African American Life Research Articles

Gwendolyn Brooks: Who Ya Talkin’ With?

Abstract This essay looks at the shifting poetic and aesthetic strategies that Gwendolyn Brooks employed over her more than fifty-year career. The first Black American poet to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Brooks initiates a lineage of poetry and poets dedicated to attending to the daily conditions of Black life in America. Long a poet of daily Black life, Brooks announces via her poetry an aesthetics committed to, in the words of Langston Hughes, “the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul — the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.” Through textual analyses of the language of several of Brooks's poems alongside interviews with Brooks and critical essays about Brooks's work, this essay points to Brooks as the poet most steadfastly exploring what philosopher George Yancy describes as “the lived density of race.” Yancy notes that “while the focus on demonstrating the nonreferential status of race is important work within the context of liberation praxis vis-a-vis racism — indeed indispensable work — . . . it is at the level of the lived density of race that so much more work needs to be done.” This is the work of Gwendolyn Brooks's art.

Becoming “Fellow-Servants”: Slavery, Theft, and Improper Fellowship in the Nineteenth-Century South

Abstract This article examines the role of theft as a catalyst of communal cohesion and a practice of citizenship in the everyday lives of enslaved African Americans. Historical scholars of Atlantic slavery largely have portrayed theft as a strategic adaptation that enslaved subjects made in order to survive the material deprivation and other brutal constraints of enslavement. In dialogue with this scholarship, this article proposes a different view of theft as a method not simply of surviving on unfavorable terms but of redefining the art of living. In particular, it suggests that collective practices of theft opened space for the enslaved to forge reciprocal social and economic relationships that diverged radically from normative customs related to subsistence, creating a state of affairs in which their survival would depend upon their ability not to endure racialized exploitation as human property, but, rather, to tend to each other’s basic needs as associates, neighbors, and friends. Through analysis of an empirical case grounded in nineteenth-century Louisiana, this article ultimately develops the concept of improper fellowship to describe the bonds of communal reciprocity that theft could encompass, bonds that prefigured alternatives to dominant, liberal ideals of freedom and models of citizenship founded in the sanctity of property.

A Mixed Methods Analysis of Long COVID Symptoms in Black Americans: Examining Physical and Mental Health Outcomes.

While several reports confirm that long COVID is associated with poorer health, few studies explore how long COVID directly impacts the lives of Black Americans who experienced higher mortality rates early in the pandemic. Even fewer studies utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify pertinent long COVID symptoms. The current study, therefore, sought to identify points of overlap and divergence when comparing qualitative vs. quantitative descriptions of long COVID experiences among Black adults in the United States. We analyzedcross-sectional surveys collected from the AmeriSpeak panel through the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. This panel includes a probability-based sample of adults across the UnitedStates. Respondents completed online surveys between April and June 2022. We compared outcomes among participants who reported experiencing post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (i.e., long COVID) to those who reported experiencing SARS-CoV-2 without long COVID. Nearly all qualitative responses focused on matters of physical health like prolonged coughing, cardiovascular concerns, troubled breathing, fatigue, headaches, memory loss, and bodily pains. Quantitative results, however, showed that Black adults living with long COVID reported significantly more anxiety, depressive symptoms, and hopelessness. Persons with long COVID were also significantly more likely to report experiencing psychosis, suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts within the last year. Black adults with long COVID experienced worse outcomes across all mental health measures. Despite the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency expiration in May 2023, urgent efforts are still required to not only treat both the physical and mental health needs of persons living with long COVID, but to effectively prevent the spread and transmission of COVID-19.

Correlates of health-related quality of life in African Americans diagnosed with cancer: a review of survivorship studies and the Detroit research on cancer survivors cohort.

