the exception .

3. Being black and women you will deal with sexism and rasicm. If your poor and black, you will deal with rasicm, oppression, and exploitation. If your gay and black, you can deal with racism, prejudice and homophobia.

4. Dealing with so much hate and discrimination regularly can damage ones self esteem and overall sense of self. One will/can start believing what they are told repeatdly which can lead to depression and self distruction.

5. https://www.justice.gov/d9/fieldable-panel-panes/basic-panes/attachments/2021/09/29/understanding_bias_content.pdf This doesn't just touch on implicit vs explicit bias, but also touches on why some officers might have implicit bias.

6. Simply asking more mind provoking questions like "what made you say that?" or in a way they holds a gentle mirror so they can understand they might be operating from an implicit bias standpoint.

7. I learned about quiet bias which is an unconscious bias that uses your subconscious to react in certain situations. Example being how police officers are more likely to shoot a black suspect before they shoot a white one.

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1. I think there are many factors that influence why there are not more Africaan American's in the STEM programs. One being African American in lower status neighborhoods do no have the same funding as more privalleged communities so the children don't have access to the same classes in high school. Another is, some African American children are not motivated because of lack of patience and motivation of the teachers to encourage and provide them with the resources they need to thrive.

2. The teachers play sometimes the biggest role in getting there children to enroll in STEM classes. If the teacher puts a child down, or doesn't understand that some children learn differently and provide patience, it could change the trajectory of that childs life for the worst. Your teacher can also influence if you and push you in a healthy way. They can motivate you, and it could shape your self esteem in education as a child/ teen.

3. It makes them second guess themself when children deal with implicit bias in educators and micro aggressions in school. This also creates anxiety and can shape the way the see themselves in the world.

4. African American Children are shaped from a young age to think that they are less than or less intelligent because of the color of their skin or there social status. Dealing with implicit bias in educators can shape them into adulthood. Making the young adult use to having to prove themself and working harder for the same respect or just giving up on the education system and work field all together. Educating themselves along with making there own path to accumulate money.

5. Employ more motivated black teachers to teach black children. As well as put more resources in the schools so the teachers have what they need to effectively teach and motivate the students to want to learn.

6. What I learned from this unit is the vocabulary of implicit bias. This vocabulary is important for me to be able to communicate my or others experience when dealing with the education system. Also understanding how this can shape someone view of themself if they are not yest self aware.

Theme two: The Imposter Syndrome and Women of Color in the Workplace

1. Imposter syndrome in my own words is the inability to think you are capeble of being extraordinary because of heart crushing moments from childhood of being labeled as not enough or incapable from a teacher or adult figure.

2. Imposter syndrome has a great impact on a person's anxiety and self esteem. People start to think they don't deserve what they have and where they are at in there life if they are in a good place instead of being proud of themself and their accoplishments.

3. Imposter system will help decline our mental health, and cause us to burn out at a faster rate as well as make our workplace and unhappy and sometimes toxic work environment. Which can lead to more frequent career or job switches.

4. Race matters in the workplace for a black women because some of our other counterparts might think you less intelligent because of your race. Gender in the workplace matters for black women because we also deal with sexism intersectionality with racism.

5. I think by dividing the women hires equally throughout the races can improve a work environment instead of having one black women per shift making microagressions and implicit bias harder to bypass. Also having management of integrity in position.

6. One thing that I learned is how imposter syndrome is a result of implicit bias, some times grooming from a young age. How the teachers have shaped the way we see ourselves and the world.

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Racial Autobiography Outline

1. Introduction Paragraph: Definition of Race

1. Introduction Statement:  I am black woman. That is only one part of my identity. iMy personal definition of race includes your physical appearance and cultural practices that are interpreted by others who place you in a group.

2. Is race biological or social?:
To my understanding, race is a social concept invented by man.

2. Body Paragraph 1: Self-Assessments/Scores/Analysis

1. Main point 1:  Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure

1. Supporting Detail: My score came out to 49 which is pretty high. This lets me know I have a strong connection and understanding to the black community. What some might call pro-black.

2. Main point 2: Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale

1. Supporting Detail: My score on this assessment was 26. This shows that I have high self esteem and that I am comfortable in my own skin.

3. Body Paragraph 2: Summary of Stages of Racial Identity Development & Life Examples

1. Main point 1: I have been through the stages of dissonance and immersion.

1. Supporting Detail: As a child I was in the stage of dissonance because I understood that I was treated differently for the color of my skin but I never understood why and never really questioned it. There was a period in my late teens and early adulthood when I went through the immersion stage. At this stage I thought all white people were aware of their racism and I thought all men were sexist.

