Institutional Racial Discrimination Research Articles

Clarifying Definitions of „Race“, Racism, and Ethnocentrism

Human beings need social group identities. These may be based on age, sex, gender and gender identity, ethnicity, religious beliefs, language, nationality and etc. In fact, in-group identities, collaborations and reference systems have positive effects on health / mental health. But, the problematic issue is the process of Othering and Dehumanization of the group designated to be the Other. Othering, rising from imagined or the expectation of generalized differences and used to distinguish groups of people as separate from the norm reinforces and maintains discrimination. Social power relations determine the stratification of ‘them’ and ‘us’. Whether a group is to be designated as the Other and labelled with prejudice will depend on the zeitgeist of the current dominant social power. Dehumanization created many tragedies via genocide, slavery, racism, sexism, and other intolerant forms of violence. Theories, generally termed as scientific racism of late 19th. & early 20th. centuries, times of colonialism, assumed that some races are inferior to others, and that differential treatment of races is consequently justified. Such approaches led to movements of unification / purification practices which cannot be legitimate and caused vast individual and institutional racial discrimination, human rights violations and violence. As a social determinant of health, racial discrimination and ethnocentrism, a powerful force that weakens human relations, continue to afflict the health and mental health conditions of people. Albeit racial discrimination, peoples of the world also have a history of effective praxis of inclusive ways of solving conflicts of interests between in-groups and out-groups.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Racial Discrimination and Telomere Length in Midlife African American Women: Interactions of Educational Attainment and Employment Status.

Over the life course, African American (AA) women have faster telomere attrition, a biological indicator of accelerated aging, than White women. Race, sex, age, and composite socioeconomic status (SES) modify associations of institutional racial discrimination and telomere length. However, interactions with everyday racial discrimination have not been detected in AA women, nor have interactions with individual socioeconomic predictors. We estimated statistical interaction of institutional and everyday racial discrimination with age, education, employment, poverty, and composite SES on telomere length among midlife AA women. Data are from a cross-section of 140 AA women aged 30-50 years residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants completed questionnaires, computer-assisted self-interviews, physical examinations, and blood draws. Adjusted linear regression estimated bootstrapped racial discrimination-relative telomere length associations with interaction terms. Racial discrimination did not interact with age, poverty, or composite SES measures to modify associations with telomere length. Interactions between independent SES variables were nonsignificant for everyday discrimination whereas institutional discrimination interacted with educational attainment and employment status to modify telomere length. After adjusting for covariates, we found that higher institutional discrimination was associated with shorter telomeres among employed women with lower education (β = -0.020; 95% confidence interval = -0.036, -0.003). Among unemployed women with higher education, higher institutional discrimination was associated with longer telomeres (β = 0.017; 95% confidence interval = 0.003, 0.032). Factors related to having a post-high school education may be protective against the negative effects of institutional racism on cellular aging for AA women.

From conception to COVID-19: an arduous journey of tribulations of racism and triumphs.

SummaryGrowing up in a densely wooded tropical forest enhanced my curiosity in plants and reading biography of Marie Curie profoundly influenced pursuit of my research career. Early in my career, I developed in vitro functional chloroplasts, capable of expressing foreign genes and this laid the foundation for the chloroplast genetic engineering field. Four decades of research has advanced chloroplast bioreactors for production of industrial enzymes or biopharmaceuticals by small or large companies. Because I experienced firsthand horrors of expensive vaccines or medicines, I devoted most of my career to develop affordable therapeutics. During this long journey, I suffered institutional racial discrimination but was rescued by several guardian angels. This biography gives readers a glimpse of tribulations and triumphs of my journey and recognizes important contributions made by my mentees.

Engaged Against the Machine: Institutional and Cultural Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity as Predictors of Activism Orientation among Black Youth.

The current study examines how experiences of institutional and cultural racial discrimination relate to orientations toward activism in the Black community among Black adolescents and emerging adults. Furthermore, we investigate the role of racial identity (centrality, public regard, nationalism) as moderators of those relations. In a national sample of 888 Black adolescents and emerging adults, we found that experiences of cultural racial discrimination, racial centrality, and nationalism ideology were related to a greater orientation toward low-risk Black community activism. For high-risk activism, nationalism was associated with a greater likelihood to participate in future social action in the Black community. The relation between experiences of institutional racial discrimination and high-risk activism orientation was moderated by public regard. For Black adolescents and emerging adults who believe others view Black people negatively, more experiences of institutional racial discrimination were related to a greater high-risk activism orientation. Findings highlight the importance of investigating racial discrimination as a multidimensional construct that extends beyond individual interactions and microaggressions. Furthermore, these findings underscore how phenomenological variation in experiences of racial discrimination and racial identity differentially influence adolescent and emerging adult orientations toward social action in and for the Black community.

The Persistent High Rates of Heroin Use Among the Puerto Rican Population in the United States: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACTFor a half- century, the Puerto Rican population in the United States has experienced very high rates of heroin usage with significant health ramifications. At substance misuse programs in the Bronx, New York, two focus groups consisting of a total of 13 Puerto Rican counselors, and four focus groups consisting of a total of 35 Puerto Rican clients, discussed the impact of heroin usage on Puerto Rican communities as part of a qualitative study using a phenomenological perspective. Societal marginalization and social dislocation were identified as major contributors to heroin usage in Puerto Rican communities. The findings indicate that full access to economic, vocational, and educational opportunities, along with a decrease in institutional racial discrimination, would appear to be the most effective way to decrease heroin usage among this population.

