Racial Inequality Research Articles

Data Equity for Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander People in Reproductive Health Research

(Abstracted from Obstet Gynecol 2023;142(4)) Policymakers and public health researchers often exclude Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) people, who make up 6.0% and 0.2% of the US population, respectively, from discussions of racial, social, and health inequity. The omission of Asian American and NHPI populations is multifactorial and includes geographic concentration in certain regions, the high number of cultural and linguistic subgroups bundled together, and the faulty assumption that these groups collectively enjoy better health outcomes than their counterparts of other races and ethnicities.

More than Roads and Bridges: A Comprehensive Approach to Sound Infrastructure is an Important Counter to Historic Racial Inequity

More than Roads and Bridges: A Comprehensive Approach to Sound Infrastructure is an Important Counter to Historic Racial Inequity

Affirmative Action and Equality of Opportunity in College Admissions

This essay critically examines the efficacy of race-based affirmative action in U.S. college admissions, arguing that it fails to adequately address the root causes of racial inequality and often does not benefit the most marginalized individuals within minority groups. By exploring affirmative action through the lens of political philosophy, particularly John Rawls' conception of social justice, the essay contends that a focus on socioeconomic status rather than race would more effectively promote equality of opportunity and align with Rawlsian principles. The analysis draws on various studies and theoretical perspectives to highlight the limitations of race-based affirmative action, including its tendency to benefit economically advantaged members of minority groups and its inadequacy in addressing the diverse and complex backgrounds of individuals within these groups. The essay proposes socioeconomic affirmative action as a more equitable alternative, supported by empirical evidence suggesting that such an approach could increase both socioeconomic and racial diversity in higher education institutions. The conclusion underscores the need for systemic reforms beyond admissions policies to truly achieve a just and equitable society.

The Mata Cavalo/Brazil quilombo and the COVID-19 syndemic: racism and the right to (r)exist in question.

Quilombola communities have felt the effects of racism deepened by COVID-19, whose repercussions are amplified in contexts of racial inequalities, characterizing it as a syndemic. The term refers to the synergy of biological, economic, environmental, political, and social elements that enhance coexisting conditions and states, impacting life and affecting health. Thus, our study seeks to analyze the repercussions of the COVID-19 syndemic based on the perceptions of quilombola community leaders in Mato Grosso, Brazil. In a qualitative study, three leaders were interviewed in May 2022, using a semi-structured script and treating the data through thematic analysis. The COVID-19 syndemic highlighted the structural precariousness of transport, roads, sanitation, and access to water, food, and health services. Isolation, deaths, and fears had psychosocial repercussions, but little attention was paid to mental health. Anti-racist proposals call for: repairing precariousness by recognizing the State's debt to the black population; valuing experiences, way of life, cosmovision, and Afro-centered ancestral civilizational values. Finally, the aim is to strengthen, reaffirm, and implement anti-racist actions, such as the Statute of Racial Equality and the PNSIPN, in all possible spaces, policies, and institutions.

Hegemony of English Language: An Analysis of Advertisement Strategies Adopted by Private Schools of Nepal

Using Fairclough's (1992) three-dimensional framework (i.e., discourse, text, and social practice), this paper critically examines the linguistic and pictorial discourse of private school advertisement strategies, particularly those for new admissions initiatives, to better understand how the English language functions and how it predominates Nepali and other languages in the context of Nepal. The pictures of advertising in English for 'new admission open' published by private schools were collected as research data and, then, critically analyzed the pictorial and linguistic discourse represented by them. This critical discourse analysis reveals that although Nepalese language policy in education prioritizes multilingual education, all private schools solely offer instruction in English as a second language. Most parents and children are drawn to English-speaking schools due to the influence of the language and the appealing marketing tactics utilized by private schools. Language prejudice and racial inequity are brought about by the idea that English is a superior language. The idea that English is a better language generates prejudice towards other languages and social injustice and the identity of Nepali and other local languages is being undermined by the dominance of English in schools.

Antiracist Praxis in Community Engagement: A Partnership Rubric

This article argues for the need for a partnership evaluation rubric focused on antiracist praxis, the application of theory into practice. Such a rubric is critical given that service-learning and community engagement now exist under the neoliberal university, which uses assessment to justify program existence. Furthermore, many of our community partners work under the nonprofit industrial complex, where it is difficult to challenge racial inequity. Community-engaged scholars have identified antiracist best practices, including using a place-based approach, partnering with constituent-led organizations, making conflict productive, using an asset-oriented approach, and building solidarity. However, the analysis of our community-engaged partnership reveals that many existing equity-based partnership rubrics do not measure antiracist praxis explicitly. We thus developed and proposed a partnership rubric to assess antiracist praxis.

