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1. Who am I?
I am an introverted 24 year old college student. Although I have a few friends, I mostly enjoy spending  time with myself. I am someone who likes to read recreationally and can't do anything without listening to music (all genres). I am a foodie; love cooking and trying new food from different cultures. I am former foster youth which influenced my decision to be a psychology major.
2. Who do I pretend to be?
I pretend to have it together all of the time when I don't 85 percent of the time. Sometimes I pretend to be   the woman I dream of being; successful, a wife, a mother, homeowner, etc. {Manifestation}
3. Who do people think I am?
People think I am a weirdo most times because I'm 24 years old and I don't drink, party or do things most people my age do. I rather be at home, cooking or listening to music than have a night out. I've been through a lot, so people think I'm stronger than what I actually am.
4. Who do I wish I could be?
I wish I could be a less introverted person. I would like to be more social and out there. I would like to meet new people and make more friends but my social anxiety and shyness always get in the way. I wish I was someone who didn't let anything hold me back. I wish it was easy for me to step out of my comfort zone and stop doubting myself so much.

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1. What is your first experience with race?
My first experience with race was a few years back at the beauty supply. Most times, I make lists when I'm going to the store to ensure that I only grab what I went there for and nothing extra but this time I had no list. I was going back and forth between aisles trying to remember everything that I needed and one of the employees was following me. He didn't even tried to hide it. I asked him why was he following and he responded, "I have to watch you people."
2. How old were you? At the time, I was 15 years old.
3. What emotions do you associate with the experience?
The emotions I associate with the experience is anger.
4. Have you ever talked about the experience?
I spoke about the experience a time or 2.
5. How have your early experiences with race shape your worldview?
That experience race made me realize that nobody what we do, how we act, what we have, etc we will never be seen as equals to our nonblack counterparts and that they will always think less of people like me.

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1. Explain 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 changed your worldview at all? Explain.
Similarities that I've been able to identify between African cultures and African American culture is their spirituality, sensitivity to time, etc. Both cultures incorporate spirituality in everything that they do. For example, there’s this thing called black peoples’ time which basically mean that we’re never “on time” and it’s not that we’re late but most times events are said to start at a specific time but never actually do. It usually starts when everybody get there and it’s the same for the end time of an event. You leave when you’re ready to leave not at a specific time. This didn't really change my worldview. A lot of cultural practices have been passed down from generation to generation.

2. The concept of Ubuntu is uniquely African. After reading the chapter and analyzing the 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 believe that the spirit of Ubuntu is alive and well today in African American culture. I believe this to be true because no matter our differences, we always come together for our people when we need to.  For example, last May/June after the death of George Floyd, thousands (maybe millions) of African Americans came together to host protest to bring awareness to police brutality within our community.

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Theme 2: 7 Concepts of Afrocentric Psychology

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Theme 2: 7 Concepts of Afrocentric Psychology

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Spiritness: to be full of life.
I chose this concept because “full of life” describes our people so well. I’ve seen this concept demonstrated in the past & present African American community. Even through our bad times, we still try our hardest to be positive. We know how to laugh our way through our pain.

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Umoja: to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
This concept resonates with me because I feel as if we are all we got. Nobody cares for our people the way we care for our people. We have so many things against us, it’s very important for us to stick together. As stated before, I’ve seen this value in action during the Black Lives Matter protests.

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My multi-group ethnic measure identity measure score is 37.
To me, this score means that my sense of ethnic identity isn’t at its highest but it isn’t low either.
I think that this means that I have a kind of strong bond with the African Americans because I understand the importance of my ethnic group and their practices.
What surprised me about this analysis was nothing really. Prior to taking this assessment, I didn’t have any expectations.

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Multidimensions of Ethnic Self Identification

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Multidimensions of Ethnic Self Identification

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I self identify as an African American woman ✨
My first measure is being from LA [more specifically Watts; Imperial Courts Housing Projects] because it's apart of my identity, who I am, how I dress and how I look. Also, being from LA has influenced the way I look at certain things and made me culturally aware due to its diversity.
My second measure is is growing up in church. I didn't have a choice on whether I wanted to attend or not. This is the reality for most black people. I think this is why we incorporate spirituality in our everyday lives.
My third measure is my hair; its texture and they way it is styled and I chose it because natural hair is a really big topic in our community. It's very versatile. Aside from my melanated skin, my hair is another reason I love being a black woman.
My fourth measure is being a "strong black woman" and I chose it because this what people often use to describe black woman. Even though I don't consider being called strong a compliment most times, it's true. We are strong even when we don't want to be.

