Racial Equality Research Articles

School Social Workers' Responses to Racial Injustice During COVID-19: A Need for Anti-Racist Practice in K-12 Schools

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examines how school social workers (SSWers) responded to the U.S. racial injustices highlighted by the media during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. SSWers were interviewed during what some scholars dubbed a “moment of reckoning and crisis” following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide demonstrations for justice that aimed to challenge racialized police violence (Villarreal Sosa 2022, p. 67). Seventeen SSWers in K–12 public schools from various school districts across three states (Minnesota, Colorado, and Nevada) completed two key informant interviews related to their experiences during the spring and fall semesters of 2020. A constructivist grounded theory approach, including three coding cycles, was used to analyze participant narratives. A substantive theory for understanding SSWers’ responses (or lack of responses) to racial injustices during this period emerged. The findings provide an initial understanding of how SSWers’ responded to racial injustice during this moment of crisis and some of the factors that impacted their responses. The most common responses to racial injustice during this moment of crisis included: 1) engaging in conversations about race and racism and 2) participating in learning opportunities about race, racism, and racial justice. Our theory highlights how (lack of) structural support influenced SSWers’ responses. Implications for school social work (SSW) practice, curriculum, and research are discussed.

Call to Action: Responding to COVID-19, Racism, and Student Mental Health on University Campuses

ABSTRACT The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a cascade of stressors that occurred concurrently with increasing issues of racism and racial injustice events. These compounded healthcare and societal stressors significantly impacted the mental health of individuals worldwide, including university students. To address the needs of students, a survey was administered to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at a large public university in the southeastern United States. Qualitative data were collected regarding student mental health, recommendations for institutional resources, and support needs therein. Thematic analysis of qualitative responses from 1050 university students indicated six areas students stated they wanted the university to address to support their mental health needs: (1) Communication, (2) Academic Concerns, (3) Mental Health Resources and Connections, (4) COVID-19 Safety, (5) Social Injustice, and (6) Financial Concerns. To address these areas, we propose a set of evidence-based recommendations within the Social-Ecological Framework for colleges and universities to adopt to support student mental health considering all races, backgrounds, and experiences. Additionally, we propose strategies for university and college counseling centers to provide an essential leadership role on campuses to move these recommendations forward and positively impact the mental health of students.

Emergency hospital admissions for stress-related presentations among secondary school-aged minoritised young people in England.

Minoritised young people face a double burden of discrimination through increased risk of stress and differential treatment access. However, acute care pathways for minoritised young people with urgent mental health needs are poorly understood. To explore variation in stress-related presentations (SRPs) to acute hospitals across racial-ethnic groups in England. We examined rates, distribution, duration and types of SRPs across racial-ethnic groups in a retrospective cohort of 11- to 15-year-olds with one or more emergency hospital admissions between April 2014 and March 2020. SRPs were defined as emergency admissions for potentially psychosomatic symptoms, self-harm and internalising, externalising and thought disorders. White British (8-38 per 1000 births) and Mixed White-Black (9-42 per 1000 births) young people had highest rates of SRPs, whereas Black African (5-14 per 1000 births), Indian (6-19 per 1000 births) and White other (4-19 per 1000 births) young people had the lowest rates of SRPs. The proportion of readmissions were highest for Pakistani (47.7%), White British (41.4%) and Mixed White-Black (41.3%) groups. Black Other (36.4%) and White Other (35.8%) groups had the lowest proportions of readmissions. The proportion of admission durations ≥3 days was higher for Black Other (16.6%), Bangladeshi (16.3%), Asian Other (15.9%) and Black Caribbean (15.8%) groups than their White British (11.9%) and Indian (11.8%) peers. The type of SRPs varied across racial-ethnic groups. Patterns of SRP admissions systematically differed across racial-ethnic groups, indicative of inequitable triage, assessment and treatment processes. These findings highlight the need for implementation of race equality frameworks to address structural racism in healthcare pathways.

