African American Experience Research Articles

WHO GETS RESOURCES ACROSS THE LIFESPAN? A COORDINATED DATA ANALYSIS OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Abstract From schooling in early life to employment, income, and generating wealth in adulthood, people must navigate socioeconomic conditions throughout their entire life. Personality traits have been shown to predict how people navigate socioeconomic conditions, and a number of open questions remain. In this project, we address several of these questions, including 1.) do stable, between-person trait levels or within-person fluctuations matter for socioeconomic outcomes?, 2.) do traits matter across the lifespan for socioeconomic outcomes or only in specific age periods?, and 3.) do periods of economic recession change the relationship between traits and socioeconomic outcomes? To answer these questions, we examine the prospective associations between personality traits and socioeconomic conditions across the lifespan, using eleven longitudinal datasets. Participants were born from 1880–2000 and aged 5–102; myriad ages and generations were present for all major U.S. military and economic events of the last 50 years. The samples were racially diverse, containing datasets focused on African American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander experiences, and several contemporary nationally representative datasets. Initial results show, for income for instance, that 1.) between-person levels, not within-person fluctuations, matter, and 2.) between-person levels matter across all ages. Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion predicted earning a higher yearly income; Neuroticism predicted earning a lower yearly income. Effects sizes for traits were comparable to that for parental education. Our results shed light on how people navigate social structures across the lifespan.

Adopting Digital Humanities to Explore Toni Morrison’s Oeuvre: A Literary Dimension

This research paper delves into a new literary dimension of using technology to unravel the rich tapestry of Toni Morrison. It uses digital tools of sentiment analysis,character networks, and text mining to unveil the hidden nuances of her narratives. As her novels are celebrated for their African-American identity, experience, and societal complexities, this study examines the cultural, historical, and emotional landscape of her narratives through the realm of digital humanities. It deepens the understanding of her characters through the geospatial data which traces the cultural, historical, and symbolic dimensions of African Americans. Besides, it offers insights in the integration of technology and literature.

Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia's Residential School for Black Disabled Youth

Disability history has embraced the cultural model of Deafness which argues that residential schools fostered a common identity unified around the use of sign language. This article argues that this model was built on examinations of primarily (and exclusively) white institutions, resulting in scholarship that erases the distinct experiences of deaf African Americans. Cross-disability experiences were central to the lives of Black children at the Virginia State School, a residential school for deaf and blind African American youth. Far from a statistical outlier, the majority of Southern states used this cost saving measure to educate blind and deaf African Americans. Though not exclusively utilized for African Americans, the disproportionate use of combined schools reflects a Jim Crow approach to disability designed to reduce state expenditures at the cost of services rendered to the Black community. Relying on previously unused sources of the Virginia State School, including surviving records of administrators and a school bulletin with student contributors, this article explores a community where nearly every aspect of life involved cross-disability relationships. Oral histories with former students add to this narrative, revealing how young people who came to identify as culturally Deaf, communicated with partially blind students through sign language and with fully blind students through spoken English. This approach to deaf and blind education regularized cross-disability interactions among African Americans in Virginia, producing a community at the school defined by their categorization as disabled and Black, more so than by specific disabilities.

Race, gender, and cohort differences in the educational experiences of Black and White Americans.

Federal legislation and judicial intervention led to significant transformation in the U.S. education system during the early to mid-20th century. These changes may differentiate older adults in their experiences of aging, particularly at the intersection of race, gender, and cohort, but are not well documented among current cohorts of older adults. Our study addresses this gap by providing rich, descriptive information on the educational experiences of U.S. adults who attended primary or secondary school between 1915 and 1977. We used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative, prospective study of U.S. adults over age 50 years. The HRS collected information on respondents' schooling history and experiences through a Life History Mail Survey (LHMS). We restricted our sample to age-eligible HRS-LHMS respondents who self-identified as non-Hispanic White or non-Hispanic Black and completed at least 75% of their primary or secondary schooling in the U.S. (n=10,632). Educational experiences, defined as pre-k to post-secondary education, varied across cohort, regardless of race or gender. Greater course offerings, improvements in learning support, and increasing exposure to integrated schools occurred across successive cohorts. We found the highest rates of enrollment in college preparatory curriculum and foreign-language courses as well as diagnosed learning differences in cohorts born after 1948. Among White adults, many of the gender differences in educational experiences documented in the oldest cohort were still found among the most recent cohort. Few gender differences, however, were found for Black adults regardless of cohort. Conversely, most race inequities in educational experiences persisted. Such inequities may be an important source of continued differences in experiences of aging observed across demographic groups.