2. Main point 2: My current stage of racial identity development is internalization.

1. Supporting Detail: I look at people as people and understand I cannot over generalize a whole race however, there are hateful and racist people of every background. I don’t like the act of racism or sexism but I don't hate an entire group of people.

4. Body Paragraph 3: Post Racial Society Critical Analysis

1. Main point 1: I do not think we live in a “post racial society”.

1. Supporting Detail: Black people are still dying at the hands of the police at an extremely higher rate than our white counterparts.

2. Main point 2: I don’t think we live in a post racial society

1. Supporting Detail: There is systematic oppression that still exists in the health industry where people of color don’t receive the same care as their white counterparts, which causes mistrust from black people to their doctors.

5. Conclusion Paragraph

1. Summary statement: All in all, I am judged and treated differently than other people because of my race.

2. Closing Statement: Race is a socially constructed concept made by man to categorize people into groups where people with white skin are treated better than people of a darker complexion.

https://www.aaihs.org/black-identity-and-the-power-of-self-naming/

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Black Identity and the Power of Self-Naming | AAIHS

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Kill the Bill IV Protest in London, England, UK on May 29, 2021 (Loredana Sangiuliano, Shutterstock) Black identity is the most political social identity us…

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1. What I think makes the black family unique is the resilience of the black family. Since chattel slavery days, there has been a systematic system put in place to keep the black family divided and oppressed. Whether it be the father being killed or incarcerated or one of the parents getting hooked on narcotic drugs, it has been destructive of the black family but families have still learned ways to survive and thrive. Example being a black single mom going to school for a better job while simultaneously working and providing for her child because her husband was killed by the police. The child still growing up with values that help them in upward social mobility.

2. I think the strenghths and challenges of the black community are many. To name one of each would be a strength of kinship care, and a challenge the foster care system. Our strength being kinship is because we have a saying in the black religious community that it takes a village to raise a child. This is something I have heard when someone is having a child. This speaks to the way we make people in our community family even if they are not related by blood. Example being personally for me, since my mother is deceased and my father is in a nursing home, I have appointed people who are not my blood, but have taken on the responsibility of grandparents to my child so my child doesn't lack experiences that he would otherwise lack if I was just focused on relatives related by blood. The foster care system is a challenge because the black child is statistically more likely to be put in the foster care system unecessarily or by repeated learned behaviors by the parent from their parent. An example of this would be a parenting disiplining there child physically because it has been passed down by generations. Then the child being removed from the home for child abuse.

3. Concepts such as racial socilization affect the black home in many ways because we have to prepare our children for discrimination and racism that other children of other races do not have to go through. This prepatrates a cycle of anxienty for both the parent and child. An example being the talk the parents have with their black son about wearing hoodies and interacting with the police because there has been so many cases of racial profiling when in comes to black boys in their youth.

4. I think that generational unhealed trauma that is passed down has impacted the black community along with being disconnected from their history. I think not knowing our history keeps us in the cycle of repeating unhealthy habits that where learned and passed down from generation to generation. An example of this being beating your child to keep them in line and to teach them how to act in public. Coming from slavery where beatings was a way that the slave owners kept the slaves in line.

5. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11499371/

One this is important because it not only touches racial stress and its impact on the black family, but it talks about positive intervention and resources that can be implemented to counter the stress and provide a community to black families an outlet. Two being that most of the stress that black people endure has to to do with racism and discrimination. Three the connection to African American's health directly being linked to the stress of oppression and racial injustice from childhood and throughout our lives.

6. What stood out most to me in this reading is transratial adoption which is a term I never heard of before the reading. I understood the concept however I wasn't familiar with the vocabulary. This stood out to me because as an adult, I thought that it would be hard for a black child to grow up in a white household and learn the values and culture of the black community from white parents. It interesting what social and psychological effect it can have on the child and over all well being.

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Strength-based strategies for addressing racial stressors in African American families: lessons learned from developing the LEADS health promotion intervention

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Recognizing the real-life impact of racial stress on physical and psychological health is vital for creating impactful health promotion interventions among African American families. Despite the known link between racial stress and poor physical…

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1. The type of racism that I have seen in the world from slide two is institutional racism. The reason I believe this is because I have seen that there is a systematic oppression put in place in the communities I have lived in because I have been part of the working lower class for a while. This is shown in the education our children get, the resources we do or don't have access too, as well as the justice system impacting more black families then white. This is the reason I pick structural racism from slide 3 as well.

