Blackface Research Articles

Technical change and the demand for talent

Technical change shifts the relative importance of certain economic activities over others, effectively determining the incidence of barriers to the transition of workers across occupations on output and inequality. To what extent has technical change mitigated or exacerbated the incidence of these barriers? To answer this question we study the link between occupation-specific labor market barriers, as measured in Hsieh et al. (2019), and capital-embodied technical change (CETC), as measured in Caunedo et al. (2021). We find that CETC mitigated the incidence of labor market barriers on output per worker by 9.1%, in the US between 1984 and 2014. A forecasting exercise over the next 10 years suggests that if the path of CETC follows the one observed during the previous 10 years, the gender wage gap should widen by 0.12p.p. per year and the race wage gap should widen by 0.07p.p. per year. The reason is that female and black workers face higher barriers in occupations where CETC rises wages the most. In addition, the model also predicts that absent mitigation policies, the skill-premium should rise at 0.24p.p. per year, twice as fast as the observed change in the last 10 years of our sample.

P422. Association between Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Pubertal Development in Early Adolescence

Racial health disparities in the United States are a major concern, as Black Americans face greater morbidity and mortality at earlier ages compared to non-Black Americans. Environmental adversity is key to health outcomes, and therefore stressors that disproportionately impact Black Americans likely play important roles in these disparities. More data is needed, however, investigating the potential biological underpinnings of this phenomenon, such as accelerated aging. We aimed to disentangle the unique association of racial/ethnic discrimination with pubertal development.

Equal time for equal crime? Racial bias in school discipline

Well-documented racial disparities in rates of exclusionary discipline may arise from differences in unobservable student behavior or from bias, in which treatment for the same behavior varies by student race or ethnicity. We provide evidence for the presence of bias in school discipline decisions using statewide administrative data that contain rich details on individual disciplinary infractions. Two complementary empirical strategies find racial differences suggestive of bias in suspension outcomes. The first uses within-incident variation in disciplinary outcomes across White, Black, and Hispanic students. The second employs individual fixed effects to examine how consequences vary for students across incidents based on the race of the other student involved in the incident. Both approaches find that Black students face higher suspension probabilities and longer suspensions than White students and are suspended for longer than Hispanic students. There is no evidence of Hispanic-White disparities. The similarity of findings across approaches and the ability of individual fixed effect models to account for unobserved characteristics common across disciplinary incidents provide support that remaining racial disparities are unlikely to be driven by differences in behavior.

Bringing the Marginalized into Epistemology


 
 
 In this paper, I discuss the epistemological injustices that Black women face in academia. I review Patricia Hill Collins’s work, “Learning from the Outsider Within: Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought,” which details the unique knowledge standpoint that Black women possess. I build upon the ideas set forth by Collins and other scholars to understand how the traditional knowledge validation process is tainted with political implications and harms Black women. I then offer recommendations rooted in alternative epistemology principles to combat the injustices inherent in academia.
 
 

Assessing the speed and spontaneity of racial bias in pain perception

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that perceivers recognize painful expressions less readily on Black (compared to White) faces. However, it is unclear how rapidly this bias emerges and whether it occurs automatically or effortfully—for example, via the deliberate application of consciously-held racialized beliefs regarding pain tolerance. Across five experiments we examined the speed and spontaneity of racial bias in pain perception. First, we observed that racial bias in pain perception was still evident under minimal presentation conditions (as brief as 33 ms) and was most apparent for ambiguous (versus high intensity) pain expressions (Exp. 1A-B). Notably, these findings generalized across both Black and White perceivers. Next, we manipulated the amount of cognitive load participants were under while viewing and rating Black and White faces in varying degrees of pain (Exps. 2A-C). Here, we observed that perceivers had more stringent thresholds for seeing pain on Black (versus White) faces regardless of whether participants were under high (versus low) load. Bayesian analyses of these data suggested strong evidence for the null hypothesis that racial bias in pain perception is not moderated by cognitive load. Together, these data demonstrate that racial bias in pain perception occurs rapidly, automatically, and with minimal visual input.