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My score after taking the Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale was 20.
What this score means to me and the understanding of my self-esteem is that it could be improved and there is things about myself that I need to work on.
I believe that my score is the number that it is because I am my own biggest critic. I see things wrong with me that other people can’t see.

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My stage of racial identity development is internalization.
I think that I am in the stage that I had identified because I’m very aware that my people are flawed and not all white people are bad.
I know that I’ve passed through the previous stages because I know I can exist in other racial groups, I don’t avoid whites and I don’t feel like all whites are all bad [innocent until proven guilty].
One thing that I’ve learned from this process is to not generalize people.

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1. The type of “isms” that I identified in the audio clip was racism. The types of racism I noticed in the audio clip was old-fashioned racism. For example, one of the women featured in the podcast had stated that when she was an advocating for Black Lives Matter, her white side of her family had felt offended by it. Why would that be offensive? I could be reaching but I feel like the only people who are offended by BLM and its movement are people who don’t think black people don’t deserve justice and are deserving of the brutality placed against them.
2. I do not believe that we live in a post racial society because black people are still being antagonized and discriminated against because we’re black. The biggest issue right now is police brutality against the men and women in our community. The way police handle black people versus how they deal with our white counterparts is very different and we know why. Another issue is the “Karens” feeling as if they’re entitled to policing where black people are and aren’t allowed to go.
3. My personal definition of race is physical features that group people together and I do believe that race is a social construct because race is a concept created and accepted by society.
4. What stood out to me the most about this unit’s topics is the different types of racism. It’s usually grouped as one thing and no one hardly ever mention its different forms.

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1. What makes the black family unique in my opinion is their sense of community. They treat everyone like family whether they are related by blood or not. We are raised to address friends of our parents and grandparents as our aunties and uncles. We address our close peers as our sisters and brothers as well.
2. I think a strength of the black family is how supportive they can be towards one another because it takes a village. As long as everyone's helping each other out, we see progress. A challenge of the black family is the fact that they don't take mental health serious because it prevents them from healing from generational trauma and projecting it onto their kids and the cycle continues.
3. Concepts such as racial socialization affect parents and children in black families by making them feel as if they're not equal to their nonblack counterparts. They have to work harder just to get to the same place as the others. We are restricted from doing certain things and have to be cautious because we aren't approached the same way by law enforcement; it's a constant state of fear.
4. A factor that I think impacted the black families the most since slavery is the lack of family stability. I believe that this was a direct result of the “Man in the House rule”. This rule denied assistance to a qualified child because there was a man living in the household. Even though the circumstances aren’t the same today but I feel like this is where the baby mama thing started.

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Template_ Racial Autobiography Outline (Andrea Parker)

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1. The Imposter Syndrome is a condition in which someone will doubt their accomplishments and abilities out of fear that they will be exposed as being a fraud.
2. The Imposter Syndrome affects students in their educational journey by negatively impacting their educational choices as well as career choices. It affects their career experiences by making them feel like they’re not worthy of their jobs and not the right person for the job which can result in other mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, etc.
3. The Imposter Syndrome specifically affects the self-esteem and mental of black women in the workplace because aside from the workplace, black women are not allowed to not be strong or feel a certain way. When they’re put in the workplace, they are not allowed to complain without being seen as aggressive and angry. The Imposter Syndrome makes black women feel as if they’re not deserving and don’t belong where they’re at; it makes them doubt themselves.
4. Race and gender plays into the black woman’s experience in the workplace because being a woman is already hard enough and they’re already seen as less than their male counterparts so to be black on top of that is another challenge. Black woman have to work two times harder than the others just to get into the same room and it’s exhausting.
5. One strategy that I believe would be successful in addressing this issue and improving the workplace for women of color is giving them a safe space. Allow black women to have moments of weakness/vulnerability and express their concerns without being coined as a “mad, black woman”.