Evaluation of the ENIGMA mentoring pilot; an approach to tackle leadership inequalities for ethnically diverse female pharmacists in general practice

Abstract Introduction Diversity in leadership positively impacts teams and productivity yet remains limited in pharmacy leadership. The NHS Pharmacy Workforce Race Equality Standard (PWRES) report1 highlights significant underrepresentation of ethnically diverse pharmacists in senior NHS Trust roles (Agenda for Change band 8a and above) compared to their representation in the general pharmacist workforce. This disparity is particularly pronounced for female pharmacists from ethnically diverse backgrounds, who make up 31.9% of all pharmacists but only 24.2% of those in band 8a and above, with a steep decline from 27.6% at band 8a to just 5.9% at band 91,2. To begin addressing this, we piloted the ENhancing leadershIp amonGst ethnically diverse feMale phArmacists (ENIGMA) mentoring scheme in general practice within Leeds. Aim The aim was to determine whether ENIGMA mentoring relationships supported leadership skill development, fostered networking, and developed authentic allies. We assessed the success of the pilot by exploring the perspectives of mentors and mentees and identifying their satisfaction with the scheme. Methods We recruited 18 experienced female senior leaders as mentors for ENIGMA. Mentee recruitment was conducted through dissemination of a flyer via social media, Microsoft Teams, email, and citywide meetings, offering places to the first 18 pharmacists who expressed interest, with no selection process. Mentors and mentees were paired based on mentee goals and mentor expertise. Mentees met their mentor 3 times in a 6-month period. Evaluation was undertaken through Microsoft Forms questionnaires completed anonymously by both mentors and mentees exploring how they experienced ENIGMA, benefits of the scheme, if they felt the scheme had enabled leadership skill development and how it had (or anticipated it would) impact(ed) on career development for the mentee. Ethical approval was deemed unnecessary as this was a service evaluation. Neither author-affiliated organisation is associated with the project. Results Of 18 mentoring pairs, 13 successfully completed the 6-month program. For five pairs, mentees did not establish contact. 62% of mentors responded to the questionnaire. 88% felt a positive impact on their mentoring skills and described a noticeable increase in mentee confidence and career focus. 100% of mentors would recommend the scheme. For mentees, 62% responded. 88% were ‘most satisfied’ with the experience and 88% felt their leadership skills improved because of participating. 75% met specific goals and 88% commented particularly on positive impact of the scheme. 100% of mentees would recommend ENIGMA to others. Discussion/conclusion The pilot was a great success, impacting positively on mentors and mentees. All responding participants would recommend it to others. Mentors and mentees expressed some challenges: finding a mutual time for meetings, and support from employers to use work time for meetings. Questionnaires were not returned by 38% of participants, which is a potential limitation. An identified improvement is to offer mentors an alternative mentee if their original mentee does not make contact. Offer of an annual ENIGMA cohort will continue in Leeds. Additionally, a second pilot is planned in another Integrated Care Board (ICB) to establish how ENIGMA could work in a different area, and if successful, we intend to share this model nationally.

Creating an inclusive workforce in 2024: Are pharmacy teams across England committed to embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion?