Advances in cancer screening and treatment have improved survival after a diagnosis of cancer. As the number of cancer survivors as well as their overall life-expectancy increases, investigations of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are critical in understanding the factors that promote the optimal experience over the course of survivorship. However, there is a dearth of information on determinants of HRQOL for African American cancer survivors as the vast majority of cohorts have been conducted predominantly among non-Hispanic Whites. In this review, we provide a review of the literature related to HRQOL in cancer survivors including those in African Americans. We then present a summary of published work from the Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors (ROCS) cohort, a population-based cohort of more than 5000 African American cancer survivors. Overall, Detroit ROCS has markedly advanced our understanding of the unique factors contributing to poorer HRQOL among African Americans with cancer. This work and future studies will help inform potential interventions to improve the long-term health of this patient population.

Identifying Variation in Physical Health Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms among Religiosity Clusters of African American Adults in the United States.

Religiosity is an important factor in the lives of many African Americans, who suffer a greater health burden than their White counterparts. In this study, we examined associations between dimensions of religiosity with health behaviors and depressive symptoms in a sample of African American adults in the United States. Participants (N = 2086) completed five measures of religiosity (religious involvement, positive and negative religious coping, scriptural influence, belief in illness as punishment for sin) and measures of several health behaviors, cancer screening behaviors, and depressive symptoms. Using cluster analysis to examine the deep structure of religiosity, three clusters emerged: Positive Religious, Negative Religious, and Low Religious. In general, the Positive Religious group engaged in more healthy behaviors (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption, fecal occult blood test) and fewer risky health behaviors (e.g., smoke and consume alcohol), and reported fewer depressive symptoms than did the Negative Religious and/or Low Religious groups. Theoretical implications and implications for interventions by clergy and mental health professionals are discussed.

EXPLORATION OF BLACK LIFE IN THE POST-RECONSTRUCTION ERA: A STUDY OF ZORA NEALE HURSTON’S JONAH’S GOURD VINE

The present paper critically examines Jonah’s Gourd Vine to understand better the complexities of Black existence in the post-Reconstruction period. Hurston’s writing portrays the complexity of African American lives during socio-political change, set against the background of a racially divided South. Identity, cultural resiliency, and the fight for autonomy under repressive systems are some of the topics covered in the research. This paper explores how religious symbolism, folklore, and the lasting effects of slavery interact with African American communities via an analysis of the protagonist’s journey. The study emphasizes the value of storytelling as a strategy for resistance and cultural preservation via Hurston’s tale. By shedding light on the ways that Hurston’s writing captures the hopes and realities of African Americans in the early 20th century, this paper seeks to further the conversation about Black literature.

Visual narrative research: African American cemeteries in Alachua County, Florida

AbstractElla Spencer (my mom) was born in 1908 and died in 2002. She once told me that people of color were treated worse than farm animals, especially when they died. “They didn't get funeral rites like White folks,” she said. I contend the problem is that no one is keeping vital records such as photographs, maps, and burial ledgers of where African Americans were buried. After numerous years, several American states, cities, and counties had reported bountiful discoveries of unknown African American remains of all ages during constructions or demolitions. In 2023, more than a few news outlets were continuously reporting the findings of African American remains from beneath buildings, parking lots, overgrown vegetation, and woods. This qualitative research project was based on digital archival data research methodology and theoretical visual anthropology framework adding creativity components (e.g., photography, painting, and photo bashing technique) to effectively collect data of Alachua County, Florida African American cemeteries. This paper aims to add to the academic literature and fill the gap in African American life after death acknowledgment. In conclusion, this is a project that has many branches that need to be researched to get the whole story of African American cemeteries' survival.