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.

Selling (In)Equality: Exploring the Relationship Between Colourism and Marketing Practices in South-East Asia

When considering the roles colourism and marketing practices play in the prevalent culture of skin-whitening in South-East Asia, it can be ascertained that a connection between the two concepts exists. While extensive research has been conducted on colourism, this is often limited to the African American experience and, thus, little has been done in the context of SouthEast Asia. Moreover, colourism and marketing have not been explored in conjunction with one another. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between colourism and marketing, as well as the dynamics and implications of such a relationship. A qualitative mixed-methods approach was implemented: first, a narrative literature review was conducted to create a holistic understanding of the key topics and, second, semi-structured interviews were performed to compare published research to a case study. Results obtained from this approach suggested that marketing perpetuates colourism using skin-tone stereotypes and by encouraging fair-skin beauty ideals already present in society. Additionally, results highlighted that education and raising awareness on the existence of colourist ideals could be key in instigating change within society.

The Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates of Black and White Persons with HIV in the United States in 2019.

This study examines the experience of non-Hispanic Black Americans (hereinafter referred to as Black persons) and non-Hispanic White Americans (hereinafter referred to as White persons) with regard to the incidence (i.e., number of persons diagnosed with HIV), prevalence (i.e., number of persons living with HIV), and mortality rates of persons with HIV in the United States in 2019. With regard to mortality rates, this study examines the mortality rate of all Black persons and White persons with HIV in 2019 as well as the mortality rate of hospitalized Black persons and White persons with HIV in 2019. Data on the racial characteristics of all persons in the United States in 2019 were obtained from the United States Census Bureau, and data on the racial characteristics of all persons with HIV in the United States were obtained from HIV Surveillance Reports produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, data on all hospital patients in seven states (California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Wisconsin) in 2019 were obtained from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Database (SID). These seven states included 44 percent of all persons living with HIV in the United States in 2019. This study found that Black persons were more likely to be diagnosed with HIV, live with HIV, and die with HIV than White persons in the United States. This is illustrated by the fact that in 2019 Black persons comprised 13.4 percent of the population, yet they comprised 42.1 percent of persons diagnosed with HIV, 40.4 percent of persons living with HIV, and 42.9 percent of persons who died with HIV. By comparison, in 2019 White persons comprised 76.3 percent of the population, yet they comprised 24.8 percent of persons diagnosed with HIV, 29.1 percent of persons living with HIV, and 31.8 percent of persons who died with HIV. Nevertheless, this study did not find a statistically significant difference between the in-hospital mortality rates of Black and White persons in seven states in 2019. The burden of HIV was considerably greater on Black persons than White persons in the United States in 2019.

Purpose in the pandemic: Fear of COVID-19, hopelessness, meaning in life, and suicidal thoughts among two samples of Black Americans.

The mental health experiences of Black Americans remain understudied in existing COVID-19 research. While several vital reports highlight disparate physical health outcomes-and even higher mortality rates among Black Americans-few queries have considered the current mental health concerns for this particular group. This investigation therefore examines correlates associated with experiencing suicidal ideation at the beginning (e.g., 2020) and in a later phase (e.g., 2022) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 includes responses from (n = 489) Black young adults ages 18-30 who completed online surveys from May 27 to June 24, 2020. Study 2 includes response from a separate, nationally representative probability-based sample of (n = 794) Black adults ages 18-88 who completed online surveys between April 21 and June 1, 2022. Participants' fear of COVID-19, feelings of hopelessness, and perceptions regarding meaning in life were considered. Study findings indicate that hopelessness, but not fear of COVID-19, was positively associated with suicidal ideation in both studies. Further, presence of meaning in life was negatively associated with suicidal ideation during the past 2 weeks in Study 1 and was also associated with significantly lower odds of suicidal ideation during the past year in Study 2. Presence of meaning in life moderated the relation between hopelessness and suicidal ideation among participants in Study 1 only. Thus, having a sense of life purpose appears to be an important construct to consider when working to prevent suicide among Black Americans during the current global COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

China and the Spirit of Booker T. Washington: Applying Lessons from the Southern Black American Experience in Rural Republican China, 1920–1940

Abstract: This article analyzes Chinese coverage of the African American experience from 1920 to 1940. It argues that through the transfer of news media, ideas, and the physical act of travel, African Americans’ lived experiences and advancement became a point of interest for Chinese students, scholars, and political actors who aspired to address the social and political challenges facing Republican China. These authors extracted broad lessons from Black America and did not focus exclusively on African American bondage. While several studies have shown how African Americans in the twentieth century first looked to the Empire of Japan and then the People’s Republic of China as sources of inspiration, this article reveals a broader story of exchange. By reversing the aforementioned flow of information and ideas back across the Pacific, this article highlights how Black America, beleaguered as it may have been, also served as an object of emulation.