Abstract Introduction The Pharmacy Workforce Race Equality Standard (PWRES) published in 2023 provided evidence of the varied experiences that registered pharmacy professionals in NHS trusts face, particularly in relation to gender and ethnicity.1 Following this, the Inclusive Pharmacy Practice delivery group at NHS England set out to raise awareness of the data and to support regions in developing action plans to drive improvements in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within pharmacy teams. Aim The aim of this study was to identify current initiatives within NHS providers that promote EDI within the pharmacy workforce with a view to enabling the sharing of good practice, and identifying implementation barriers. Methods A questionnaire was created by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Clinical Fellows and distributed by the 6 regional chief pharmacists within NHS England to their networks. The questionnaire was also promoted in regional pharmacy leadership meetings. Responses were collected between 1st February and 31st May 2024. Data was collected on an Excel spreadsheet. London was excluded from data collection as a similar questionnaire was distributed in 2023. No ethical approval was needed for non-sensitive anonymised data. Results There were 77 responses: 75% (n = 58) from hospital trusts, 13% (n = 10) from integrated care boards and the remaining 9 responses included the Local Pharmaceutical Committee, Hospice and Mental Health Trust. 86% of respondents (n = 66) indicated that their organisation has EDI initiatives in place. These have been summarised into six key themes: 1) EDI network/steering group (n = 44), 2) action plan (n = 14), 3) EDI training/accreditation (n =14), 4) reverse/reciprocal mentoring (n = 11), 5) awareness days (n = 10) and 6) inclusive recruitment practices (n = 10). In contrast, only half of respondents indicated that their team had EDI initiatives. The impact of any initiatives was measured by feedback from staff (e.g. Internal staff survey, NHS staff survey, focus groups, open staff forums) and regular staff demographic data collection. 55% of respondents (n = 36) indicated that recruitment panel members received compulsory EDI training for interviews and 54% of respondents (n = 35) received mandatory recruitment training. Barriers and challenges identified with implementing EDI initiatives included organisational change, workforce capacity, competing priorities and staff apathy. Discussion The survey results highlight a strong commitment to EDI initiatives at an organisational level, with most organisations having established EDI frameworks. However, the lower prevalence of EDI initiatives within individual pharmacy teams suggests a gap in implementation. This discrepancy indicates a need for better dissemination and integration of EDI practices within pharmacy team settings. There is evidence of varied practice in terms of EDI training requirements of interview panellists, and these variations are opportunities where improvements can be made in terms of IPP. The survey was only sent to the managed NHS sector and is not reflective of primary care or community pharmacy. One of the next steps is for regions to use the results of the questionnaire in combination with the PWRES data to develop and implement local action plans to address these issues. Reference 1. NHS England. Pharmacy Workforce Race Equality Standard Report 2023. [Accessed 4th June 2024]. Available from https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/pharmacy-workforce-race-equality-standard-report/

Using civically engaged research to understand the strategic dynamics of social media outreach

ABSTRACT Racial justice organizations often operate in contentious and volatile environments with intense resource demands. This reality was especially apparent in 2020, when a global pandemic, social uprisings, and a relatively provocative presidential election drastically altered racial justice organizations' capacity to engage with their constituents. This paper details how we, a team of political science researchers, applied civically engaged research (CER) principles in collaboration with two local racial justice organizations to understand the strategic dynamics of social media outreach, particularly during hostile and challenging times. This paper advances collective and practical understandings of how CER can proceed, particularly as researchers navigate complexities such as defining reciprocity and developing partnerships. Further, we present five main lessons learned throughout our CER process. Overall, we highlight how CER can improve collaborations with vulnerable communities navigating challenging political environments and how CER can better inform academic research on the strategic dynamics of social media outreach.

“Who Cancelled Lee Highway?”: Expressions of White Racial Frames and Counterframes on Nextdoor

In July of 2021, the Arlington County Board, just outside of Washington, DC, voted to change a major thoroughfare – previously known as Lee Highway – to Langston Boulevard. Despite this well-publicized and openly debated name change, the sight of the new road caused an uproar on the neighborhood social media site, Nextdoor. While social media sites have been central to the mobilization efforts of racial justice activists, these same sites are also often fundamental to a growing and more visible community of white supremacists. This study focuses on the ways in which geographic proximity, through the social media site Nextdoor, constructs community-based expressions of racial justice and whiteness. Using the 151 posts and responses that were published on Nextdoor the day after the street name change in a neighborhood in Arlington, VA, this study analyses how a primarily white, upper-class neighborhood publicly communicates its understanding of race and racial justice. This study was grounded in Feagin’s (2020) concept of the white racial frame, an overarching white worldview dominant in the Global North that embraces a broad and persisting set of racial stereotypes and ideologies. Findings suggest community members engaged in equal numbers in white racial frames and counterframes. Within the white racial frames, community members used whiteness as virtuousness and non-whiteness as unvirtuous, while counter-frames primarily relied on unveiling the white racial frames used. These findings indicate the ways in which social media as a form of communication works to reinforce existing spatial hierarchies while also reimagining community participation.

