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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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Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities | Center for Medicare Advocacy

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1. What are the outcomes of institutionally racist policy choices that exclude the needs of low-income minorities in the health care system? -Some outcomes include medication, access to healthy foods and health services. Low income minorities face a lot of problems just because people want to treat them differently.

2. How does the intersectionality of the unconscious bias, distrust in the healthcare system, lack of health insurance and lack of health education affect the African American community? -Heart attacks and diabetes. Being able to afford medication.

3. State THREE strategies that you feel can address the issues raised in questions one and two. The medicine that is usually generic or the original medication is expensive, it needs to be cheaper. People shouldn’t have to choose between purchasing their medication or food. Organic food is usually more expensive because it doesn’t have any chemicals or pesticides, unhealthy foods that give you diabetes or high cholesterol is cheaper. Healthy food should be affordable for everyone to eat. Accessing health services are hard for people with no insurance, we could create more free clinics so people can get the proper healthcare.

4. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue. -https://medicareadvocacy.org/medicare-info/health-care-disparities/ This Article just goes more to detail about the Racial and ethnic healthcare disparities in America. It describes the severity or certain diseases and how certain communities or color have difficulty in obtaining healthcare services.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. - I learned African American adults are at least  50% more likely to die prematurely from heart disease or stroke.

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Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities - Center for Medicare Advocacy

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Articles and Updates Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities Is Essential for Better Health Care Outcomes and for Lowering Health Care Costs Introduction There is a growing realization among healthcare researchers, clinicians, and advocates that a focus on health care disparities is an im…

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Film Analysis Outline Template (Tania Johns)

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1. After reading this Washington Post article, can you explain why there are disparities between the amount of pain medication an African American woman would receive compared to other women in the same hospital complaining of pain? A lot of doctors disregard black patients pain while when treating a white patient they take their pain very seriously. Also some doctors truly believe that African Americans “feel less pain”.

2. What factors are contributing to the disproportionate number of African American infants who die in childbirth and African American mothers who die in childbirth? Pregnancy and child birth related  complications is a big factor in the number of Black women who pass away during childbirth. The number one factor is racism, once people see African Americans as equals to everyone we will not receive adequate care in medical facilities.

3. What are some solutions that can be implemented to improve the experiences of African American mothers giving birth and African American infant survival rates? A solution can be to take the pain of a African American woman seriously and not medically gaslight her. Speaking up when we have negative experiences, so others can be aware of what could happen to them; or to avoid a certain doctor cause of inadequate care.

4. Find one resource that helps you understand this theme and post it to your Padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material. https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html
This article went more into detail about the racial disparities Black women face during pregnancy and childbirth. It also gave some solutions to fix the problems that go on daily in the medical field.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.  One thing I learned in the reading was really the scary things black women go through during pregnancy and childbirth. I knew our pain wasn’t taken seriously but not in situations like this.

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1. What are the significant differences in terms of religious and spiritual practices of the African American community compared to the larger community? Religion is very important to African Americans compared to other religions. 79% of African Americans say they are a Christian, that’s a large majority of the black population.

2. Why do Black Millenials exhibit different religious habits compared to older African Americans who more traditionally attended historically Black protestant churches? I think black millennials have different religious habits due to the generational age gap. The elders in the community, how they raised their children is not how millennials where brought up. My great great grandmother was a pastor and every person in my family went to church faithfully every Sunday, prayed daily probably; yet the younger generation, myself included do no such thing.

3. How does attending church affect the mental health of African Americans? In my opinion for some African Americans, attending church is very helpful to one’s mental health. To others, it’s detrimental to their mental health where  they feel judged or like nobody there cares. Some churches are toxic and it has  pushed people away from wanting to attend church because of how someone has treated them.

4. Please locate a resource that helps you understand this theme. Analyze the resource and state the most important thing you learned from it about this topic. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/black-spirituality-mental-health#Retracing-the-steps-of-Black-spirituality:-Two-womens-stories The most important thing I learned from this topic was, mental health benefits of spirituality.

5. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. I learned that there where alot of African-American Christians.

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1. What does it mean to code switch and how does this affect an African American's success in life? It means to change your way or speaking or how you usually act around different groups of people. For African Americans when they are going on a interview or in school they would have to adjust culturally to the environment they are in.

2. How does expecting code switching threaten diversity? People can not truly be themselves if they are expected to code switch. If we could be at a place socially where all different cultures could act how they usually do, talk with certain language and not be judged they aren’t as intelligent.

3. How do the effects of code switching intersect with a persons' mental health? Having to show pieces of yourself and not being your true authentic self slowly deteriorates a persons mental health. In my situation, having to constantly code switch at school or with different family members it burns me out. I isolate myself and decide not to talk to anyone if I can’t be myself around everyone.

4. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdyYPdjgxvU/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= This clip sheds more light on this issue for me because listening to a black woman say that code switching got her where she’s at but she had a realization that code switching isn’t helping the people that she represents. For the people who look like her but don’t talk or show case themselves like her wouldn’t ever be able to be in a position like that unless there were no code switching be expected of POC.

5. State a strategy that you feel can be successful to address the misconceptions about code switching that exist inside and outside of the African American community. A strategy that could be successful would be not think someone would be confused to code switch constantly.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. I learned what code switching is and that I actually do it quite often.

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Why Can't We Talk About Homophobia in the Black Community?

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1. State the most important thing that you learned from this unit's readings and how it has deepened your understanding of Black male and female interpersonal and close relationships. -After reading the slideshow for unit 10, I've learned that not only black boys need friends in the adolescent stage of childhood to stay out of trouble. Little black girls need friends growing up to see their own self worth, and to create positive sisterly relationships.

2. How do long-standing stereotypes in the media of African American females being portrayed as property (i.e. in rap videos etc.) affect the psyche of those seeing these images and the African American woman's dating prospects? -Most people who watch rap videos, think that all AA women are like the ones they see in the videos and they end up treating them as the women are portrayed in the videos.

3. What factors are contributing to the rising number of single Black unmarried females? -Black women want financial stability and most men aren't stable financially by their 20s & 30s.

4. Why is there a stigma in the African American community against the LGBTQ community? -Alot of elders or people in the AA & LGBTQ community believe that being gay is a sin. A sin is judging someone, and we aren't God so we have no right to disown someone because of their sexuality.

5. Find one resource that helps you understand these themes and post it to your padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material. https://www.advocate.com/politics/2015/05/26/why-cant-we-talk-about-homophobia-black-community

- The article posted to my padlet, helped me understand the issues between the Black community and the LGBTQ community.

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Why Can't We Talk About Homophobia in the Black Community?

Fox's Empire is at the forefront of a significant year for representations of black and LGBT stories in media. The show, which unabashedly confronts homophobia in hip-hop, has become a ratings (and music sales) sensation.

Its success is more than monetary. The musical drama has broken barriers on network television by showing one of its central characters, the gay musician Jamal Lyon (played by out actor Jussie Smollett), kiss and make love to other men of color. The opposite of a stereotype, Jamal is talented, brave, and arguably the most virtuous member of his family.

But in addition to love, Empire also shows the ugliness of homophobia. Jamal's father, Lucious Lyon, is blinded to his son's talents by deep-seated bias. This is underscored throughout the season by a heart-wrenching flashback, where Lucious throws a young Jamal into a trashcan after the child walks down the stairs in a pair of heels.

The show's black and gay co-creator, Lee Daniels, whose real-life experiences with his father inspired the relationship on the show, has said he wanted Empire to "blow the lid" off of the "rampant" homophobia in the black community. The backlash wasn't pretty. Antigay viewers lashed out at Daniels on social media throughout the first season. They threatened him, as well as his children, Daniels told The Advocate.

The greatest challenge of addressing homophobia, he said, was "shielding myself from the pain of people that are still angry at me for discussing it."

"If you are in social media, you can't help but look at what people are saying," Daniels said at a recent panel for the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. "Though there are many supporters out there that are for the issues that I try to address about homophobia, not only in the African-American community, but in America, there are just as many that are not nice."

The backlash wasn't limited to antigay viewers. Many members of the black LGBT community and their allies bristle when homophobia is discussed in terms of race. Daniels' comments had hit a nerve, as they touched on an ugly stereotype of black culture that many had been working to overcome.

Another prominent public figure to hit this nerve was Kerry Washington. In a speech delivered at the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, the Scandal actress, who also holds degrees in anthropology and sociology from George Washington University, stressed the importance of intersectionality in achieving success for minority rights. Those who are not straight white men, she said, "have been pitted against each other and made to feel like there are limited seats at the table." And she singled out antigay voices from the black community as an example.

"So when black people today tell me that they don't believe in gay marriage... the first thing that I say is, 'Please don't let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interest by feeding you messages of hate,'" she said. "And then I say, 'You know people used to stay that stuff about you and your love. And if we let the government start to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next?'"

The audience, which was comprised of primarily white gay men, burst into a standing ovation. However, Washington's words, and the crowd's reaction, were not universally acclaimed.

"But when did homophobia become a specifically black problem?" wrote The Daily Beast's Stereo Williams in a response piece to the comments of Washington and Daniels. He noted that "pushback against gay rights isn't just happening amongst black folks," pointing out a string of hate crimes like the murders of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena that were committed by white people, as well as right-wing politicians who advocate for anti-LGBT legislation.