2. I do not believe we live in a post race society because we as black and brown people still suffer from racial oppression till this day. An example of this is the police racial profiling our people sending innocent people to jail for crimes they haven't committed. Another example of this would be black people getting shot by the police because a cop mistaken a kids phone for a gun.

3. My personal definition of race is your physical appearance and your cultural background. I do believe that race is social constructed created by the main people who make all the rules. Like in the video, when the word race started to circulate, African Americans were still slaves and wasn't considered human. The first race in American we were considered was Negro, which was given to us not what we called or named ourselves. Therefore it was something constructed socially.

4. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/

this read is important because it is important to understand that we are all human and are equal in that sense. I agree the race is a social construct to keep certain groups oppressed.

5. The thing that stood out the most to me in this unit is Police Violence against African American Men. This is important to me because this dates back to the 1800s and chattel slavery. The main focus in to keep the black families divided and stuck in oppression. How do you divide the black family? You take away the head of the house hold and leave the women to have to support the family on there own. Whether the police is killing the men, or throwing them in jail, it disconnects and breaks the black family.

Theme Two: Racial Microagressions podcast

1. I can identify with sexual orientaion. When I was a teenager I identified as gay at one point in time. Repeatedly I have heard that "I am so pretty to be gay" or "what a waste". The racesim that I heard in the clip had to do with the Asian woman saying that because she had a thin appearance, it was because of her race that she was thin.

2. I do not believe we live in post racial society because people are still being denied loans because the color of their skin. Which is a form of systemic institutional rasicm.

3. I believe race is considered you physical appearance and cultural practices. I believe its a social construct because its used to oppress people. You might get denied a interview with a company if you are of a certain race and the person scanning applications for interview is racist towards your race.

4. https://tibbs.unc.edu/community/cldp/writing-about-race/

this link is important because it explains that race cant be a biological because there is no test to determin someones race there for it has to be something socially constructed.

5. One thing I learned is that some people don't know when they being racist or throwing out microagressions which is interesting because that means it's subconscious and it's passive racism that probably embeded in their cultural foundation.

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Racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out

By Megan Gannon & LiveScience

More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was concerned that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences between different populations of people. He spoke out against the idea of "white" and "black" as discrete groups, claiming that these distinctions ignored the scope of human diversity.

Science would favor Du Bois. Today, the mainstream belief among scientists is that race is a social construct without biological meaning. And yet, you might still open a study on genetics in a major scientific journal and find categories like "white" and "black" being used as biological variables.

In an article published today (Feb. 4) in the journal Science, four scholars say racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out. [ Unraveling the Human Genome: 6 Molecular Milestones]

They've called on the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to put together a panel of experts across the biological and social sciences to come up with ways for researchers to shift away from the racial concept in genetics research.

"It's a concept we think is too crude to provide useful information, it's a concept that has social meaning that interferes in the scientific understanding of human genetic diversity and it's a concept that we are not the first to call upon moving away from," said Michael Yudell, a professor of public health at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Yudell said that modern genetics research is operating in a paradox, which is that race is understood to be a useful tool to elucidate human genetic diversity, but on the other hand, race is also understood to be a poorly defined marker of that diversity and an imprecise proxy for the relationship between ancestry and genetics.

"Essentially, I could not agree more with the authors," said Svante Pääbo, a biologist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, who worked on the Neanderthal genome but was not involved with the new paper.

"What the study of complete genomes from different parts of the world has shown is that even between Africa and Europe, for example, there is not a single absolute genetic difference, meaning no single variant where all Africans have one variant and all Europeans another one, even when recent migration is disregarded," Pääbo told Live Science. "It is all a question of differences in how frequent different variants are on different continents and in different regions."

In one example that demonstrated genetic differences were not fixed along racial lines, the full genomes of James Watson and Craig Venter, two famous American scientists of European ancestry, were compared to that of a Korean scientist, Seong-Jin Kim. It turned out that Watson (who, ironically, became ostracized in the scientific community after making racist remarks) and Venter shared fewer variations in their genetic sequences than they each shared with Kim.