Differential Effects of Racial Socialization Messages for African American Adolescents: Personal Versus Institutional Racial Discrimination

Racial socialization is one factor known to attenuate the negative consequences of racial discrimination on adolescents’ anger and depressive symptoms. However, little is known about whether racial socialization messages addressing cultural and racial pride and messages preparing youth for racial discrimination and racial barriers function differently depending upon whether adolescents perceive personal versus institutional racial discrimination. Thus, the present study examined whether racial socialization messages emphasizing racial pride and racial barriers protected against anger and depressive symptoms for African American adolescents’ experience of personal and institutional racial discrimination. Participants were a community sample of 106 urban African American adolescents (57 % girls; mean age = 15.41) residing in a large metropolitan area. Regression analyses revealed that personal racial discrimination was positively associated with anger for youth reporting low cultural pride reinforcement, and positively associated with depressive symptoms for youth reporting low cultural alertness to discrimination; there were no associations between personal racial discrimination and anger or depressive symptoms for youth reporting high racial socialization messages. Neither cultural pride nor racial barrier racial socialization message protected against institutional racial discrimination. Findings suggest that the protective effects of racial socialization messages vary based on the type of racial discrimination adolescents experience.

United Kingdom: What Robinson v Solicitors Regulation Authority Tells Us about the Contested Terrain of Race and Disciplinary Processes

There is a not so subtle racial undercurrent to the debate surrounding solicitor dishonesty, the disciplinary process, the role of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in England and Wales. The discussion appeared to emerge from two different standpoints: the suggestion that solicitors from certain non- White backgrounds were more likely to be dishonest (racial stereotyping of dishonesty); and the suggestion that the Law Society and then the SRA (the solicitor regulator) were more likely to investigate, take action against and make findings against solicitors from non-White backgrounds (institutional racial discrimination). The debate then developed as a more sophisticated one attributable to factors beyond race, intersecting firm type, client type and case type alongside the ethnicity and/or nationality of the solicitor to posit a series of factors that may contribute to the reason why a disproportionate number of non- White solicitors face regulatory investigation and have findings made against them. Of the 390 solicitors brought before the SDT in 2011, 35% were from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds (BAME) against a population of 14% BAME solicitors who hold practising certificates. This short case note will consider this debate in the light of the case of Robinson v Solicitors Regulation Authority, in which the charge of discrimination was raised by the appellant solicitor as part of his challenge to the severity of the sanction imposed against him by the SDT.

Perceived Racial Discrimination in Health Care and Race Differences in Physician Trust

Racial discrimination in health care is more often perceived by racial minority patients than by whites. In this study, we explored whether two types of perceived racial discrimination, perceptions that the healthcare system is racially biased in general (perceived institutional racial discrimination) and perceptions that one has personally encountered racial discrimination while seeking health care (perceived interpersonal racial discrimination), mediated racial differences in patients’ trust in physicians. We examined this in a sample of black (N = 127) and white (N = 303) patients being treated in two Veterans Affairs orthopedic clinics for advanced osteoarthritis. Patients completed measures of perceived institutional and interpersonal racial discrimination in health care before meeting with an orthopedic surgeon and a measure of physician trust after the visit. Using a multiple mediator bootstrapping procedure, we tested whether perceived institutional and/or interpersonal racial discrimination mediated the association between race and trust. Compared to whites, blacks reported lower physician trust (M = 4.00 vs. 4.17, β = −0.15, 95 % CI = −0.25, −0.05), more perceived institutional racial discrimination (M = 3.13 vs. 2.60, β = 0.43, 95 % CI = 0.25, 0.61), and more perceived interpersonal racial discrimination (M = 1.94 vs. 1.21, β = 0.60, 95 % CI = 0.47, 0.74). Perceived interpersonal, but not institutional, racial discrimination mediated the race difference in physician trust and accounted for 55 % of the variance. Our finding that lower physician trust among black patients than white patients was explained by perceptions of interpersonal racial discrimination in health care suggests that issues of racial discrimination may need to be addressed in order to foster minority patients’ trust in physicians.

An Examination of Racial Diversity in Collegiate Football

Anderson (1993) published an in-depth analysis of Division IA football coaching opportunities utilizing a centrality framework and concluded that institutional racial discrimination was restricting Black coaches career opportunities in intercollegiate athletics. The present study aims to provide an update of his study by conducting a 15-year trend analysis of football coaches at the Division IA level, comparing Anderson's (1993) data from 1990 to data from 2005. Data were collected from 116 media guides at the conclusion of the 2005 season, and X² analyses were used to compare data across the two timeframes. The results provide evidence that institutional racism is still potentially an active deterrent to achieving greater racial diversity among Division IA football coaches as head coaches and coordinators.

Institutional racial discrimination, strategic planning and training in the Prison Department

Abstract This article reviews efforts by the Prison Service to counteract racial discrimination within the Service, focussing in particular on the programme to train the race relations teams of individual penal establishments. It is argued that trained teams score over untrained teams on a number of fronts, exhibiting greater perserverance in their efforts and a higher rate of action plan implementation. The article concludes with five suggested measures of success in ensuring equitable treatment of all ethnic groups within the prison system.