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1. White privilege is advantages granted to white people that people of color don’t possess. It physically and psychologically affects the African American community by determining how they’re handled by law enforcement, whether it’s being shot and killed by police  or being unfairly sentenced by a judge. African Americans live in fear and are always in a constant state of stress because of this.
2. Of the 50 items on the handout, “I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. (41.) stood out to me because there is so much racism in the medical field and in law enforcement that needs to be addressed and corrected. These are two system that are life or death and how are we suppose feel safe or protected if they’re not doing their all for us. Our lives are literally in these people's hands.
3. Other systems that this theme affect in the African American community are the workplace (job opportunities), the school system, housing and other resources.
4.  A homeless, African American mom was sentenced to five years in prison for lying to the school district about where she lived so that her son could get a better education while Felicity Huffman, a white woman, was only sentenced to fourteen days for paying fifteen thousand dollars to a SAT administrator to cheat just so that her daughter can get into a better college. The crimes were similar but the punishment was far from similar and we know why.
*resource attached below*
5. A strategy that I believe can be successful to educate people on this matter is for white people to acknowledge that white privilege does exist. I feel like it’s important for them to acknowledge it so that we can began fixing it. We can’t fix anything that we pretend to not see.

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1. Strengths of black neighborhoods and communities are how connected everyone is, how they take care of each other have each other's back. For the most part, they treat each other like family.
2. Weaknesses of black neighborhoods and communities are the gang violence, increased crime, and the low quality education from nearby schools. A solution to an issue I've raised is increased mentor programs which gives kids positive role models and keep them occupied when they're not in school to prevent them from joining gangs.
3. Three ways in which black neighborhoods and communities can play a role in the progressive movement of the black community are by setting better, more positive examples to the youth, encouraging them to join clubs, play sports or get a job after school, and taking their mental health serious and getting help as needed.
4. Three ways in which black neighborhoods and communities could have a detrimental effect on the progressive movement of the black community are by committing crimes against one another because of colors and territories, not taking care of their mental health and passing their trauma down from one generation to the next and by being competitive towards one another and not supportive.
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-yD0wGxAc&t=19s
This video speaks about redlining and how it effects black people.

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1. The most important thing that I learned from this unit is colorism and how it affects mate selection. Colorism has been a heavy topic lately and I think it causes a divide between men and women in the black community. Black men are always bragging about how they prefer lighter skinned women and it’s their preference but they always seem to put down darker skinned women in order to state their preference.
2. Long-standing stereotypes in the media of African American females being portrayed as property affect the psyche of those seeing these images and the African American woman’s dating prospects by making hard for them to see the woman’s worth and treating her with respect.
3. Factors that are contributing to the rising number of single, black, and unmarried females are black men dating outside of their race, the high rate of incarceration of black men and having children while not being married being culturally accepted.
4. I think the stigma in the African American community against the LGBTQ community is because the church condemns it. African Americans are heavily involved in church and in church, they make it seem like being apart of the LGBTQ community is the worse sin you can commit.
5. **RESOURCE IS POSTED BELOW** This comic is geared towards the stigma African Americans have towards the LGBTQ community.

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1. To code switch means to alternate between two or more versions of yourself to fit in your current environment and it affects African American's success in life by increasing or decreasing their chances of being hired or being seen as professional.
2. Expecting code switching threatens diversity by downplaying someone’s racial group. People feel like they have to code switch because of little to no representation. For example, a minority might not feel as if they can't be their true self in the workplace because it'll be seen as unprofessional.
3. **RESOURCE BELOW** This TIKTOK video is of a song from a show Big Mouth that talks about what code switching is and why we use it.
4. A strategy that can address the misconceptions about code switching in and out of the African American community is to increase representation of all cultures so that people don’t feel like they have to code switch.

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PART 1.

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PART 2.

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1. The significance of the Yoruba Orisha faith is that it offers people a spiritual path and a deep sense of cultural belonging.
2. This faith provides a connection back to African for African Americans choosing to join the faith by adapting the ancient religion to a modern, American reality. It gives them a space of freedom and home.
3. The Yoruba faith treat health and healing in their religion with a holistic approach.
4. https://youtu.be/g-fMG1XTZzs
The most important thing I’ve learned about this topic from this video is its origins.