"Ignorance and hate are not black-exclusive," he rightly concludes.

Clearly, hatred toward gay people is not unique to a race or culture. But are there unique factors at play in the black community in regard to attitudes toward LGBT people? Are the causes of black homophobia different? And is it helpful or harmful to consider factors like race when addressing bias in specific communities?

The answers to these questions are complex and vary, depending on whom you ask.

"Fuck, yes," said Faith Cheltenham, a black bisexual woman and the head of BiNet USA, when asked if black homophobia is different than in other communities.

"The wave of 'post-racial society'... got rid of this really entrenched approach to inclusion. We've seen a lot of slippage," she said. "I know there's a lot of black LGBT activists who are really angry that we keep on having the conversation about black homophobia. And I'm like, at the same time, black homophobia has not gone away. So it's a very careful balance of understanding that."

"Black homophobia is very different than white homophobia," she maintained. When white families are homophobic, she said, they are more likely to kick their LGBT children out of their homes. Black families tend to turn to leaders in the church "to get rid of the demon of homosexuality," she said. And they are much more likely to say, "I love you. I don't love your sin."

This particular conflict is captured in Blackbird, a recent film by black gay filmmaker Patrik-Ian Polk. Touching on similar themes to Empire, the film stars Mo'Nique as a parent who struggles to accept her son's sexuality. Like Empire's Lucious Lyon, her character also has a violent reaction to the discovery of her son's queerness - she takes a baseball bat and shatters a car window. Unlike Lucious, she calls a priest to attempt a kind of gay exorcism.

In a recent interview with The Advocate, Mo'Nique stressed that the homophobia that affects her character and her character's community, a small Southern town heavily influenced by the black church, is "strictly" religion and not related to race. She said congregations preaching hate are behind the real-world bias, a revelation she received from the young gay men from all backgrounds who told her they identified with the film.

"We're just one big community... still faced with this issue of acceptance," Mo'Nique said of humanity. She said thinking about issues like hatred and bias as community-specific can even be detrimental to addressing them.

"We keep putting these titles and labels that make separation," she said. "As a human race, we need to work together."

However, Larry Duplechan, a black gay man who wrote the novel on which Blackbird is based, said it may not be so easy to divorce the issues of race and religion. They have become so intertwined that defying one is the same as leaving the other, he said.

"The center of the black community is the black church, and that changes everything. So coming out in the black community is like trying to come out as an Orthodox Jew. You'll lose your family. You'll lose your culture. You'll lose your community, because usually, you are ejected. Even now, that's true," said the 58-year-old writer.

Although he wrote the book about 30 years ago, Duplechan said he hasn't seen much change regarding the African American community's attitudes toward gay people. One of these reasons is that "manhood, with a capital M, is terribly, terribly important for so many reasons to black men. So black gay men can be seen as the problem to other black men."

Does he think it has become taboo to speak about homophobia as it relates specifically to the black community?

"Recently, I've noticed it," he said. "It's very much looked down on to say that anymore. And I think mostly because we get so much from outside the community. We get so much that the last thing you want is to be perceived as attacking your own community. So I understand to a certain extent. But it's also much easier to deny and deflect and defend than it is to face the homophobia that is clearly within the community."

"So - I'm going to get in trouble for this - but we need to get over it, and not deflect, and face it, and talk about it," he concluded.

The difficulty of broaching the topic of homophobia in the black community was also raised by Tavis Smiley, a PBS talk show host, in his interview with another Blackbird star, Isaiah Washington. The actor had come under fire a few years ago for allegedly using a gay slur against his Grey's Anatomy costar T.R. Knight, and his role on Blackbird was deemed a move of "redemption" by the Washington Post (though Washington denied such motives, when asked).

"Why do you think this conversation has been so difficult to have in black America?" Smiley asked Washington. "It's not that it's easy anywhere, per se, but in our community, it's a tough conversation to have."

In response, Washington raised a constellation of factors that contribute to homophobia, ranging from institutional racism that places all young black men in a perilous position ("All of our young boys are dying," he stressed) to colonialism in Africa that upended "thousands and thousands of years" of acceptance toward people who loved others of the same sex.

He says an understanding of this origin of homophobia will help reframe conversations about the place for LGBT people in black culture, which will in turn tap into a deeper, historic root of acceptance.

"The question is, in terms of the African-American community... how do we coexist? How do we have tolerance? How do we have acceptance for our people who want to love the way they want to love? That's who we've been. That's the DNA that we share," Washington said.

"Gay people are not going anywhere," he continued. "They're not going to change for us... so why can't we figure out a way to accept one another, and have this real conversation in our churches, in particular our black church?"

