Racial Consciousness Research Articles

Anti-Adopterism as Resistant Knowledge: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Colorblind Distortions in Transracial and International Adoption

This autoethnography presents my adoption as an object lesson in the normalization of racism. I highlight the epistemological conflict between race consciousness and colorblindness–where in pursuit of being a “good daughter,” I rejected myself to accept my white adoptive family. Clinically, these experiences are diagnosed as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder; however, I locate them as “internalized oppression” consistent with Black feminism. I find that racism is normalized through distorting displacement as placement and through centering my white adoptive family. I also observed “racism as bonding.” I posit, therefore, that adoptees’ anger might function as anti-racist resistance to colorblindness.

The antiracist educator’s journey and the psychology of critical consciousness development: A new roadmap

The cultural zeitgeist has reinvigorated needed conversations about systemic racism and its longstanding impact on education. Educators confronting educational racism encounter social and psychological challenges that stifle their antiracist efforts. Challenging social psychological encounters, which reflect unavoidable but requisite facets of critical consciousness development, are experienced as jarring interactions and trigger reversions toward uncritical race-dysconscious thought and action. Without social supports, educators seeking to transform racist institutions are isolated, left to their own devices, and unprepared for the painful journey of self-liberation. We cover the foundations and structure of the antiracist educator’s journey, a model based implicitly on critical race theory and explicitly on ecosystemic, monomythic, and liberational perspectives. Our model details the social-psychological progression of race consciousness development. We identify 15 interconnected components nested across 4 phases of self-liberation. The quest for antiracist realization parallels the quests of mythical and contemporary “heroes” who achieve systemic change through self-transformation and reward. The reward is an “ecosystemic lens” whose acquisition drives the conversion of racist educational ecosystems into antiracist alternatives. The framework is a roadmap for prospective antiracist educators and is meant to validate their experiences along the journey.

Investigating race consciousness within teachers’ and leaders’ visions of equitable mathematics instruction in the U.S.

We report on an effort to characterize (changes in) teachers’ and school and district leaders’ race consciousness within their visions of equitable mathematics instruction. We analyzed interviews conducted over multiple years within a project in an urban school district in the U.S. that focused on racism and racial equity in secondary mathematics and included multi-week professional learning opportunities for teachers during the months between school years. Our analysis yielded a 4-level trajectory modelling the development of race consciousness in participants’ discourse. Distinctions across levels pertain to the presence of race in individuals’ discourse, the directness with which they talk about race, and the extent to which they locate sources of an historical accumulation of racial inequity within systems.

Taking equity-mindedness to the next level: the equity-minded organization

University and college leaders have an espoused interest in racial equity. In recent years, university and college leaders have invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training that focuses on developing individual attributes that reflect equity-mindedness. For example, DEI training efforts have often been focused on helping faculty develop critical race consciousness by raising their awareness of systemic racism in their routine teaching, mentoring, and hiring practices. However, in many cases, DEI training and equity change efforts primarily focus on individual-level change without critically identifying, disrupting, and transforming organizational processes and policies that perpetuate structural racism. In this paper, we synthesized research on race, organizations, and equity-mindedness to argue that racial equity change efforts should aspire to transform universities and colleges into equity-minded organizations. At the organizational level, equity-mindedness has the potential to structure organizational behavior, shape policy development, and frame practitioner and leader understandings of organizational equity issues in ways that are more aligned with their commitments to equity and justice. Through an analysis of higher education equity change efforts, we introduce a framework for equity-minded organizations. Theorizing equity-mindedness at the organizational level creates opportunities for university leaders, stakeholders, and researchers to move beyond the traditional prose of commitments to DEI to the design of programs, policies, and practices that can lead to more lasting structural changes.