Sanctification of African American Couple Relationships and Relational Forgiveness

AbstractObjectiveUsing participant responses from 525 different‐sex married and cohabiting African American couples, we examined the dyadic association between relational sanctification and relational forgiveness.BackgroundReligion has a central role in the lives of many African Americans because it traditionally has been a place of refuge against stressors that disproportionally impact African Americans. However, little is known about how African American couples utilize relational sanctification as a strength.MethodData were collected from African American couples between October 2019 and January 2020 as part of a larger study called the Strong African American Couples Project. Utilizing dyadic panels from Qualtrics, this project specifically targeted African American couples who were cohabiting (n = 233) or married (n = 292) thus, enabling us to analyze a multigroup actor–partner interdependence model.ResultsSignificant actor effects were found between sanctification and individual as well as perceived partner forgiveness in married and cohabiting couple relationships. No significant partner effects were found.ConclusionThese findings highlight the importance of recognizing various aspects of religiosity and spirituality within relationships, especially for African American couples with historically high rates of dissolution and self‐rated religiosity.ImplicationsAs interventionalists work with religious and spiritual African American couples, they need to understand the role that sanctity may have within these partner relationships and the positive impact it can have on relational outcomes.

Prolonging the lives of African-Americans with metastatic breast cancer by adding palbociclib to an aromatase inhibitor in routine clinical practice: a plain language summary of a real-world database study.

This summary is about a study that was published in the medical journal The Oncologist in July 2023. The combination of palbociclib with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) was approved by the FDA in 2015 as a treatment for people with hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) metastatic breast cancer (MBC). However, the effectiveness of palbociclib in African-Americans with MBC is not well studied. The goal of this study was to find out whether adding palbociclib to an AI helped African-Americans with HR+/HER2- MBC live longer. This study used de-identified medical information from the Flatiron Database. This database contains healthcare information on people with cancer treated by doctors in the United States but personal information is removed to maintain privacy. Medical information for people who received certain treatments in routine clinical practice or real-world setting was included in the study.This study showed that in the real-world setting, African-Americans with HR+/HER2- MBC lived longer when receiving palbociclib with an AI than with an AI alone. Also, the study showed that African-Americans treated with palbociclib plus an AI lived longer without their cancer getting worse than those treated with an AI alone. These results support the use of palbociclib with an AI as a first treatment for African-Americans with HR+/HER2- MBC.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT05361655 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Measuring Afrocentrism: A Review of Existing Instruments

Abstract Measurement of Afrocentrism and investigation of Afrocentricity’s significance in the lives of Black Americans has gained momentum, given the current evidence suggesting that cultural factors matter in the lives of diverse populations. In particular, factors associated with African philosophical constructs may have significant relationships with improved mental health and overall well-being among African and African diaspora populations. However, the prior conceptual literature suggests that Afrocentrism is a heterogenous concept with a multitude of domains associated with its measurement. The present study was envisioned given the relative absence of studies evaluating the availability and psychometric properties of Afrocentric measures within social work. Utilizing systematic analysis methodology and PRISMA guidelines, a search for Afrocentric measures was undertaken using four key databases. Spanning the literature between 1980 and 2021, this review identified a total of seven instruments that fully met the study’s inclusion-specific criteria. In accordance with the call for continued research and practice emphasizing resilience and protective factors within the lives of Black populations, the present study provides accessible knowledge to researchers and practitioners on the currently available instruments to evaluate Afrocentrism in the lives of populations of African descent.

The Dot: Statistics, Society, and Graphic Design, c. 1830–1970

Abstract This article takes Chermayeff & Geismar Associates’ cover designs for a paperback reprint series, “Studies in American Negro Life” (1968–c. 1972), as a starting point for investigating the history of the dot as a tool for social-statistical visualization. It first situates the series—which re-issued texts on Black history, sociology, and literature—within the context of 1960s urban unrest in the United States and shows how the arrangements of dots on each cover relate to contemporaneous experiments in urban cartography. It then traces a longer genealogy, considering the dot in relation to the 19th-century emergence of “society” and “the social” as novel epistemic concepts that came to serve as the primary objects of study for the modern social sciences in the 20th century. I address the integral role of statistics in this history, demonstrating how the logic of aggregation that undergirds statistical thinking has been habitually visualized through the dot. The article concludes by returning to the book series, addressing some of the individual covers and arguing that by evoking the visual vocabulary of the social sciences, the cover designs frame the series as a social scientific project overall.