Although it sounds far-reaching, this tracing of LGBT acceptance to Africa's past was echoed by Cheltenham, who spoke enthusiastically about this "hidden history" and the importance of teaching it in present day.

"Homophobia did not exist on the continent before colonialism," she said. "There were over 500 words for same-sex behavior across five different regions of Africa, like 'boy wife' or 'woman warrior.'"

"After colonialism came a system of systemic surveillance and oppression," she continued. "It wasn't just that people were being burned or killed for being gay, it was that community leadership was told by colonialist suppressors ... that anybody who participated in this same-sex behavior was evil, dirty, [and] that they needed to be eradicated. That did not come from African culture."

"So African-American people, who have then been taken and brought to America, then they go through 400 or so years of slavery, then 150 years of Jim Crow - because I think Jim Crow didn't really end. What do you end up with? You end up with a group of people who are very unaware of their history of homosexualities, of their support of LGBT identities, of their creation of multiple gender identities."

Even today, antigay religious leaders, frustrated by the progress of LGBT rights groups in the United States, have taken their crusade to African countries like Uganda. There, they have used religion to stoke hatred and influence the passing of oppressive laws.

"Homophobia is the real import to Uganda," said Ugandan LGBTI advocate Pepe Onziema, after an antigay rally was held on the gravesite of the murdered activist David Kato in April 2013.

As Uganda has shown, homophobia can have disastrous consequences on society. Antigay attitudes influenced the creation of horrific legislation like the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which passed with broad support in the country's parliament in December 2013. Before it was ruled invalid due to international backlash, the act mandated lifelong sentences for many LGBT people. Activists and workers at HIV clinics were jailed, and violence against members of the LGBT community increased ten-fold.

Moreover, stigma and discrimination in both government and society created a health crisis. As of 2012, 7.2 percent of the population was reportedly living with HIV, with homophobia and ignorance of sex education playing key roles.

The consequences of fear and a lack of access to education are not limited to Africa. In the United States, the African-American community is the most at-risk racial group for HIV infection, reports the Centers for Disease Control. Black gay and bisexual men account for a quarter of HIV infections among all Americans, and studies show that 60 percent of this demographic will be HIV-positive by the age of 40. And though numbers among heterosexual African-American women have declined in the past few years, the rate of HIV infection in this group is still 20 times higher than it is for white women.

This plight is keenly articulated in a new play by scholar and performer E. Patrick Johnson. After collecting dozens of oral histories from black gay men in the South, Johnson is staging a one-man show, Sweet Tea, in which he channels the voices of men who have learned to navigate their double identities of black and gay. In one memorable performance, Johnson says that when black men who have either left or been kicked out of their communities return, "they're coming home to die" of HIV-related illnesses.

So how should homophobia in the black community be addressed? The knowledge that centuries of white racism may have contributed to it should extend far beyond the black community, said Cheltenham.

White people, particularly the white LGBT community, need to wake up to intersectionality, and realize that the fight against homophobia requires addressing the specific needs of every community, not just those visible in white spaces. Black LGBT people in particular suffer through a great deal of political, economic, and social disparity, which "the white LGBT community doesn't really see."

"I think it's kind of killing all the black LGBT people out there right now to see people discussing marriage equality... and not talking about folks that are really, really struggling. And that kind of takes the hope away," Cheltenham said.

Change means supporting underfunded groups in addition to the Human Rights Campaign, which "very rarely" sees black homophobia as a priority, Cheltenham continued. One such group is the National Black Justice Coalition, which intimately understands how working with black families, increasing LGBT visibility, and changing public policies can fight homophobia at every level for all people.

"The state of homophobia within the black community is only a reflection of the broader American culture, which finds itself in a continuous evolution in favor of the demands that define the LGBT equality movement," Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, executive director and CEO of the NBJC, told The Advocate in a statement.

She cited issues like "affordable health care, job opportunities, livable wages, protection from employment discrimination, fair housing practices and laws," as among those policies that must still be fought for in order for progress to occur.

Frank conversations between different segments of the community, and a willingness to talk about those differences, are also key.

"It is imperative that when we have conversations on topics around LGBT equality that we acknowledge the cultural challenges and divides that we face," Lettman-Hicks added. "Black LGBT people cannot separate their Blackness from their lived experiences. The issues that confront black people - like structural oppression and racism in America - impact black LGBT people even more."

Indeed, the nearly two million adult LGBT workers of color face lower wages, on-the-job discrimination, and higher levels of unemployment than the general population, reports the Movement Advancement Project. Citing numbers from the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School, MAP shows that LGBT African Americans have the highest unemployment rate in the country (15 percent).