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1. One major theme that stood out the most to me was how African Americans are disregarded in the health care system because we are suppose to be able to depend on them.
2. This theme affect the African American community because already we’re experiencing the lack of early detection when it comes to health issues so to be ignored or not taken seriously when we are in pain, etc. decreases our chances of being treated in a timely manner. For example, many doctors have accused African Americans complaining of pain as being drug users and lying about their pain in order to obtain pain medications. They have also admitted that they believe that African Americans have a higher pain tolerance than other races which is not true.
3. One strategy that could be used to improve this would be for more African Americans to enter this field so that they can be advocates for people of their kind and oversee that everything is being done to ensure that everyone is getting proper care. Another thing I would like to add is that ned students should be taught what diseases, illnesses and symptoms look like on different because they don’t all show up the same on different people. My heart attack symptoms may vary from a white woman’s and eczema on my dark skin may not look the same on a white woman’s pale white skin.
4. **RESOURCE** (yes i love tiktok lol)

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1. There is a mistrust among the African American community and the health care system because they have been taken advantage of, used as guinea pigs for medical experiments and received treatments and procedures that they did not consent to or have have thorough knowledge about.
2. The medical system has fostered distrust in the African American community by turning African American women over to police when disclosing to them about their substance abuse during the crack epidemic. When non-African Americans have a substance abuse issue, they’re sent mental health facilities for rehabilitation while African American women are sent to jail for rehabilitation.
3. Three strategies that I believe can address these issues is more African Americans pursuing careers in this field, acknowledge and address that there is a racial bias in this field and establish a sense of trust between black patients in the same way they do with white patients.
4. **RESOURCE**
This article talks about the history of the black community and their distrust for the healthcare system and ways that it can be improved.

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Many Americans looked upon the white supremacist rally at Charlottesville, Va. with disgust and disbelief. However, many black American looked upon the events as a reaffirmation of what they long since known: vicious racial hatred has always boiled beneath the surface. This attitude has shaped many black American's approach to healthcare.

Many black Americans do not trust their healthcare providers to act in their best interests. Research has shown that blacks are much less likely to report trust in their physicians and hospitals; thus, are less likely to seek treatment or be compliant with recommended treatment plans.

The medical community should care about this collective sense of black distrust in medicine, as it is a major factor in the well-documented health disparities between blacks and whites.

In many cases, when blacks have the same diseases as their white counterparts, blacks are much more likely died sooner. For instance, blacks are three times more likely to die of asthma than white Americans . Blacks have a 25 percent higher cancer death rate than their white counterparts . Black women have a 20 percent higher cancer death rate than white women . Blacks tend to develop chronic disease earlier in life and overall have shorter life expectancies when compared to whites.

Trust is not only a foundational element to a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship but also is a vital factor in patient's decision making to seek-help early before diseases advance beyond treatment possibilities. In order to address this distrust of the U.S. healthcare system, there must be exploration of the historical roots and how prejudice operates in the modern medical context.

A historical perspective

The U.S. medical establishment has a long legacy of discriminating and exploiting black Americans, the indelible memory of which remains deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of the community. Historically, medicine has used black bodies , without consent, for its own advancement; while, medical theories, technologies, and institutions were used to reinforce systems of oppression.

In the Antebellum period, blacks were forced to participate in dissections and medical examinations. Dead black bodies, robbed from their graves, were a continuous source of surgical and anatomical experimentation. The psychiatric diagnosis of drapetomania, or "runaway slave syndrome," was created to diagnose and pathologize African slaves who fled their vicious slave owners. To runaway from slavery was considered a disease. The treatment was often amputation of extremities.

Later during Reconstruction Era, white American doctors argued that former slaves would not thrive in a free society because their minds could not cope psychologically with freedom. In the Civil Rights era, psychiatrists used the concept of schizophrenia to portray black activists as violent, hostile, and paranoid because they threatened the racist status quo.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where hundreds of black men, without their consent, were intentionally administered syphilis and denied treatment, became the very embodiment of the way medicine and medical research was weaponized against African Americans. Scholars have written for decades about the Tuskegee experiments symbolizing the racisms embedded in medicine and laying the foundation for the black communities distrust of physicians and research. Many scholars agree that although the black distrust of the health system started way before Tuskegee, this study has been become the central metaphor and focal point to explain black distrust in medicine and public health.
In modern times
As healthcare professionals, this is the cultural and social genealogy that we have inherited. Is it no surprise that blacks do not trust doctors or hospitals? Despite trends in the reduction of racial prejudice over recent decades, the marginalization of black Americans takes place at every level of the contemporary medical system.