Thinking About Race in American Fiction and Origin

America has been multicultural from the beginning of the country’s inception. Blacks and whites have lived together throughout this history. The movies have also evolved during their history to include relations between subcultural groups, especially between Blacks and whites. Depictions of racial relations have evolved through different stages in the movies over time. Recent movies have displayed some new features. Blacks are affected by accounts of race that depict interracial relations and the constraints on African Americans. White views about race in general and Blacks in particular have had a major impact on the lives of African Americans. A new form of race depictions has emerged recently, as shown in two new films, American Fiction and Origin.

What Purpose Education? Anna Julia Cooper’s and Booker T. Washington’s Differing Views on Education

ABSTRACT: This article discusses Dr. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper’s and Booker T. Washington’s advocacy for African American education during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cooper and Washington had very different opinions about the purpose and kind of education African Americans should receive. Each saw education as central to African Americans’ success and inclusion in the American nation. Cooper perceived education as an opportunity for self-actualization and a way to resist political oppression and racial discrimination. Washington had a more pragmatic approach to education, seeing it as a utilitarian tool to help create a Black labor class to reconstruct a New South. Cooper’s A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892) and “Educational Programs” (ca. 1930s) and Washington’s Atlanta Exposition speech (1895) and Up from Slavery (1901) provide readers insight into their ideas about the purpose of education. Cooper and Washington were two of the leading voices debating the question, What purpose education? Was education meant to be emancipatory and liberating, as the enslaved and their descendants believed and hoped it would be? Or was it meant to be pragmatic and utilitarian, as those seeking economic solutions to their problems thought it should be? The answers to these questions would have long-lasting effects on the lives of African Americans.

THE ILLUSIONS OF ‘WHITE BEAUTY’ AND THE POLITICS OF COLOR: A STUDY OF THE BLUEST EYE

The Bluest Eye (1970) is an eye-opening novel that deals with the tremendous oppression of African-Americans. Toni Morrison brings out the conception that the appetence of having white skin devours the African-Americans and their self-esteem gradually becomes self-loathing. The illusions of white beauty and the politics of color are compatible. The keenness of having white skin originates from being a victim of the politics of color. Morrison traces Pecola, the protagonist of this novel, as the scapegoat of an inter-racial society. Her extreme struggle because of having a dark complexion ultimately drives her to be an insane psyche. All the individuals also endure the agitations and agony of the racial society. Pauline Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, Geraldine, Frieda MacTeer and Claudia MacTeer- all of them become the victim of racism along with Pecola. This paper particularly focuses on the reprimand of the African-Americans for being black and their eagerness of having white skin for escaping those social stigmas in The Bluest Eye. The prejudice against western standards of beauty as well as the illusions of white beauty and its effects on the lives of African-Americans are thoroughly depicted here.

Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life by Josef Sorett (review)

Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life by Josef Sorett (review)

DEMENTIA-FOCUSED ADULT DAY CARE IN AN URBAN SETTING: PROGRAM STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS OF CRUCIAL COMPONENTS

Abstract Dementia focused adult day centers (ADCs) provide socialization, physical activity, and cognitive activities for participants, and respite for caregivers. This study reports findings from a process evaluation of an ADC serving a predominantly African American population in a large midwestern city. The evaluation examined whether the program was being implemented as intended, what was working/not working, and participant engagement. We conducted in-depth interviews of staff, volunteers, and student interns and surveyed caregivers (n=17). Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed themes such as “structured flexibility” in running the daily activities, an ethos of care that mixes encouragement of participation with respect for autonomy, ongoing and positive activity, and individualized attention to participants. Other findings revealed the value of consistent and experienced staff and reliance upon and benefits for students and volunteers. Quantitative and qualitative responses to caregiver surveys supported the interview themes. Caregivers valued the socialization and creative stimuli provided to participants. Guidance from program personnel included modeling communication strategies and being “in the moment” with the participants. The findings suggest that further work to inform the development of quality care and programming to improve the quality of life of older African Americans with dementia and their caregivers is needed. Specifically, there is a need to 1) identify essential components of ADCs; 2) document the ways that key ADC service philosophies are realized and communicated; and 3) explore the key role of volunteers and students in terms of their roles, activities, and motivations for working with older adults with dementia.