Class Root of Police Brutality: The Missing Gap in the Black Lives Matter Movement

ABSTRACT This paper explores the activism of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and argues that the missing link in the movement is the class question, which has impacted on its tactics, strategies, and modus operandi. Since its emergence, the BLM movement has won some concessions in police reforms, defunding of police, policy changes in use of body camera and greater transparency in policing, yet the problems of racism, police brutality, over-policing, and police killings persist. What seems to be problematic is the narrow understanding of the problems and the cosmetic nature of police reforms that have failed to address the capitalist root of the problem. By sidestepping the class question, the movement has failed to understand that racism, police brutality, and police killings are essential tools used by the ruling class and the state in the American capitalist system to sustain its rules, domination, and control. By taking the class question off the agenda, the engagement of the BLM movement has been reduced to the race question and race consciousness, which led to a failure to unpack racism and policing as class questions and draw the tactics of the movement around the class question. The solution to this impasse is to understand black struggle as a subset of class struggle and prioritise the radicalisation of the black working class as a social base to connect with the black underclass and American working class in general and externalise the issues as generic problems facing Americans. The paper concludes that it is the unity of the American working class that can confront the capitalist underpinning of the problems of racism, police brutality, and extra-judicial police killings in American society.

Graphic novels as counter-stories: Jerry Craft’s New Kid as a way to teach critical racial awareness

This chapter examines Jerry Craft’s 2019 published graphic novel New Kid by applying Critical Race Theory (CRT). New Kid is based on autobiographic experiences of being African American at an American, mainly white, (elite) school, and can therefore be read as a “counter-story”. It is written out of the perspective of 12- year-old black boy, Jordan Banks, who is a “New Kid” at the private Riverdale Academy. The book has caused a nationwide debate in the US, being accused of preaching Critical Race Theory (CRT). Craft meanwhile claims that he did not write it with any political intentions. The article takes this debate as point of departure to first explain the main tenets of CRT and to explore in what way New Kid can be read as a counter-story in the sense of CRT. The analysis shows that New Kid reflects structural racism towards African Americans (e.g., microaggressions, othering and deficit orientation) in an educational context and reveals the negative consequences of racism for students’ self-perception.
 In the second part, the article investigates possibilities to teach New Kid in a European setting, taking the new Norwegian curriculum (Kunnskapsløftet) as an example. New Kid is identified as an appropriate medium to discuss race in Norwegian schools. This is particularly because of the sophisticated way New Kid approaches racism. At the same time New Kid itself can be examined for racism towards other marginalized groups, namely Asian Americans.

Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Instructional Strategies to Support Student Success.

Over the past several years, the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has contributed to challenging working and life conditions. As a result, the midwifery and health care workforce has faced significant shortages due to burnout. Increased societal awareness of historical trauma and systemic racism embedded within US culture has also led to increased anxiety and signs of trauma among midwifery and health profession students. Now more than ever, innovative teaching strategies are needed to support students, reduce the risks of burnout, and increase diversity in the workforce. One strategy is to adopt a trauma-informed pedagogy within midwifery education. Trauma-informed pedagogy is founded on core assumptions of trauma-informed care and thus supports student success by recognizing that the student cannot be separated from their own life experiences. Faculty and preceptors can develop empathetic, flexible supports that communicate care and concern regarding students' personal and social situations, and emotions. Empathetic behavior from teachers also increases student learning motivation, making it easier for students to actively engage in learning thereby reducing their distress. The purpose of this State of the Science review, therefore, was to describe the literature surrounding trauma-informed pedagogy and to offer concrete educational strategies that faculty members and educational programs can employ to increase the success of a diverse student body. This can be accomplished through flexibility in curriculum design and outcome measurement to ensure attainment of end of program learning outcomes. Institutional and administrative support are essential to develop a faculty who realize the benefit and value of trauma-informed pedagogy underpinning student success.