Assumptions about genetic differences between people of different races have had obvious social and historical repercussions, and they still threaten to fuel racist beliefs. That was apparent two years ago, when several scientists bristled at the inclusion of their research in Nicholas Wade's controversial book, "A Troublesome Inheritance" (Penguin Press, 2014), which proposed that genetic selection has given rise to distinct behaviors among different populations. In a letter to The New York Times, five researchers wrote that "Wade juxtaposes an incomplete and inaccurate account of our research on human genetic differences with speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in IQ test results, political institutions and economic development."

The authors of the new Science article noted that racial assumptions could also be particularly dangerous in a medical setting.

"If you make clinical predictions based on somebody's race, you're going to be wrong a good chunk of the time," Yudell told Live Science. In the paper, he and his colleagues used the example of cystic fibrosis, which is underdiagnosed in people of African ancestry because it is thought of as a "white" disease. [ The Best Genealogy Software for Tracing Your Family Tree]

Mindy Fullilove, a psychiatrist at Columbia University, thinks the changes proposed in the Science article are "badly needed." Fullilove noted that by some laws in the United States, people with one black ancestor of 32 might be called "black," but their 31 other ancestors are also important in influencing their health.

"This is a cogent and important call for us to shift our work," Fullilove said. "It will have an enormous influence. And it will make for better science."

So what other variables could be used if the racial concept is thrown out? Pääbo said geography might be a better substitute in regions such as Europe to define "populations" from a genetic perspective. However, he added that, in North America, where the majority of the population has come from different parts of the world during the past 300 years, distinctions like "African Americans" or "European Americans" might still work as a proxy to suggest where a person's major ancestry originated.

Yudell also said scientists need to get more specific with their language, perhaps using terms like " ancestry" or "population" that might more precisely reflect the relationship between humans and their genes, on both the individual and population level. The researchers also acknowledged that there are a few areas where race as a construct might still be useful in scientific research: as a political and social, but not biological, variable.

"While we argue phasing out racial terminology in the biological sciences, we also acknowledge that using race as a political or social category to study racism, although filled with lots of challenges, remains necessary given our need to understand how structural inequities and discrimination produce health disparities between groups," Yudell said.
Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Race Is a Social Construct, Scientists Argue

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Racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out

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3.4 Three Self-Assessments, Racial Identity Development and Identity Resource

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3.4 Three Self-Assessments, Racial Identity Development and Identity Resource

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3.1 padlet post: Multidemensions of Ethnic self identification

1. Within the category of natal measures, I chose birthplace, where I was raised, as well as extendended family because being from South Central LA has definitely formed a personality of being outgoing, and having a no-nonsense attitude. It has also allowed me to master the art of reading people which translates into "street smarts". I choose where I was raised because I was raised a lot of my earlier childhood in Minden Lousiana which also has impacted my personality and skills. Whether it be my love for cooking southern meals, or that I know how to do a lot of things with my hands (building things, working on cars, ect). Lastly because I was in foster care from 13-18, I learned that a lot of my support system would be extended family that was not related to me. This allowed me to be very independent and to choose people who were good for me to be in my life.

2. Within the category of behavioral measures, I choose food, clothes, and music. With all of these I am very diverse. Because I have moved around majority of my life, I have had the chance to meet alot of difference people from alot of different backgrounds. Since childhood, I have been open to new experiences and finding myself. This has allowed me to have different styles and looks consistently to the point it has also become a part of my personality. I have favorites songs from almost every genre. Now even though with food my favorite is southern home cooked, I enjoy many others such as Mexican and Japanese food. This might be a result of living in multicultural city like Los Angeles.

3. Within the category of subjective measures I choose assessment of accultration status because in one aspect, I do no believe I am accultration as an African American in American because of chattle slavery. My family doesn't know where come from beyond Lousiana and Chicago. In another aspect you can say we have brought customs from Lousiana and Chicago and brought them to Los Angeles to grow or families and pass on traditions.

4. Within the category of Situation-contextual Measures I choose home-family and education. Both of these are important to me because this is what was missed growing up. I always wanted a family growing up which made me feel incomplete. Now that I am building my own family, it is important for me to be the best version of myself, be present, and be nurturing. Education is important to me now because at my big age of 31, I am just now seeing how important I am and how important knowledge is. Everyday in my community I see people acting out of ignorance. It is important for me to change the narrative and try to educate the people in my community.

3.2 Multi-group ethnic identity measure

1. My Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure score is 49 .

2. To me this score means that I am pro black. I am an activist. I am proud of my heritage and are willing to learn more about my history.