MAP's report, titled "A Broken Bargain for LGBT Workers of Color," notes it "can be hard to identify exactly how the forces of bias and prejudice based on race, sexual orientation and gender identity intersect." But if racism and homophobia are a problem in America, and homophobia still closes doors to employment for black workers within their own communities and networks, then where are LGBT workers of color to turn?

Bell hooks, a noted scholar on black and LGBT issues, acknowledged this paradox in Talking Back, a book tackling homophobia in the African-American community.

"Often black gay folk feel extremely isolated [personally and professionally] because there are tensions in their relationships with the larger, predominantly white gay community created by racism, and tensions within black communities around issues of homophobia," she wrote.

It was issues like these - the struggle of black parents when faced with the possibility of their LGBT child being disadvantaged as a double minority - that were on the mind of Lee Daniels as he created storylines that galvanized so many.

"As it was with my dad, it was difficult enough being an African-American. You go out and you can get shot simply for being a black man. Why do you want to add being gay to that?" he said. "And many people that are heterosexual really feel that this is something that can be cured. People think that, and so, what do you do?"

What does one do? Eric Holder, the former attorney general, spoke about his frustration that the fight against homophobia in the black community has gone on "as long as it has" in his exit interview with The Advocate. The remedy, he proposed, was collaboration.

"It seems to me that there is a need for a greater understanding, a greater unity, and greater struggle - jointly," he concluded. "My hope will be that over time that will happen."

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Why Can't We Talk About Homophobia in the Black Community?

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Why Can't We Talk About Homophobia in the Black Community? Fox's Empire is at the forefront of a significant year for representations of black and LGBT stories in media. The show, which unabashedly confronts homophobia in hip-hop, has become a ratings (and music sales) sensation. Its success is more than monetary.

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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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_Psych 110_ Resources and Questions for Critical Analysis Project 

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1. STRENGTHS: What are the strengths of Black neighborhoods and communities and how have they manifested over time? -Strong work orientation is a strength of the Black community. It’s manifested overtime because each generation instills work ethic into their children. Don’t depend on anyone to do anything for yourself, work hard and get it on your own.

2. WEAKNESSES: What are the weaknesses of Black neighborhoods and communities and state one solution to an issue you have raised? -Not supporting black businesses. The black community could thrive so much more if we shopped in our communities, they would flourish.

3. OPPORTUNITIES: What are three ways in which Black neighborhoods and communities could play a role in the progressive movement of the Black community? Buying more property, getting into more political roles in the community, and supporting black businesses.

4. THREATS: What are three ways in which Black neighborhoods and communities could have a detrimental effect on the progressive movement of the Black community? Black on black crime, not voting, and stereotypes.

5. Find one resource that helps you understand these themes and post it to your Padlet. State the resources' significance to this unit's material.

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. - I learned more about gentrification and how it displaces communities of color and the difference between urban displacement and urban opportunity.

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Final Four Page Racial Autobiography paper

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Final Four Page Racial Autobiography paper

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Microaggressions

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7.6 Intersectionality, Bias and Microaggressions

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1. What would you say are the psychological consequences of experiencing subconscious racial slights as a person of color? -Loneliness, anger. depression, anxiety, lower sense of psychological well being.

2. What stereotypes are perpetuated when racial microaggressions are thrown around towards a person of color? -POC are not articulate, being seen as a alien in your own country.

3. Considering Intersectionality, what other issues does this theme affect in the African American community? - An example of how intersectionality affects POC is, a "white-passing" heterosexual immigrant woman would have better life & work experiences than a POC heterosexual undocumented immigrant woman.

4. State how these theories of intersectionality, racial microaggressions, bias or white privilege affect one's understanding of "sense of self" or ethnic identity? -Intersectionality, racial microaggressions, etc takes the different versions of people's identities and their shared life experiences so people can understand the severity of the preconceptions we all face daily as POC.

5. Search online for a resource that helps you understand this topic more and post it to your Padlet. State why the resource shines some light on a perspective of this issue. -I chose this resource because it explained to me perfectly how Intersectionality affects Black women like me everyday.

6. State a strategy that you feel can be successful to address the use of microaggressions especially when the offender is unaware of how their reactions affect people of color. - People can ask questions respectfully, or become color conscious.

7. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit. -How intersectionality really affects me daily in my everyday life.

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Dra. Nicole Caridad Ralston, (she/her/hers), Associate Director of Education and Programming
At Beloved Community, we frame our work in Kimberle Crenshaw's (1989) theory of Intersectionality. We recommend Intersectionality as a framework for organizations to use to examine how multiple layers of oppression may be impacting their stakeholders and community members. Intersectionality is a term that is thrown around a lot today, and we wanted to take a moment during Black History Month to uplift and unpack the theory from our beloved Kimberle Crenshaw. Let's get started!