African Americans, World War I, and the Awakening of a “Colored” Manifest Destiny

AbstractDifferent aspects of the African American experience during World War One have been covered since the release in 1974 of Florette Henri’s and Arthur E. Barbeau’s The Unknown Soldiers: African American Troops in World War I. All these studies concur in their assumptions that World War One opened up a new quest for full citizenships and galvanized soldiers and officers alike. A new era started right in the middle of the conflict fueling African American units with hope of change. World War One turned into the matrix for a new form of militancy. However, perhaps World War One did not only trigger a new form of militancy among African Americans. Something else might have snapped in African American (and perhaps African) leaders of the time. What if World War One had nurtured the awakening of a “colored manifest destiny”?

Jazzthetic Technique: Oralizing Fiction and Jazz Strategies in Toni Morrison’s Jazz

Toni Morrison represents the improvisations of life in the 1920s and posits her novel Jazz as a work that negotiates sound as a distinguishing characteristic of her writing genre. Many critics have described Morrison’s approach as a Jazzthetic strategy and as such, her rhetorical move enables a renovation of traditional aspects of the novel to render life as complex as a jazz composition itself. This article analyzes Morison’s methods and posits the use of jazz strategies to mimic the displacement, fragmentation, and strife experienced by African Americans during the Great Migration. This essay also intervenes in the debate between the relationship of language and music to examine the ways that Morrison oralizes fiction and engages in a form of cultural circularity, thereby asserting the authenticity of jazz alongside the tension of the Great Migration. Additionally, this essay explains the ways that Morrison makes clear the implications of migrant cultural expression in service of identity formation, suggesting that the micro-novels in the novel Jazz are contributors to a larger ensemble that functions epistemologically to render the African American experience as central to American identity.

Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina ed. by Robert Greene II and Tyler D. Parry (review)

Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina ed. by Robert Greene II and Tyler D. Parry (review)

“We deh yah”

In August 2022, Garvin Yapp, a 57-year-old migrant farm worker from Jamaica, was killed while working on a tobacco farm in Ontario, Canada. Yapp’s untimely and preventable death came just days after Jamaican farm workers penned a letter comparing their working conditions in Southern Ontario to “systematic slavery.” What was glaringly missing were accounts of the experiences of Black immigrants, like Yapp or my grandmother, who represent a large percentage of Black Canadians. Their stories and our stories were missing. When in reality, “We deh yah!” ). Black immigrants, specifically those from the eastern Caribbean, are a notable part of Canada’s history and present yet the Canadian curriculum often essentializes the Black American experience as representative of Black Canadians. While Black Canadians born in the US are an important part of the Black Canadian population, this essentialization of Black Canadians obscures the lived realities of Black Canadians who often experience antiblackness that is shaped by their intersectional identity, related to citizenship, language, and socioeconomic status. Thus, to truly apprehend and challenge the manifestation of antiblackness in Canada, it is imperative to recognize and understand the diversity of Black Canadians. This article offers two things educational stakeholders, like teachers, should consider in order to work towards recognizing the diversity of Black Canada
 

Doing the Work of God: HBCU’s and Black America’s Response to the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

This study illuminates African American responses to the Influenza pandemic of 1918, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in particular. We chose a decolonized approach to historical inquiry, centering Black narratives, periodicals, and historical documents to better understand the African American experience and thereby the world. Our investigation revealed institutions that readily and dutifully responded to the pandemic as a function of their expertise and as a strategy to advance the freedom cause of African Americans. Places like Howard University, Knoxville College, and Meharry Medical College were resources for Black folks, their communities, and for the first time, White Americans. HBCU giants, W. E. B. Du Bois and C.V. Roman emerged in new ways to help Black America balance its duties to society, democracy, and to the race. Despite valor in war and medical service to the country, Black America would continue to struggle for full citizenship.