3. I think that this means that I have a strong connection to my ethnic group because a lot of us, no matter the background or social status, connect in the experience of being black in America even if we respond differently to it.

4. Nothing suprised me too much because I am an individual who is very self aware, and in that it allows me to understand my community.

3.3 Padlet post: ROSENBERG'S SELF-ESTEEM SCALE

1. My score after taking the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale was 26.

2. To me this score means that I have learned to finally love myself. The older I get, the more I understand that the low selft esteem that I have had in the past was linked to the way l viewed my life. Once I started to heal past tramuas, I started to understand that a lot of the bad things I endured growing up was a projection of how others felt about themself and not so much me. After I learned this, I stop internalizing alot of it and starting building my own view of self by self.

3. I think that this means that I have a strong bond with the African Americans because I am so empathic. I see myelf in the young, the hurt, the broken, and it motivates me help. I also feel connected to the ones who have already had this self awakening. I love so have conversations about community with other people that want to make positive change within it.

4. Nothing surprised me about my analysis because I have been working on healing, and reteaching myself for the past five years in therapy. It feels good to know that my hard work is paying off.

POST 3.4: RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT PADLET POST

1. My racial identity development stage is internalization.

2. In this period of time I was just angry period. Currently I think their are good people from every race, and there are bad people from every race. However, there is sexism and rasicm that still oppresses our community and systematic problem that needs to be dissembled. I feel the more we unify with each other, the harder we can fight against the real problem which is the government system.

3. For long as I can remember I had been in dissonance. I have known that I am treated unfairly because I'm black and I am not white.

Immersion, in my early teens I started to see I was treated different being black, and that I was just a girl. For a short period of time in my late teens I had a distaste for white people and only wanted to hang out with people of color. At this stage I was in Emersion.

4. I have learned that I am further along in internalization and understanding that we all have things in common. Instead of fighting each other, we need to accept people for who they are and their differences. Then, we need to come together and fight the real problem which is oppression that so many of us face.

POST 3.5: FIND YOUR RACIAL IDENTITY RESOURCE

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12145493/

This link is important to me because as a black women, identinty switching is a thing in the academic world as well as career. Which usually has a negative affect on our mental health. Alot of the time in which is brought on by rasicm or tokenism in the work or academic place.

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The strong Black woman stereotype and identity shifting among Black women in academic and other professional spaces

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Black women, relative to their Black male and White counterparts, may be more prone to experiencing racism and sexism in academic and other professional settings due to the “double jeopardy” or stigma of being both Black and a woman. Few studies…

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2.4 Ubuntu, Afrocentricity and Nguzo Saba

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2.4 Ubuntu, Afrocentricity and Nguzo Saba

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Theme 1: Ubuntu

1. The concept of Ubuntu is uniquely African. After reading the assigned reading and analyzing the short video by Dr. Nelson Mandela, do you think that the spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well today in African American culture? Explain your answer and give an example as to why you have chosen your position.

I do believe the spirit of Ubuntu is still alive. I think it isn't marketed as much for other reasons like systematic oppression. But I do do believe there are communities and individuals who practice selflessness in order to contribute to their community . An example of this would be nonprofits. I myself have worked for many nonprofits where I used my skills to contribute positive influence and resources into the community to either build them up. From canvassing for black worker rights, to case managing the reentry community from a place of active understanding.

2. Compare and contrast in detail and provide examples of any parallels/similarities that you have been able to identify between African cultures and African American culture. Has this concept of Ubuntu changed your worldview at all? Explain.

There are many similarities between the African culture and the African American culture. One is our love and faith in a Higher Power/ God. Since before chattel slavery, Africans have always had a history with worshiping God. Whether in religion or in spirituality, many Africans and African Americans across the world have this in common. Another similaritiy between the two is how we express ourselves through music an dance. Dance moving our feet, hips and butt. Music with base and drums. Singing with our soul from deep in our adomens. Ubuntu has changed the way I have looked at the world because it has allowed me to look at the word through an empathetic lense to see not everyone is negative. We all have been through things that make us human which should also make us empatheic and caring for one another.

THEME 2: 7 Concepts of Afrocentric Psychology

1. Choose and define the concept that you feel is most present in the African American community. Provide an example of how you have witnessed the concept you have chosen.

I believe the concept that is most present in the African Community is Maafa. The reason I say this is because there are so many are so many black people that are oppressed by a system that was built to do just that. Whether in the health field, the job field, or just the access to healthy food and resources. And the worst part is that some people don't even know their oppressed because they don't know their history, because some where a long the line of chattle slavery, we got disconnected from it which was the initial plan.