#Polarized: Gauging Potential Policy Bargaining Ranges Between Opposing Social Movements of Black Lives Matter and Police Lives Matter

(1) Background: Since the death of George Floyd, the social movement Black Lives Matter continues to dominate the American political psyche, not only advancing a public dialogue but also escalating the polarization of supported solutions for policing and systemic discrimination. (2) Methods: Using a qualitative context analysis approach, we assessed over 350 sources related to social justice literature and policy-relevant documents to identify key policy solutions supported by the American Black Lives Matter movement compared to the Blue Lives Matter movement. We applied Fearon’s bargaining range of war model to analyze the extent to which the policy recommendations of these two opposing movements may overlap. The purpose was to identify and categorize agreement alternatives across various sectors. This research presents top policy solutions, assessing their bargaining ranges. (3) Results: 32 of the 36 top policy reform alternatives at the national level have sufficient bargaining ranges. This analysis indicates the importance of supporting various sectors like mental health/psychosocial policies and programs, which can (1) serve as a focal point of agreement between contending movements, and (2) decrease racial injustice through strategic bargaining. (4) Conclusions: In a divisively political landscape, it is crucial to identify starting points for negotiation among contending actors. Identifying bargaining opportunities can help seed a dialogue that may benefit all parties involved.

Black Studies and Public Humanities

Abstract This essay brings Black Studies, now commonly referred to as Africana Studies, further into the public humanities dialogue. Scholars in the public humanities field are urging a practice of humanities that is collaborative and committed to racial and social justice, especially in the context of community-based scholarship. The origin and current protocols of Black Studies are also community-centric and operate within a liberatory framework in that it is ultimately concerned with the vitality of Black people across the diaspora. The essay describes the correlation between Black Studies and public humanities and discusses the usefulness of both disciplines in reckoning with slavery and its legacies at higher education institutions. In addition to giving a short genealogy of public humanities and Black Studies, the essay uses William & Mary’s Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation and Chesapeake Heartland: An African American at African American Humanities Project at Washington College as examples on how to possibly navigate the challenges ahead as public humanists and Black Studies scholars critically engage with the public on memorialization, reconciliation, and redress.

Community-school-university partnerships: possibilities for activism and racial justice

Critical school-community-university partnerships are central to activism for racial justice. Drawing on the scholarship of anti-racist activist leadership and community-school-university partnerships, this critical co-constructed auto-ethnographic comparative case study explores two such cases in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: the York University Faculty of Education Summer Institute (FESI) and the Nubian Book Club (NBC). As insiders-outsiders, the authors analyze various forms of data, such as informal observations, structured conversations between them, and program documents to understand the knowledges and possibilities that emerge in critical community-school-university partnerships and how leadership in these partnerships influence education for racial justice. Both cases resist, refuse, and subvert hegemonic educational discourses, legitimize fugitive and other marginalized knowledges, and imagine future possibilities for racial justice in schooling. This study concludes with recommendations for school districts, universities, and communities to engage in an activism-learning-action trifecta towards racial justice in education.

Teachers as first responders in marginalized, urban communities: Stress and coping during unprecedented times for public education

The present study examines workplace priorities, challenges, and experiences of burnout and coping among teachers in marginalized urban communities, where structural barriers elevate job demands and minimize job resources. Specifically, we amplify the voices of public elementary school teachers in an urban hub of Florida during a time of unprecedented stressors (COVID-19, staff shortages, racial injustice, school shootings) to identify possible avenues of support. Participants (N = 12) were teachers in grades 3 through 5 from one large urban district; six participants served predominately Black or African American students, and six participants served predominately Hispanic students. All teachers self-identified as female and from a racially and/or ethnically minoritized background themselves. Semi-structured interviews (conducted remotely by the first author) were organized around five questions. Qualitative content analysis highlighted two core priorities (support students holistically and address interconnecting social emotional skills and academic success) and two core challenges (mismatch between administration expectations/supports and teacher needs/values, and difficulty managing student behavior). Teachers attributed the ubiquitous experience of burnout to factors at levels of work (e.g., responding to student stressors and traumas on top of curriculum demands), organization (e.g., poor compensation, excessive work demands), and society (e.g., school shootings, COVID-19), and they offered concrete recommendations for improving their work conditions. Altogether findings inspire opportunities to reevaluate supports for teachers serving as first responders for youth in marginalized urban communities.