Eating pizza in prison

ABSTRACTPolice work is obviously a question of pursuing subjects. In postslave societies, one figure dominates; police are always after the young Black man. Meanwhile, another distinctive subject of policing exists. In São Paulo, Brazil, police detectives are also worried about the failing White father. He represents a crucial kind of problem: he weakens whiteness by subjecting White children to the indignities that Black children face. His punishment is not incarceration, however. Instead, his punishment is a question of civility and reparation, of being “pedagogical.” Attention to police officers’ decision‐making about these two subjects of everyday policing shows how the long‐standing fallacy of the idealized White family is produced by extracting from the Black family. It reveals the logic of differentiated punishment—civil and reparative punishment for White men, life in prison or death for Black men and boys—as a mechanism in the constant remediation of whiteness as property and accumulation. [whiteness, policing, punishment, men, family, child support, race, São Paulo, Brazil]

Navigating Black Identity and White Desire: Seven-Eleven and the 1920s Crossover Musical Comedy

Navigating Black Identity and White Desire: <i>Seven-Eleven</i> and the 1920s Crossover Musical Comedy

Can Mental Tricks Effect Social Change?

Can Mental Tricks Effect Social Change?

“This Is What's Real”: The Pathology of Black Addiction in the Hood Films of the 1990s

“This Is What's Real”: The Pathology of Black Addiction in the Hood Films of the 1990s

The Complex Intersection of Race and Rurality: The Detrimental Effects of Race-Neutral Rural Health Policies.

In this commentary, we discuss our experiences as women of different races growing up in the same rural area and how these experiences relate to health and health policy. Despite nearly five million Black people living in nonmetro areas, rural Black Americans face erasure in the rural narrative and the policies enacted to support them. This is detrimental to the overall uplifting of rural communities and to the elimination of the compounded disparities of being rural and Black. We aim to bring to life rural America for Black and White residents and the impact of the policies that shape it.

Incarceration and Sexual Risk Behavior and Incident Sexually Transmitted Infection/HIV in HIV Prevention Trials Network 061: Differences by Study City and Among Black Sexual Minority Men Who Have Sex With Men, Black Sexual Minority Men Who Have Sex With Men and Women, and Black Transgender Women.

Black sexual minority men (BSMM) and Black transgender women face a disproportionate risk of incarceration and sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV, yet research on the longitudinal association between incarceration and STI/HIV risk in these groups is limited. We used data from the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 061 study conducted among BSMM and Black transgender women in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, restricting analyses to those who returned for the 6-month follow-up visit when recent incarceration was measured (n = 1169). Using inverse probability of treatment weighting, we measured associations between incarceration and next 6-month multiple partnerships; selling or buying sex; condomless anal intercourse; and incident chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV. We explored differences by study city, and among BSMM who had sex with men only, BSMM who had sex with men and women, and Black transgender women. Approximately 14% reported past 6-month incarceration. Incarceration was associated with next 6-month selling sex (adjusted risk ratio [ARR], 1.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12-2.87) in the overall sample and multiple partnerships among BSMM who had sex with men and women (ARR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.10-1.63) and transgender women (ARR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.22-2.57). There is evidence suggesting that incarceration may predict gonorrhea (ARR, 2.35; 95% CI, 0.95-5.77), with particularly strong associations observed in Los Angeles (ARR, 6.48; 95% CI, 1.48-28.38). Incarceration may increase STI/HIV risk among BSMM and Black transgender women. Additional mixed-methods research is needed to validate associations and understand pathways.

Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems &amp; Artifacts

Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems &amp; Artifacts

Returns in the Labor Market: A Nuanced View of Penalties at the Intersection of Race and Gender in the US

There have been decades of research on wage gaps for groups based on their socially salient identities, such as race and gender, but little empirical investigation on the effects of holding multiple identities. Using the Current Population Survey, this study provides new evidence on intersectionality and the wage gap in the US. This article makes two important contributions. First, there is no single “gender” or “race” wage penalty. Second, the evidence suggests that holding multiple identities cannot readily be disaggregated in an additive fashion. Instead, in a comparison of Black and White workers across gender, this study documents that the penalties associated with the combination of two or more socially marginalized identities interact in multiplicative or quantitatively nuanced ways. Further, the findings demonstrate that the presence of an additional intersectional penalty for Black women persists across time. HIGHLIGHTS When it comes to earnings, Black women face distinctive penalties for holding their race and gender identities simultaneously. The intersectional wage gap persists across time and during both tight and slack labor markets. The unexplained portion of the wage gap has contracted from 1980–2017; however, it remains large and significant. Intersectional analysis provides a useful framework to disentangle nuances in the labor market.

The anti-Black axis: rethinking racial triangulation

ABSTRACT In this essay, I argue that the “insider/ foreigner” vector of racial triangulation misnames the Black American experience and obscures the fraught nature of Black American citizenship. Though Kim [1999. “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans.” Politics & Society.27 (1): 105–138, Kim, Claire Jean. 2000. Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City. Yale University Press] recognizes that the insider status of Black Americans is constructed on foundations of anti-Blackness, I argue that we must actively name anti-Blackness as the organizing principle of US politics. This more accurately describes the racial hierarchy in the US, given the way so-called foreign populations are evaluated based on their perceived proximity to Blackness, their ability to appeal to whiteness, and their culture compared to Black Americans. I argue that racialization could be productively understood through sites of white supremacist harm – from the carceral state to restrictive immigration policies. Politically, we can more adequately resist the common problem of white supremacy by lending cross-racial support to the systemic struggles that Black, Asian, and Latinx groups face in the US. This perspective decenters proximity to whiteness, emphasizes the proximity of Black and Asian Americans, and reveals opportunities to build solidarity.

Comparative analysis of features extraction techniques for black face age estimation

Comparative analysis of features extraction techniques for black face age estimation

Heart's eyes to see color: Cardiac vagal tone modulates the impact of ethnicity on selected attention under high load

The present study tested whether cardiac vagal activity—which is known to play a vital role in social cognition and engagement—predicted the impact of faces of other ethnicity on selective attention under load. Based on the neurovisceral integration theory, we hypothesized that participants with higher resting heart rate variability (HRV) would exhibit better task performance of a target detection task in trials with face distractors of other ethnicity than participants with lower resting HRV, when cognitive resources were scarce under high load. Caucasian participants were instructed to detect a target letter among letter strings superimposed on Black or White male distractor faces under high and low perceptual load. Consistent with the prediction, under high load, HRV was positively correlated with accuracy in trials with Black distractor faces, but not in trials with White distractor faces. The current research demonstrated that individual differences in cardiac vagal tone predicted successful inhibition of an ethnicity-related distractor with limited cognitive resources, which allowed for completing goal-directed behavior more successfully.

It Could Be Us: Black Faculty as “Threats” on the Path to Tenure

Racial disparities in tenure and promotion outcomes are well known in the existing research literature. Scholarship establishes that Black and Brown faculty experience unique challenges when navigating the tenure and promotion process, such as lack of diverse mentorship, biased student/peer evaluations, and disproportionately high service demands. However, the public has entered this discourse due to recent media attention involving the tenure cases of Nikole Hannah-Jones and Cornel West, and this has prompted minoritized faculty nationwide to reflect on the implications of these incidents on their own careers. This study relies on theoretical and conceptual literature to discuss the professional realities Black faculty face on the job. We make the theoretical claim that the racial threat hypothesis can facilitate understanding of how Black faculty pursuing tenure is a political threat to white hegemony in the academy resulting in an increase of social control. We conclude with concrete recommendations on how Black scholars can wield the label of “threat” to successfully navigate the academy.