Ok, so, what is Intersectionality? The theory of Intersectionality is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and their related systems of oppression, domination, and discrimination. Intersectionality was developed by Crenshaw in the 1980s to address the double oppression that women of color, particularly Black women, experience due to their marginalized racial and gender identities (Ralston, 2019). At Beloved Community, we frame how race is an exponent of all other identities as the R Factor. Our R Factor explains how when all other identities are the same, race will exponentially change a person's outcomes. For example, a white woman, or white-passing heterosexual woman who is an immigrant will have more positive experiences and outcomes than a Black or Brown woman who is also heterosexual and an undocumented immigrant.

Intersectionality suggests that and seeks to examine how, various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, religion, age, nationality and other spectrums of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels in a person's life experiences and outcomes. Intersectionality proposes that we should think of each element or trait of a person as inextricably linked with all the other elements to fully understand a person's identity, lived experiences, and shared experiences with others of similar social identities. (Crenshaw, 1989). This framework can be used to understand how systemic injustice and social inequality occur on a multidimensional basis (Crenshaw, 1989).

There are three aspects of intersectionality that Crenshaw defines in terms of how they shape the lives of women of color (Crenshaw, 1991). The three aspects are structural, political, and representational intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991). I outline these three aspects and provide examples below:

Structural intersectionality looks at how structural policies and practices fail women of color because they do not take into account all of the layers of oppression they experience (namely racism and sexism, not to mention additional marginalized identities they may have). For example, within both public and private sectors, White women surpass the employment rates of people of color, including women of color, even when affirmative action policies are utilized (Kohn, 2013; Massie, 2016). Therefore, a structural policy that was put in place to increase racial and gender representation still maintains, albeit unintentionally, the current power structures which disenfranchise people of color in the United States (Ralston, 2019).

Political intersectionality defines how women of color exist with two subordinate identities that often involve conflicting political agendas. Crenshaw (1991) explains that, "the need to split one's political energies between two sometimes opposing groups is a dimension of intersectional disempowerment that men of color and White women seldom confront" (p. 1252). When racial political issues are represented in the dominant paradigm as men of color issues, and when feminist political issues are represented in the dominant paradigm as White women issues, women of color fall into a gap in which they are not being viewed, represented, or held as individuals who experience both racism and sexism.

Representational intersectionality provides a way to understand how beliefs about women of color are built and maintained by how their intersectional interests are represented, misrepresented, or not represented in the media. A contemporary example of how representational intersectionality shows up can be found in how we rarely hear about the rates at which Black women suffer similar fates as Black men at the hands of police. Black women make up 6.6 percent of the United States population, yet account for 33% of all women killed by police according to the African American Policy Forum (American Community Survey, 2016; Crenshaw & Ritchie, 2015). If you've ever seen Kimberle Crenshaw speak, she often opens her talks with the names of Black community members who have been killed by police. She asks audience members to stand up for the names that they recognize, and once she starts reading the women's names, few to none of the audience members are still standing. She ties this back to a lack of media representation of violence against women of color.

You may be asking yourself: how does this author know so much about the theoretical details of Intersectionality? Well, let me tell you! I graduated with my Ph.D in Educational Administration from the University of New Orleans on May of 2019. I used Crenshaw's Intersectionality as the theoretical framework for my dissertation which explored how Black women and Latinx women who serve as Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO), navigated both their racial and gender identities in their professional role, how they were prepared for this identity navigation throughout their career, and how they mentored younger women of color. Crenshaw's theory of Intersectionality was immensely helpful for me as a lens to view and code their shared experiences. If you want to read her original theory in totality, follow this link, and if you want to review how Intersectionality showed up for the women in my dissertation, you can read more at this link.

We hope that a deeper understanding of Intersectionality leads you to a deeper examination of how structural, political and representational intersectionality is effecting historically and socially marginalized populations in your organization's work. If you're ready to examine how diversity, equity and inclusion manifests in your organization's policies and practices, we recommend our free Equity Audit. The Beloved Community Equity Audit is a comprehensive assessment tool designed to assess Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for schools, nonprofits, companies and local governments. It is a four hour, practice-based self-study that measures DEI indicators across all functional areas of an organization's operations (governance, executive leadership, finance, talent, operations, programming and grant-making) and stakeholders (board, management, staff, grantees, community members and students). Check out our user guide to learn more!

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Black History Month: What Is Intersectionality?

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Dra. Nicole Caridad Ralston, (she/her/hers), Associate Director of Education and Programming At Beloved Community, we frame our work in Kimberle Crenshaw's (1989) theory of Intersectionality. We recommend Intersectionality as a framework for organizations to use to examine how multiple layers of oppression may be impacting their stakeholders and community members.