Trans and nonbinary students’ accounts of schooling: on epistemic witnessing, trans livability and the failure of the school cistem

ABSTRACT In this paper, we draw on accounts of trans and nonbinary youth we interviewed as part of a larger study on supporting gender diversity in schools. Our study is informed by an approach to epistemic witnessing which we conceive of as a praxis that is informed by a commitment to trans de-subjugation, testimonial justice and a transfeminist methodology with its critical focus on cissexist analytic pitfalls in research and refusal of objectification and overgeneralization of trans people. Our approach to analyzing interview data which refused the methodological constraints of forcing meaning into overdetermined and prescriptive thematic categories was also facilitative of this praxis. Overall, we provide testimonial accounts of trans youth navigating cisnormative school spaces and the tensions that arise around desires for trans (in)visibility which expose the cistemic forces at play in the education system in its failure to provide supportive conditions of trans livability and racial justice.

Police leaders’ support for civilian oversight and implicit bias training: assessing the influence of perceptions of systemic racism

ABSTRACT This study uses a sample of police leaders from across the United States to explore the extent to which their support for civilian oversight boards and implicit bias training, as two aspects of police reform intended to improve racial injustices, relate to their belief that systemic racism is an issue in criminal justice. Presented in the context of symbolic racism theory, we assess how respondents’ willingness to acknowledge systemic racism in criminal justice relates to more supportive perceptions of civilian oversight boards and implicit bias training. These relationships remain significant even when controlling for other individual and agency-level factors that are known to affect perceptions of systemic racism and support for public policies designed to improve racial justice. This study discusses the need for additional research and consideration of how police officers’ racialized attitudes relate to their support for common reform recommendations.

Gender and race in neurotrauma: part 1-identifying inequalities in leadership, academics, and clinical trial management.

Gender and racial equality, or the lack thereof, is a constantly recurring theme in neurosurgery and under-reported in neurotrauma literature. This perspective piece addresses the underrepresentation and challenges faced by women and racial minorities in neurosurgery, and within the workforce of neurotrauma, specifically. The literature demonstrates that there is still a scarcity of females and racial minorities in neurosurgery leadership positions and that females are less likely to receive invited papers. The persistent challenges in navigating gender and racial dynamics in neurosurgery/neurotrauma underscore the need for progress in advancing intersectionality within the field, emphasizing the importance of addressing inequalities. Several strategies to improve gender and racial diversity in neurotrauma workforce, leadership and academics are presented.

Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice: What Has Worked, What Hasn’t, and Lessons We Can Learn

Faith Communities and the Fight for Racial Justice: What Has Worked, What Hasn’t, and Lessons We Can Learn

Beyond party and the pocketbook: racial resentment, hostile sexism, and perceptions of corporate political activity

Abstract Recent controversies over “woke” businesses have challenged traditional partisan political alignments, leading to increased criticism on the right of corporate political activity. This paper explores how the public evaluates corporate political activity, focusing specifically on whether individuals believe corporations are doing too much (or too little) to advance social and political goals. We are especially interested in how social identities and pocketbook considerations shape perceptions of corporate political activities not explicitly tied to social issues. Does racial resentment, for example, influence perceptions of corporate political activity designed to increase worker wages or improve health care? Or are the effects limited to efforts to achieve racial equality? We find that racial resentment and hostile sexism have spillover effects, affecting perceptions of corporate political activity across issue areas. Partisan affiliation, political ideology, and personal pocketbook considerations, in contrast, play a more limited role. Previous research has demonstrated the effect of racial resentment and sexism on support for welfare policies. We add to this literature by showing that racist and sexist opposition extends to corporate political activities that might not be explicitly identified as socially progressive.