Introduction to Special Issue on Advancing Health Equity Among Black Communities

The current paper serves as an introduction to this special issue, Advancing Health Equity among Black Communities, in which we provide an overview of the papers included. Specifically, we summarize the papers covered in the special issue and highlight some of the common themes. The impetus for this special issue originated from a culmination of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued murders of Black people by police officers, and an unsettling political climate (e.g., Galea & Abdalla, 2020). While the impact of individual racism has been studied extensively, the insidious and pervasive impact of structural racism is less understood. Structural racism is a system in which embedded values, practices and policies facilitate and perpetrate the continued differential treatment of people based on race and becomes an almost hidden influence on the way an institution functions. For this special issue, prevention scientists were invited to submit conceptual and empirical research reflecting their understandings of structural racism as it operates in U.S. systems (e.g., education, justice, housing, workforce) and contributes to health inequities in the lives of Black Americans. The submissions also demonstrate how prevention scientists can leverage translational science to impact policies, practices, and procedures to promote equitable and sustainable change for Black communities.

Black Appalachia's Oldest Old: Untold Stories of Experienced Racism and Coping With Religious Practices/Beliefs.

Racism and religion are recognized as prevailing Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). To explore ways in which racism and religion looms in the daily lives of African Americans, we analyzed the experiences of African Americans born during the Jim Crow years and living in the Southern Appalachian Region of the United States. Twenty-seven African Americans participated in this qualitative descriptive study that utilized criterion sampling, open-ended semistructured interviews, and content analysis to identify a typology of categories related to experienced racism and ways in which religion was used in response to those experiences. Participants were an average age of 82.22 years (SD = 5.07); primarily women (n = 19, 70.4%); married (n = 11, 40.7%); junior high school (n = 6, 22.2%), high school or general educational diploma (n = 7, 25.9%), completed college or professional school (n = 6, 22.2%); were retired (n = 27, 100.0%); and affiliated with Baptist churches (n = 18, 66.7%). Experiences with racism included inequities in healthcare and education, and racially motivated physical violence. Religious practices/beliefs included forgiveness, humility, and humanity. Racism experienced by African American participants was likely countered by religious practices/beliefs inspired through intergenerational teachings with affiliations to the Black Church. These experiences of the oldest old ) African Americans living in communities of the Southern Appalachia, United States, illustrate the pervasive nature of racism. The religious beliefs that are frequently transmitted intergenerationally through the Black Church are relevant to understand present-day encounters with racism among African Americans and possibly other communities of color.

The Philadelphia Negro: community-university research collaboration in the 1890s

ABSTRACT W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Philadelphia Negro (1899) provides an early example of community-university research collaboration. This “From the Archives” article provides the text of two documents from the work that describe the genesis of the research. A third document provides Du Bois’ plan for continuing research on African American community life.

“You Can Really Make the Story Your Own”: Taking Back Candyman

This essay offers a comparative analysis of Bernard Rose’s 1992 Candyman and its 2021 sequel directed by Nia DaCosta. Through an intertextual approach informed by gothic studies, narratology, and critical race theory, the essay shows how DaCosta’s film establishes a transformative relationship with its predecessor. In the 2021 film, Candyman rewrites the story of the original, disrupts its stereotypical representation of Blackness, and appropriates the horror genre to give voice to the peculiar anxieties of contemporary African American life. In so doing, DaCosta’s film also challenges classic gothic tropes of horrific Blackness while at the same time pushing back against dominant narratives on race to reclaim space for a discussion on racial relations in America filtered through a Black lens.