The Relationship of Race/Ethnicity Concordance to Physician-Patient Communication: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review

ABSTRACT The concept of race or ethnic concordance between health care provider and patient has emerged as a dimension of the patient-physician relationship that could influence health outcomes for patients from minoritized groups, particularly through differences in the way physicians communicate with patients based on race or ethnicity. However, two decades of study on concordance and physician-patient communication have produced contradictory results. Given the heightened societal awareness of racism and the persistence of health disparities, there is a need for a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge. This review sets out to determine how communication patterns differ in race/ethnicity concordant versus discordant patient-physician medical encounters. Thirty-three studies employing a range of methodologies were identified. In most analyses, after accounting for covariates, no relationship was found between race/ethnicity concordance and communication variables. Race/ethnicity concordance with their physician does not appear to influence the quality of communication for most patients from minoritized groups. A number of methodological weaknesses were identified in existing research, among them: few studies investigated potential explanatory variables, the heterogeneity of ethnic and cultural experience was over-simplified, there was little consistency in operationalization of communication variables, and the physician-patient dynamic was inadequately conceptualized.

Bolsonaro and the Black Vote: Racial Voting in Brazil’s 2018 Election

ABSTRACTTwo competing narratives characterize the role of race in Brazil’s 2018 election. Journalists observe that Jair Bolsonaro “entranced” nonwhite voters while “insulting them.” Scholars argue that Bolsonaro politicized race, costing him nonwhite support. In contrast, this article argues that racialized patterns of voter behavior were not distinct from those in recent general elections, and that voters’ electoral choices varied within as well as between racial categories. This study incorporates recent findings on racial subjectivity in Brazil, which emphasize the interaction of racial identification and educational status in shaping racial consciousness. Survey data show that racial differences are driven by highly educated black voters, who are least likely to support Bolsonaro compared to educated white voters and more likely to support leftist candidates. By incorporating findings on racial subjectivity into theoretical predictions and leveraging the 2018 election, this study identifies conditions in which racial identification operates to shape electoral behavior.

Writing Through Pain: Ars Spirituality, the Black Atlantic, and the Paradox of Diasporic Belongingness

By way of autoethnographic poetry, I reflect on my personal struggles related to racial consciousness as I embarked on a journey—from America, across the Atlantic, and eventually, to the Indian Ocean off the East Coast of (mother) Africa. The story of my apparent racial crisis is viewed through multiple lenses, as I infuse the pivotal readings of The Black Atlantic, Lose Your Mother, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, and personal experiences both in autoethnographic and in poetic form.

“Discrimination is always intersectional” – understanding structural racism and teaching intersectionality in medical education in Germany

BackgroundRacism in medicine represents a global problem. It takes place on the individual, institutional and structural level. Especially structural racism can have serious effects on the health of individual people. Furthermore, racist discrimination is not always based on race solemnly but frequently intersects with other social categories such as gender, class or religion. To describe this multidimensional form of discrimination the term intersectionality has been coined. However, the understanding of structural intersectional racism in medicine is still fragmented, especially in the German context. Yet, medical students need to be trained in understanding structural and intersectional racism to see the impact of racist structures on the patient’s health.MethodWe conducted a qualitative study to explore the knowledge, awareness and perception of racism in medicine and health care of medical students in Germany. Our research questions are how do medical student understand structural racism and its effects on health in Germany? Do students see interrelations with other forms of discrimination and in this context to what extent are they familiar with the concept of intersectionality? Which categories intersect from their point of views with race in context of medicine and health care? We conducted focus groups with medical students (n = 32) in Germany.ResultsOur results demonstrate that students have a wide spectrum of knowledge, awareness and perceptions about racism from being rather elaborate to very little knowledge about it. The students have particular problems to understand and situate structural racism in Germany. Some raised doubts about the relevance. Yet, other students are aware of the concept of intersectionality and are convinced that racism must be looked at from an intersectional perspective.ConclusionsThe diverse knowledge, awareness and perceptions of medical students about structural racism and intersectionality hints to a lack of systematic education of medical students about these issues in Germany. Yet, in context of diversifying societies an understanding about racism and its impact on health is imminent for future medical doctors to provide good care for their patients. Therefore, this knowledge gap must be systematically filled by the medical education.