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

On the use of aspect-based sentiment analysis of Twitter data to explore the experiences of African Americans during COVID-19

According to data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as of June 2020, a significant number of African Americans had been infected with the coronavirus disease, experiencing disproportionately higher death rates compared to other demographic groups. These disparities highlight the urgent need to examine the experiences, behaviors, and opinions of the African American population in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding their unique challenges in navigating matters of health and well-being, we can work towards promoting health equity, eliminating disparities, and addressing persistent barriers to care. Since Twitter data has shown significant promise as a representation of human behavior and for opinion mining, this study leverages Twitter data published in 2020 to characterize the pandemic-related experiences of the United States’ African American population using aspect-based sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is a common task in natural language processing that identifies the emotional tone (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) of a text sample. Aspect-based sentiment analysis increases the granularity of sentiment analysis by also extracting the aspect for which sentiment is expressed. We developed a machine learning pipeline consisting of image and language-based classification models to filter out tweets not related to COVID-19 and those unlikely published by African American Twitter subscribers, leading to an analysis of nearly 4 million tweets. Overall, our results show that the majority of tweets had a negative tone, and that the days with larger numbers of published tweets often coincided with major U.S. events related to the pandemic as suggested by major news headlines (e.g., vaccine rollout). We also show how word usage evolved throughout the year (e.g., outbreak to pandemic and coronavirus to covid). This work also points to important issues like food insecurity and vaccine hesitation, along with exposing semantic relationships between words, such as covid and exhausted. As such, this work furthers understanding of how the nationwide progression of the pandemic may have impacted the narratives of African American Twitter users.

A Short Course in the African-American Experience, and: Gathering

A Short Course in the African-American Experience, and: Gathering

Relational Supervision: Jegnaship And Eldering As Emancipatory Pedagogy For Black Teacher Supervision

The case delves into the historical and cultural roots of African education, emphasizing the vital role of elders and community in the learning process. It examines the impact of African educational philosophies, particularly from the Nile and Niger river valleys, on the development of character, humanness, and spirituality. The case explores the adaptation of these philosophies by African people during the Middle Passage and their application in Western contexts for the supervision of African American teachers. By interweaving culture, history, education, and storytelling, the authors aim to highlight the unique contributions of African American educational experiences. They argue that these experiences provide valuable strategies for the liberation struggle and the transformation of Black teacher development. The case also explores contemporary issues in the teaching profession, such as the limited presence of African American educators, pedagogical negligence, and professional marginalization, proposing culturally-centered tools for community preservation and well-being. The central theme is the importance of relational supervision rooted in African and African American cultural knowledge, which is seen as key to nurturing Black novice teachers and fostering their professional development.

“I Wish I Could Give You This Feeling”: Black Digital Commons and the Rhetoric of “The Corner”

ABSTRACT The unique experience of Black Americans in the United States produces a physical and cultural space with a long history of misuse, commodification, and theft of the Black imagination and Black culture. These spaces, which also historically complicate notions of privatization and ownership, are replicated online today. In this essay, we propose the corner as a lens through which to interrogate whether Black networks online potentially produce a rhetorical digital commons and, further, whether the theory and practice of “the commons” adequately make space for the particular historical reality of Black America. To do so, we focus on three social media platforms wherein Black digital praxis meets the possibility of the corner: TikTok, Twitter, and Black Planet. These digital corners provide lessons that center the Black experience on- and offline, and point toward possibilities and limitations in our digital future. Ultimately we argue that the corner contradicts hegemonic modes of white supremacy in public spaces while also spotlighting the brutal realities of gentrification, commodification, and theft that fortify the exploitation of Black communities.

Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Music in Postwar France. By Celeste Day Moore

In Soundscapes of Liberation, Celeste Day Moore has woven together a compelling book that sheds new light on the Black (American) experience in twentieth century France. Her critical intervention is to show that although the circulation and reception of Black music in postwar France seemed emancipatory, the reality was more complex. Moore outlines the tensions between an idealized rhetoric of racial freedom in France and the real erasures and stereotyping that characterized the transmission and reception of music of the African diaspora. She uses approaches from social and cultural history, popular culture studies, sound studies, and French colonial and postcolonial studies. Moore’s nuanced account of the emancipatory and constraining effects of soundscapes is central to understanding the complexity of “race” and racialization in France. She focuses on the time period after the Second World War although, as she points out, these characteristics are typical of earlier periods and continue to this day.