In my work as a psychiatrist, I often observe the differential treatment of patients based on race or ethnicity. This discrimination may take the form of differential prescription patterns at times or increased restraints use in the hospital. I have observed hospital staff insistent that certain black patients were "dangerous" requiring four-point restraints, which meant that each of the limbs would be strapped to the bed.

In my own research, I have found that black Americans with mental health diagnoses are less likely to receive certain medicine for their conditions compared to whites with the same condition. Blacks are less likely to be prescribed newer, better-tolerated medicine called atypical antipsychotics . Rather, they tend to be offered older medicine with worse side effects. Specifically, a drug called Clozapine, which is considered the "Cadillac" of psychiatric medicine because of its superior effectiveness, is prescribed less in minority patients with serious mental illness when compared to white patients.

From the a time a person enters the waiting area of an emergency room or clinic to the time spent with the doctor as well as the doctor's treatment decision-making is all influenced by race and ethnicity.

One study of emergency room records indicates that black patients are more likely than whites to receive lower triage scores for the same complaints, meaning that triage personnel rate the complaints as less serious . As a result, less serious complaints in emergency rooms translates into longer wait times. Even in case of serious medical emergency, such as in the case of stroke, where time to intervention is critical, blacks experience long wait time for stroke medications .

After long wait times, when minority patients are finally able to even see a physician, several studies have shown that physicians spend less time with blacks patients when compared to whites, and are less likely to perceive the patient as being honest regarding their symptoms .
What can we do?
The medical community must address the real sense of suspicion, distrust, and cynicism that is deeply embedded in black collective memory. Earning a patient's trust is a very difficult feat given these historical forces, but medical education systems, hospitals, and physicians themselves can take steps to address this issue.

First, physicians, hospitals, and schools can address the role of implicit racial bias, which is often described as automatically activated and often unintentional. Implicit racial bias has proved to be a powerful, validated tool to help explain health care disparities. For instance, in one study, doctors who were found to have higher levels of implicit bias (as measure by the Implicit Association Test ) were more likely to withhold treatment from a black patient.

The schools of medicine can do its part in ensuring doctors are properly trained by integrating the concept of implicit bias into the medical education curriculums. Health care organizations should also offer training to health care professionals to address implicit bias. Researchers like, Patricia Devine, Professor of Psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, have understood implicit bias to be a habit of the mind, and can be changed over time, if the person is aware, concerned, and interventions are employed to replace the bias .

It must be acknowledged that gaps in healthcare disparities results from of a myriad of other social determinants of health such as: education level, employment, housing, community recourses and health eating. For this reason, holding policy makers accountable for ensuring universal equity to a variety of social resources will prove to be effective at improving the health of black communities as well.

Efforts to improve the health outcomes for black Americans must acknowledge the brutal history and shadow cast from decades of discrimination and the resultant collective distrust within the community. As president Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump, Biden face off for last time on the debate stage Trump expected to bring Hunter Biden's former business partner to debate Davis: On eve of tonight's debate - we've seen this moment in history before MORE once apologized, "We cannot be one America when a whole segment of our nation has no trust in America."
J. Corey Williams M.D. is a resident physician at Yale University Department of Psychiatry. He mentors inner city youth and is interested in ethnographic research in disruptive behavior disorders in children. The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Black Americans don't trust our healthcare system - here's why

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Many Americans looked upon the white supremacist rally at Charlottesville, Va. with disgust and disbelief. However, many black American looked upon the events as a reaffirmation of what they long since known: vicious racial hatred has always boiled beneath the surface. This attitude has shaped many black American's approach to healthcare.

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Psychological Adaption and Mental Health

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Psychological Adaption and Mental Health

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1. The signs of mental health disorders get overlooked in the African American community because people believe that mental illness don’t affect them and that it’s a “white person’s” problem.
2. By understanding that mental illness can affect us all, that the church can be good support but it will not heal you and lastly, acknowledging generational trauma and trying to not spread it to future generations.
3. Getting educated on mental health, spreading awareness and encouraging people to get treatment.
4. **RESOURCE** This resource is a TIKTOK video explaining what depression look like in black people.

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http://somup.com/crfQY8bPbB