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1. The inability to absorb one’s accomplishments and the persistent fear that one will be exposed as a fraud.

2. It can make them question themselves and think they are terrible instead of being proud of their current accomplishments.

3. Daily in the workplace Black woken feel like they don’t belong in the workplace and dealing with imposter  syndrome exaggerates that feeling a lot more.

4. Women already have a not great experience in the workplace, but being black and a woman makes the workplace a toxic environment at times.

5. Encouraging more women of color to take leadership roles.

6.
A lot of things I experience daily such as, imposter syndrome …I am not alone.

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/ethnic-identity

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1. From the reading, what do you think makes the Black family unique? Please provide descriptive examples.

- I think the tradition “ jumping the broom “ makes the black family unique. I’ve personally never heard of another race jumping the broom; slaves started doing this because they were permitted to marry their spouses so they did it in secrecy.

2. What do you think are the strengths and challenges of the Black family? Please state why you think so and provide examples.

-Some challenges that black families had to face was being sold separately on purpose, And the forcing of parents to discipline their children harshly by any means necessary. This affected black families by The father of the mother no longer being with the with their children and destroying their family dynamic. Also, the abuse that children faced by the parents went down generations in lots of black families end up abusing their children thinking that they are disciplining them. Strong work orientation, strong religious orientation, strong achievement orientation are some of the strengths of the black family, I say this from experience. My mother was raised to go to church and worship the Lord Jesus Christ; she raised her children to do the same. My mother was the first in her immediate family to go to college and graduate I’m going to be the next, and that’s a big thing in our family they are very proud. All my family works and works hard for their money, and they expect the same for the younger generations.

3. How do concepts such as racial socialization affect parents and children in Black families? Please explain.

-I believe it affects black parents and children because The black community has to tell their child how to act into society around the police or White people, and that’s not only traumatizing for the parent but the child too.

4. Based on our reading, what factors do you think have impacted Black families the most since slavery and why?

-Disciplining their children partially and separating black families on purpose.  My reasoning behind this is a lot of black children went through trauma when their parents abuse them also the black family dynamic was destroyed in till this day there is still not a lot of black fathers in the home.

5. Search and find one academic resource that helps you understand this topic better and post it to your Padlet.

https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2015/08/racial-socialization

6. State one thing that you learned or one thing that stood out to you from the unit required reading, optional reading or audio material in this unit.
-How Black parents were forced to discipline their children harshly by any means necessary.

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1. The “isms” I noticed in the audio was sexual orientation. A woman spoke on the podcast and said someone told her that she didn’t “look lesbian”; just because she didn’t look like the stereo typical lesbian. Another example, and this happened to me personally. When I was 18 I shave my head bald, I had a Britney Spears moment. Strangers and some estranged strange family members assumed I was gay, which I am not just because I shaved my head. I was in a very low point at that time in my life and I believe that hair holds bad energy and good; When I have those moments I shave my head.

2. No, we do not. I say this because, people of color are still dealing with racism every day. The people who believe we are in a post-racial society are not color conscious.

3. The way I would define race is a group of people of the same ethnic background. I think race is a social construct, my reasoning behind this statement is society sees race as black-and-white. People of color are are still not seen as equal in society. A bill to make lynching illegal was just passed after 100 years.

4. Was stood out to me from the podcast that it’s really a universal thing when some African-Americans here a microaggression, we look at another black person to  make sure we are not crazy” was stood out to me from the podcast that it’s really a universal thing when some African-Americans here a microaggression, we look at another black person to “make sure we are not crazy“ ,and our facial expressions give us the answer we are looking for.

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

6. I learned more about “isms” After listening to the podcast and about the micro aggression people  face on a daily basis.

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This resource is important to me because all of Sister Souljah’s books have spoken to me and opened my eyes to black culture, black experiences, black everything. Reading her books showed me what I’ve seen or heard in my lifetime, someone else experienced that very same thing just in another state. This book in particular, is an anthology of Black women or men and their experiences with life, love etc. If I didn’t see myself in multiple characters, I seen my cousins and friends; Which hit me different.

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1.6 Who am I, First Experience With Race & Sense of Self Brainstorm

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1.6 Who am I, First Experience With Race & Sense of Self Brainstorm

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Prompt 1

1. Who am I?
- I am a young African American female who wants to create a better life for me and my family; I've worked hard to create online businesses to have multiple streams of income that will one day support my entire family.
2. Who do I pretend to be?
- I pretend to be strong at times that I wish I could be vulnerable.
3. Who do people think I am?
-A headstrong, self- sufficient, resilient, independent young adult.
4. Who do I wish I could be?
-I wish I could be the person everyone sees me as all the time.
5. How has race or ethnic identity played a role in any of these responses.
- I come from a family of strong African American women who worked extremely hard to get where they are all alone. I want all of that just not alone.