2. Then, define and provide an example of the concept that you feel is least present in the African American community. Also, provide an example.

I think the Veneration of person is the least present in the African American community because we have been socialized to mind your business and look out for yourself. We have seen this "crab in a barrel" from peers so much that it has made people think that you have to be greedy because we think everyone is out to use you without reciprocate. A lot of us miss that if we become a unit, we can fight the systematic oppression. But because of movies, social media, and daily interactions, we have a Eurocentric western perception of how we should treat each other and what we should be focused on.

THEME 3: 7 Principles of Nguzo Saba

Choose one of the 7 Principles of Nguzo Saba and define it on your Padlet. Then explain why it resonates with you and how you feel you have seen this value in action in the African American community. Provide an example.

I think all of these Principles of Nguzo are important, how ever the one that stuck out to me the most is Kujichagulia (self-determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves. In my experience, no matter the social status I have seen African American create , name, and stand up for themselves. Examples of this can include being raised in proverty, but grownihng up to educate yourself and getting a job to support your family and teach them to be knowledgeable and brave. Even though we have interacted with others or coorpartions who are racist, we still don't let that define us and we keep striving for the best life we can give ourselves.

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Theme 3: Positive sense of self brainstorming

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Theme 3: Positive sense of self brainstorming

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Question: What connections can be made between having positive sense of self and our experiences with identity and race?

Answer:

I believe that most people start off with positive sense of self if they are raise in a home where then are taught that by loving people. For others they have learned it on their own. But no matter if you were or were not taught to love yourself and be patient with yourself, you will always encounter someone in the world that will try to convince you that you are not good or worthy enough no matter your race or idenitity. Weather it's a teacher, a boyfriend, a stranger, or a movie. Positive sense of self comes from the foundation of knowing that no matter how the world sees me, I know who I am and I'm going to operate in that no matter what the world dishes out at me. But knowing my history helps me to understand how other people feel about me because of my race has nothing to do with me personally and has everything to do with the way that person feels about themself or their position in the world. Or how they have been taught.

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Theme 2 : First experience with race activity

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Theme 2 : First experience with race activity

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1. What is your first experience with race.

When I was in a group home, my staff took me to school (which was in South Pasadena) to enroll. The the lady that filled out my application at the school (who was a white woman) told me she didn't see my race in the list of races so she was going to mark down that I was white instead of black (this was a predominantly white school. My staff who was also a black woman stayed silent, so I spoke up for myself. I told her " you're not going to check white because I'm not white. Im black." She laughed nervously and said " oh here, look here is black right here" as she checked the correct box.

2. How old where you?

I was 15 years old in the 9th grade.

3. What feeling do you associate with this experience?

I associated anger and frustration with this memory.

4. Have you ever talked about this experience?

I have talked about this experience with youth I have worked with when I am teaching them why it is important to advocate for yourself.

5. How has your early experiences with race shaped your worldview.

It has showed me that we live in a time where racsim is not always loud and proud. It is more often than not very subtle and passive. It has showed me you HAVE to be knowledgeable in your history and speak up for yourself. Otherwise people will treat you any type of way they want to.

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1. Who am I?

I am intelligent and resilient. Beautiful inside and out. I am a black woman. I am a mother, pet mom, sister, friend and girlfriend. I am a granddaughter activist and mentor. I am a facilitator, student, rapper, comedian/ entertainer and actor.

2. Who do I Pretend to be?

I pretend to be someone who needs no one. (Everybody needs a support system.)

3. Who do people think I am?

People think I am strong, and I go get what I want in life. They also might think I'm hard and kinda of an hot head. I have been through a lot and I tend to turn bad situations into blessings and life lessons which has made me resilient. I have been hard as a defense mechanism to keep myself safe. However I have been learning to soften up and use emotional intelligence.

4. Who do I wish I could be?

I wish I could be more consistent and disciplined. Because of my upbringing, discipline and consistency has never been my strong suite. I am currently unlearning these behaviors and opening myself up to new things.

5. How has your race played a role in any of these responses?

Being a black woman growing up in America without a support system has definitely made me a no nonsense self suffiecient individual. I have learned that people don't care about your short comings or what you have been through, especially for a black man or woman. People expect me to be black angry women stereotype so I have to work on myself to constantly prove them wrong.