Presenting symptoms, screening and diagnosis in asian and white patients with stage IV lung cancer.

e18687 Background: Lung cancer (LC) is a leading cancer diagnosis and cause of cancer death in Asian Americans, the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the US. Some racial/ethnic groups are less likely to be eligible for guideline-recommended LC screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). Data on presenting symptoms (PS) and initial evaluation in Asian patients (AP) with stage IV LC in the US are limited. This retrospective study examines LDCT utilization and patterns of PS for AP and White patients (WP) with stage IV LC at an urban academic medical center serving a large proportion of AP. Methods: Patients newly diagnosed with stage IV LC from 01/01/2014 to 12/31/2019 were identified from Tufts Medical Center cancer registry. Demographics, clinical characteristics, and biomarker data were compared between AP and WP by Mann–Whitney U test and Chi-square/Fisher's exact tests for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Univariable and multivariable logistic regressions were used to assess associations between PS and race. Results: Of 89 AP and 197 WP, AP had significantly more non-small cell (NSC) histology (85 vs 73%), never-smokers (36 vs 7%) and male representation (72 vs 48%). Similar rates of brain metastasis (35 vs 39%) were observed. Among 219 patients with NSCLC, AP had more driver mutations compared to WP (53 vs 29%), particularly more EGFR alterations (68 vs 15% of observed driver mutations). Similar PD-L1 positivity (34 vs 32%) was noted at diagnosis in AP and WP with stage IV NSCLC. At diagnosis, fewer AP (N = 14) vs WP (N = 47) met USPSTF 2013 eligibility criteria for LDCT screening (16 vs 24%, p = 0.162), however 21% (N = 3) of eligible AP completed LDCT screening compared to 9% (N = 4) of eligible WP (p = 0.336). AP tended to have more primary care (PC) visits prior to diagnosis (51 vs 38%, p = 0.064), but longer median duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis (8 vs 4 weeks, p = 0.003). More AP presented with respiratory symptoms (80 vs 54%, p < 0.001), namely cough (58 vs 33%, p < 0.001), chest pain (20 vs 8%, p = 0.004) and hemoptysis (15 vs 7%, p = 0.050). Fewer AP presented with symptoms due to metastatic disease (34 vs 51%, p = 0.011). Rates of constitutional symptoms (42 vs 35%, p = 0.311) and asymptomatic diagnoses (3.4 vs 3.0%) were similar. Adjusting for age, sub-stage, histology, and smoking status, multivariable logistic regression showed significant association between AP and respiratory symptoms presentation (OR = 3.43, p < 0.001). Conclusions: USPSTF 2013 LC screening criteria did not capture most of the AP and WP diagnosed with stage IV LC in this study and missed racial nuances in LC screening. Although limited in size, this study found that AP, more of whom are nonsmoking, are diagnosed with stage IV LC after longer preceding often respiratory symptoms, despite similar PC utilization and LDCT uptake as compared to WP. Awareness of race and associated PS should inform assessment for LC screening in AP.

Erased, Hidden, or Missing: Black Women’s Experiences in the Fight Against College Campus Sexual Violence

Abstract: Sexual violence is one of the most visible, challenging, and vexing problems on college campuses. Further, research shows a history of racialized trauma—one that dates back to slavery and continues to bear witness to psychological harms of fear, self-blame, and guilt. In this historical context, Black undergraduate women who have been sexually assaulted often remain silent. Yet college administrators continue to respond to sexual violence from an identity-neutral and dominant narrative leaving women of color erased, hidden, or missing in the fight against campus sexual violence. Several studies have focused on sexual violence against women in college. Due to the lack of diversity in the research samples, this qualitative case study sought to illuminate Black women’s voices as they described their sexual violence experiences and reflected on the ways, if any, their intersecting identities (i.e., race and gender) impacted their sexual violence experiences while attending a Historically White Institution. Findings indicate that Black women described their sexual violence as psychologically impactful, socially isolating, overwhelming to report or seek help, faith evoking, compounded by social media and COVID-19, and leading to manifesting resilience. Findings also suggest that Black women’s intersecting identities related to gender and race affected their experience and led them to adhere to a culture of silence, evoke racial consciousness, and be viewed as hyper-sexualized. Based on the study findings, recommendations and implications are presented.