Prompt 2

1. What was your 1st experience with race?
- In the fourth grade, white children made fun of me for having ethnic features such as my lip and skin.
2. How old were you?
- Seven years old
3. What emotions do you associate with the experience?
- Anger, sadness, and confusion.
4. Have you ever talked about the experience?
- Yes with my mother. It was brushed off though as it was a minuscule.
5. How have your early experiences with race shaped your worldview?
- I didn't have many white friends after that, and it was weird because I did have a lot prior to the 4th grade.

Prompt 3

1. What connections can be made between having a positive sense of self and our experiences with identity and race?
- I am proud of the skin I am, regardless of how others try to make me feel about my skin. I realize how people with skin like mine are treated, but I don't spew that same hate into the world. If someone hates the skin they are in then how could they have a positive sense of ethnic identity;They just degrade or tear down others.
- If someone identifies positively with African American psychology, their sense of self or identity would be stronger. I agree with that statement because, that person knows their history or the history of others. Black Psychology opens your eyes if they are closed. It also opens a very uncomfortable conversation about race like the Dr. Tatum interview and makes us color conscious regardless of race.

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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: MULTIDIMENSIONS OF ETHNIC SELF IDENTIFICATION

Within the category of Natal measures, I've chosen the birthplace of self,natural parents, siblings, and grandparents because family is very important to me other than God being #1. I am very close with my grandmother, mother and siblings we do everything together.
Within the category of Behavioral measures I chose music, food preferences, and lastly membership in mutually beneficial societies. I love music, I listen to it all day long different genres like hip-hop, r&b, soul,  gangsta rap, and pop.
Within the category of Subjective measures I've chosen, role models and preferred reference groups, value preferences and self identification of a preferred ethnic group. I'd rather surround myself with others of the same ethnic background, we understand the same culture because we come from the same place. Majority of my friends value the same things, we all want to see each other win. Growing up I've always been around older people and those were my role models.

3.2 Padlet post: MULTI-GROUP ETHNIC IDENTITY MEASURE

1. 4
2.2
3. 2
4. 2
5. 3
6.3
7.2
8. 4
9.3
10.3
11.3
12.3
13. 2
14. 2
15. 2

Total: 40

My multi group ethnic identity measure score is 40. To me this score means that I am very in tune with not only myself but I have bond more with people of the same ethnic background. I think that this means that I have a strong bond with the Black community because I like hanging out with others like me, that remind me of my family and in the end we all become a family. I was surprised that I actually scored so high, because I'm not that social.

3.3 Padlet post: ROSENBERG'S SELF-ESTEEM SCALE

My score after taking the rosenberg's self esteem scale was 18. I think this test was very accurate because I was very confident til I got asked real questions. Truth is I'm not confident everyday, I have my moments where I dislike myself. I've been through so much in just a small span of 21 years, I'm bound to lose confidence sometimes.

3.5 Racial identity development

1. I believe I'm stuck between the immersion/emersion and internalization stages.

2. I think I'm stuck in those stages because as I get older I evolve more.

3. Reading the summary of these stages I can see how I developed over the years.  I used to dislike all white people and give them the same energy they gave me. I can have meaningful relationships with white people now.

4. I learned how much racism we internalize everyday without even realizing it.

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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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Theory 1

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.

- In some ways yes. African-Americans have those aspects. Some are very helpful and believe in their community to build it up to make it better; then there's others who do not care for any of those things.

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.
- Viewing the world through African philosophies is something both Africans and African-Americans share that is similar. Whether African American people realize it or not, they share many of the same philosophies. In the notes I took, an African philosophy that caught my eye was that they warn others from generalizing African people. Those of African descent in America, feel the same way. Speaking for myself and other family members, we don't like when people are talking negatively about Black people and say it's the entire race instead of that particular person.

Theory 2

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.

- Maafa: enslavement of African people.
Everyday African American people are being harassed by the police. Some are detained even though they are innocent, where they spend their entire life behind bars working. Others, are murdered in cold blood by police officers.

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.

-Human Authenticity is the least present in the African American community. So many black people are rude and tear down their communities instead of uplifting and investing into them.

Theory 3

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.
- Imani resonates with me because I have faith one day Black people will not be mistreated, murdered in the streets by police and we will have universal amazing education for all around the world. I've seen this in the Black community by the civil rights activists that have came before me. They had the faith that the work they've down would change the world for African Americans live in today. In some ways the world has gotten better (i.e. schools being free from racial segregation.) Other ways, it has not (i.e. being murdered by police for having more melanin in our skin than they do.)