Association between racial/ethnic discrimination and pubertal development in early adolescence

Racial health disparities in the United States are a major concern, with Black or African Americans experiencing more morbidity and mortality at earlier ages compared to White Americans. More data is needed on the biological underpinnings of this phenomenon. One potential explanation for racial health disparities is that of accelerated aging, which is associated with increased stress exposure. Black Americans face disproportionate levels of environmental stress, specifically racial/ethnic discrimination. Here we investigated associations between self-reported experiences of discrimination and pubertal development (PD) in a diverse sample of young American adolescents (N = 11,235, mean age 10.9 years, 20.5% Black participants) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Compared to their non-Black counterparts, Black youth experienced more racial/ethnic discrimination in the past year (10.4% vs 3.1%) and had a greater likelihood of being in late/post-pubertal status (3.6% vs 1.5% in boys, 21.3% vs 11.4% in girls). In both sexes, multivariable regression models run in the full sample revealed a cross-sectional association of experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination with pubertal development (boys: standardized beta [β]=0.123, P < .001; girls: β = 0.110, P < .001) covarying for demographics, BMI, and dietary habits. Associations remained significant when controlling for multiple other environmental confounders including other forms of (non-racial/ethnic) discrimination and other environmental adversities including poverty and negative life events, and when using parent-reported assessment of pubertal development. Furthermore, racial/ethnic discrimination was associated with elevated estradiol levels in girls (β = 0.057, P = .002). Findings suggest an association between experiences of discrimination and pubertal development that is independent of multiple environmental stressors. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to establish causal mechanism.

Archives, Rhetorical Absence, and Critical Imagination: Examining Black Women's Mental Health Narratives at Virginia's Central State Hospital

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> This article examines the rhetorical implications of archiving technical documents by studying the erasure of Black women's mental health narratives in Virginia's Central State Mental Hospital in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This article seeks to examine how historical mental health documents characterize (or fail to characterize) Black women and their mental health. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">About the case:</b> We examine Black women's mental health experiences through absences in the annual reports from Central State Hospital in Virginia (formerly Central State Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane). <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Situating the case:</b> There is a dearth of work related to the unique experiences that Black women face when dealing with mental health challenges coupled with or compounded by a legacy of misogynoir. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methods/approach:</b> We offer an inventive approach for reading rhetorical absences and provide guiding questions for employing the critical archival inquiry methodology. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results/discussion:</b> In taking on this endeavor to learn more about how Black women's mental health was represented in historical archives, we learned a great deal, not from the text on the page of the documents but from the text that was missing from those documents. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusions:</b> Technical communication scholars, especially those with an interest in inclusion and justice, must adjust their methodological orientation and their approaches to historical and archival research to include an exploration of what is missing from the archives. Technical and professional communicators have a unique skill set that is ideal for reading through absences and erasures in both contemporary and historical documents.

Is Trust Enough? Anti-Black Racism and the Perception of Black Vaccine "Hesitancy".

In this article, I offer a preliminary exploration of the heavy lifting that the word "trust" is doing in questions about Black distrust of medicine and what, if anything, comes from it. I also offer an account of why questions like, "Why don't Black people trust vaccines?" are not only the wrong questions to ask but also insulting, and I go on to provide a Black feminist analysis of racial injustice in medicine-an analysis that does not center a notion of trust. I begin by arguing that implicit in these questions is a pathologizing of Black people-the idea that there is something wrong with Black people rather than something wrong with the conditions within which Black people exist. The sense that there is something wrong with Black people both further disadvantages them and ignores the role that health care institutions have played and continue to play in fostering a climate of distrust. I show that even attempts to explain distrust fail to adequately capture the harms committed against Black people, even if such efforts gesture at institutional responsibility. I sketch out what is important about trust but also briefly discuss why trust may not be the answer to the problems that Black people face in health care encounters.