Training Medical Students to Recognize, Understand, and Mitigate the Impact of Racism in a Service-Learning Course.

The Morehouse School of Medicine's Community Health Course (CHC) trains first-year medical students to work with people of racial and ethnic minorities and economically and medically disadvantaged communities. This service-learning course includes the diagnosis/assessment of the health of a community and the development, implementation, and evaluation of a plan to improve some aspect of the community's health. The CHC teaches about the impact of racism on the health of communities through lectures, educational games, and videos focused on social determinants of health, cultural competence, and effective community engagement. Students complete small group assessments, interventions, and service activities at assigned sites. This pedagogical approach integrates the Association of Medical Colleges' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion competencies and engages many community partners. The course's strengths include a multidisciplinary faculty, a culturally and educationally diverse student body, and community partners with varied backgrounds and resources. Opportunities exist for collaborations with other degree programs to sustain and increase the impact of community interventions and link this community-based educational activity to clinical training years. Course evaluations, exams, and short essays assess students' awareness of racism and the extent to which unconscious bias affects students' completion and interpretation of community assessment data and their engagement with community partners.

Perceptions of Racism and White Privilege Among White Graduate Students in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology.

In the White-dominated fields of audiology and speech-language pathology, graduate students should demonstrate awareness of racism and racial privilege to begin developing cultural humility. A 2013 survey of graduate students in audiology and speech-language pathology indicated that White students demonstrated minimal awareness of White privilege (Ebert, 2013). This study builds on Ebert (2013) by investigating changes in White students' perceptions of White privilege over time and by adding characterization of their perceptions of systemic racism. A web-based survey was distributed to graduate students in audiology and speech-language pathology programs across the country. The survey combined repeat questions from the work of Ebert (2013) with novel questions on systemic racism within the fields. For this study, only responses from White students were analyzed. The majority of White respondents (n = 104) acknowledged White privilege and systemic racism, though colorblindness and denial were still present among student responses. Significant increases in acknowledgment of White privilege from the Ebert (2013) results were observed across all questions. In qualitative analyses, the most common themes were the impact of White privilege and systemic racism on quality of services, access and opportunities, and clinician-client mismatch. Among White audiology and speech-language pathology graduate students, awareness of White privilege has increased over the past decade and most students acknowledge this privilege, as well as systemic racism. However, additional steps should be taken by students, graduate training programs, and practicing clinicians to continue confronting racial inequities in the fields. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22714222.

Talking about inequities: A comparative analysis of COVID-19 narratives in the UK, US, and Brazil

Disproportionate mortality and morbidity burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic and coinciding media coverage of public acts of violence perpetrated against people of color in 2020 precipitated reckonings with structural inequities in global, national, and local contexts. This cross-country comparative analysis aims to describe how people voice and make sense race, racism, and privilege in their experiences with COVID-19 infection in the United States, United Kingdom, and Brazil. Anchored by continuous reflection on our individual and collective positionality, we conducted an inductive comparative analysis conceptually situated in intersectionality and critical race theory. Countries used a shared qualitative methodology to collect and analyze 166 narratives of people with experience of COVID-19 infection from 2020 to 2023. We selected 19 cases that illustrate cross-national differences in peoples’ acknowledgment and narration of structural privilege and disadvantage in their observations of COVID-19 in their countries and in their personal experiences. People in the US had the most fluency with voicing race directly. In Brazil, while some respondents (especially younger people) demonstrated high racial consciousness, others struggled to identify and talk about racial relationships. In the UK, people voiced racial identifications, though often within white norms of politeness and an accompanying sense of discomfort. The findings overall illustrate moments the interview becomes or does not become a space for voicing social categories and systemic underpinnings of difference in COVID-19 infections and healthcare experiences. We reflect on cross-country differences in historical and contemporary racialized discourse and elaborate on implications of focusing on voicing in qualitative research.