How to tame your hormones: menopause rage in media discourse

ABSTRACT While feminist scholarship has challenged earlier misogynist discourses around menopause, menopause continues to be associated with women’s rage. Focusing on UK news and advice websites (2018–2024), we ask if and how this association is figured in contemporary cultural representations and what cultural and political work it performs. We situate our examination within three converging contexts: 1) the unleashing of public displays of women’s rage in Anglophone media in the wake of the #MeToo movement; 2) the changing cultural terrain of ageing women and their growing influence in public life; and 3) the rising visibility of menopause in the UK. We identify four distinct patterns: 1) construction of rage as a natural and biological symptom of the hormonally imbalanced ageing female body; 2) bundling of rage with other symptoms associated with menopause; 3) repudiation of menopausal women’s rage; and 4) positioning of menopausal women as responsible for managing their rage. These patterns render menopausal women’s rage visible while simultaneously disavowing and obscuring its legitimacy as an apt response to gender injustice. The analysis shows how menopausal women’s apt rage over gender and racial injustice is being depoliticized and reduced to hormone-induced behaviour that ageing women are exhorted to self-manage.

Shifts in Racial Inequalities and White Backlash in the 21st Century U.S.

Progress toward racial equality over the course of U.S. history has not been linear, and reductions in racial inequalities have historically been met with racist backlash. In the current research, we examine whether shifts in racial inequalities in key structural areas in recent decades can be used to predict implicit and explicit racial attitudes among White U.S. residents (N = 222,203). Consistent with the hypothesis that increasing racial equality is threatening, the majority of the statistically significant effects we observed indicated increased pro-White attitudes among White residents of states where racial inequalities decreased over time. State-level reductions in racial inequalities related to government assistance and employment-which have both been highly politicized-were predictive of greater pro-White attitudes among White U.S. residents. Overall, the current findings provide suggestive evidence that reductions in state-level racial inequalities may threaten the status quo, heightening pro-White attitudes among White U.S. residents.

Blackademics as prophetic witnesses and the continuing struggle for racial justice in higher education

ABSTRACT This multidisciplinary paper illuminates white supremacist ideologies that serve to disenfranchise critical Black scholars in the U.S. academy. We situate the work of what we describe as the ‘Blackademic’ within the theological tradition of the prophetic witness. The conceptualization of critical Black scholars as a prophetic witness illuminates how they traverse the increasingly neo-liberal academy while they also navigate anti-Black white supremacist racism in higher education. This paper seeks to identify practical crossroads between the study of the experiences of Black scholars in academia and Blackademics (e.g. critical Black scholars). This paper also extends our previous emergent theoretical understanding of the actions of Blackademics.

Gore empowerment: patriarchal appetites and white feminist delights in Showtime’s Yellowjackets

ABSTRACT By packaging the television show Yellowjackets as a gender-flipped Lord of the Flies meant to reveal that girls can be just as violent and predatory as boys, the Showtime series successfully tapped into the market of popular feminism. Inspired by Sayak Valencia’s discussion of “gore capitalism” in hypermasculine popular culture, this article presents a close reading of Yellowjackets in order to problematize popular feminism’s cannibalization of heteropatriarchal iterations of death and gore. A seemingly edgy and purportedly subversive stand-in for girl power, I contend that “gore power” or “gore empowerment” rhetoric incoherently portrays women’s adoption of hegemonically masculine traits as both a symbol of empowerment and a warning sign of moral decay. Transposing abject hegemony in a manner that further degrades women as unscrupulous and maladjusted monsters, such programming bolsters a necro-neoliberal regime in which women’s achieved liberation is manifested by a gender-equal—but racially hierarchized—hunger for domination, blood, and death. By interrogating the televisual coupling of indiscriminate violence with women’s empowerment, this essay provides further analysis of white feminism’s necropolitical commitments as they function rhetorically to undermine the political projects of equity, women’s leadership, antiviolence, and racial justice.