The Color of Devotion

This study of race and religion examines the largest population converting to Haitian Vodou in the United States today: blan—foreigners. This article investigates the experiences of white western foreigners, who remain vastly understudied as devotees of “immigrant religions.” As with many conversion narratives, white Americans report becoming initiates into Vodou to deepen divine connections, restore health, develop spiritual sensibility, and establish community. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in New England with white American devotees of United States Vodou temples, I explore westerners’ feelings of belonging in the lakou, or ritual kinship system. I explore the tension between white practitioners’ power and privilege and their desire to forge meaningful new spiritual communities, as the development of religious race consciousness for white initiates is not always a linear process. Ultimately, this work illuminates how foreign devotees must cultivate both religious maturity and racial consciousness as they work to acquire “religious citizenship” in Haitian Vodou, a Pan-Africanist tradition that requires all devotees to be dedicated advocates of Black liberation.

Politics, policies, and patient care: Rehabilitation therapists' experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The year 2020 represents a historically turbulent period for the United States marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, a contentious political season, and heightened awareness of racism among citizens. This intersection of medicine, politics, and social unrest generated a demanding clinical environment for healthcare workers, including understudied groups such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists. This descriptive qualitative study focused on experiences and perspectives of clinical rehabilitation therapists working in inpatient rehabilitation and acute-care units from September to November, 2020. Thirteen participants completed individual, semi-structured interviews focused on clinical practice and coping strategies. The analysis included a multi-step, inductive process. Four interconnecting factors chronicling participants' experiences emerged: sociopolitical, institutional, hospital unit, and personal. Stressors and buffers were noted that further shaped individual experiences. Utilization of an ecological framework provided a way to recognize the impact of a complex range of social and environmental factors affecting participants' experiences on personal and professional levels. Awareness of rehabilitation therapists' experiences enriches understanding of the pandemic's effect on healthcare workers and presents clinical implications for healthcare systems to promote therapist well-being.

The Association of Reported Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care with COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Intent — United States, April 22, 2021–November 26, 2022

In 2021, the CDC Director declared that racism is a serious threat to public health,* reflecting a growing awareness of racism as a cause of health inequities, health disparities, and disease. Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19-related hospitalization and death (1,2) illustrate the need to examine root causes, including experiences of discrimination. This report describes the association between reported experiences of discrimination in U.S. health care settings and COVID-19 vaccination status and intent to be vaccinated by race and ethnicity during April 22, 2021-November 26, 2022, based on the analysis of interview data collected from 1,154,347 respondents to the National Immunization Survey-Adult COVID Module (NIS-ACM). Overall, 3.5% of adults aged ≥18 years reported having worse health care experiences compared with persons of other races and ethnicities (i.e., they experienced discrimination), with significantly higher percentages reported by persons who identified as non-Hispanic Black or African American (Black) (10.7%), non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) (7.2%), non-Hispanic multiple or other race (multiple or other race) (6.7%), Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) (4.5%), non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) (3.9%), and non-Hispanic Asian (Asian) (2.8%) than by non-Hispanic White (White) persons (1.6%). Unadjusted differences in prevalence of being unvaccinated against COVID-19 among respondents reporting worse health care experiences than persons of other races and ethnicities compared with those who reported that their health care experiences were the same as those of persons of other races and ethnicities were statistically significant overall (5.3) and for NHOPI (19.2), White (10.5), multiple or other race (5.7), Black (4.6), Asian (4.3), and Hispanic (2.6) adults. Findings were similar for vaccination intent. Eliminating inequitable experiences in health care settings might help reduce some disparities in receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Community Psychology's abuse of empowerment to further a white supremacist agenda.

When White people are predominantly in power and the discipline has yet to grapple with its own involvement in oppressive and racist ideologies, the concept of empowerment has the potential of being misused, or worse, abused. This is my experience and observation within Community Psychology (CP). In this paper, I interrogate the history of CP, especially the interplay of colonized knowledge production practices and the concept of empowerment, and uncover the use and abuse of well-meaning community psychological principles by scholars and leaders without the critical racial awareness to apply them to communities to which they do not belong. Lastly, I offer a "slash and burn" approach to starting over.