Politics, Shakespeare, East-Central Europe: Theatrical Border Crossings

This essay discusses how productions of Shakespeare’s plays that transcend various geographical, national, and linguistic boundaries have influenced the theatrical-political discourse in East-Central Europe in the twenty-first century. It focuses primarily on the work of four internationally-established directors: Andrei Şerban (Romania), Jan Klata (Poland), David Jařab (Czech Republic), and Matei Vișniec (Romania), whose works have facilitated interregional cultural exchange, promoting artistic innovation and experimentation in the region and beyond. Among the boundary-crossing productions analysed in detail are Vișniec’s Richard III will not Take Place, Jařab’s Macbeth – Too Much Blood, Klata’s Measure for Measure, and Serban’s Richard III. The essay also notes that while there has been a relative scarcity of Shakespearean productions in this region engaging closely with gender and race inequalities, productions such as Klata’s African Tales or Vladimír Morávek’s Othello manage to work with these politically charged topics in subtler but still productive ways. The essay concludes that the region’s shared historical experience of totalitarian regimes followed by the struggles of nascent democracies, provides a fertile ground for a diverse and internationally ambitious Shakespearean theatre. The publication of the article was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

‘You’re the one that needs help’: Examining racialized bias within a Two-Way Immersion Spanish classroom

ABSTRACT This article draws on qualitative data from a Two-Way Immersion Spanish environment classroom to explore how African American students lived experiences, language, and cultural practices are regulated and/or constrained. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Bahktin’s heteroglossia and raciolinguistics, the authors present two distinct qualitative scenarios where African American students negotiate their roles, identities, and linguistic and cultural voices within their classroom. Findings showed that African American students contributed in the Spanish environment in unique ways that went unaffirmed by fellow students and the teacher. These findings suggest a need to examine how Two-Way Immersion programs, despite their goals for linguistic pluralism and integration, can also reinforce racial inequity. The authors include implications for Two-Way Immersion programs to adopt a critical and anti-racist pedagogical framework.

The Sociostructural-Intersectional Body Image (SIBI) framework: Understanding the impact of white supremacy in body image research and practice

White supremacy and racial inequities have long pervaded psychological research, including body image scholarship and practice. The experiences of white, heterosexual, able-bodied, cisgender (predominantly college) women from wealthy, Westernized nations have been centered throughout body image research and practice, thereby perpetuating myths of invulnerability among racialized groups and casting white ideals and experiences as the standard by which marginalized bodies are compared. Body image is shaped by multiple axes of oppression that exist within systemic and structural systems, ultimately privileging certain bodies above others. In this position paper, we highlight how white supremacy has shaped body image research and practice. In doing so, we first review the history of body image research and explain how participant sampling, measurement, interpretive frameworks, and dissemination of research have upheld and reinforced white supremacy. Next, grounded in inclusivity and intersectionality, we advance the Sociostructural-Intersectional Body Image (SIBI) framework to more fully understand the body image experiences of those with racialized and minoritized bodies, while challenging and seeking to upend white supremacy in body image research and practice. We encourage other scholars to utilize the SIBI framework to better understand body inequities and the body image experiences of all people, in all bodies.

‘Man can make great natatorial progress’: swimming as a white sporting racial project

ABSTRACT This article examines the sport of swimming to demonstrate how systems of racial privilege and inequality are built. I use Ben Carrington’s (2010) sporting racial project as a tool to understand how race is constructed through sporting practices by examining early-twentieth century texts produced by swimming coaches, physical educators, and sports scientists. Such texts rationalized and standardized swimming techniques and practices within the racialized (and gendered and colonizing) discourses of modern sport science. Early elite practitioners shaped (and continue to shape) swimming and its meanings that inform our everyday understandings of sport and ‘race’ while constructing Whiteness.

Racial Inequities in Mortality Rate in Hospitalized Children

Background and ObjectivesRacial/ethnic inequities for inpatient mortality in children at a national level in the U.S. have not been explored. The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in inpatient mortality rate among different racial/ethnic groups, using the Kids' Inpatient Database. MethodsA cross-sectional study of children of ages greater than 28 days and less than 21 years discharged during 2012 and 2016. Racial/ethnic groups - White, Black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander and Native Americans were analyzed in two cohorts, Cohort A (all discharges) and Cohort B (ventilated children). ResultsA total of 4,247,604 and 79,116 discharges were included in cohorts A and B, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that the inpatient mortality rate was highest among Asian and Pacific Islander children for both cohorts: A (0.47% [0.42–0.51]), B (10.9% [9.8–12.1]). Regression analysis showed that Asian and Pacific Islander and Black children had increased odds of inpatient mortality compared to White children: A (1.319 [1.162–1.496], 1.178 [1.105–1.257], respectively) and B (1.391 [1.199–1.613], 1.163 [1.079–1.255], respectively). Population-based hospital mortality was highest in Black children (1.17 per 10,000 children). ConclusionsInpatient mortality rates are significantly higher in U.S. children of Asian and Pacific Islander and Black races compared to White children. U.S. population-based metrics such as hospitalization rate, ventilation rate, and hospital mortality rate are highest in Black children. Our data suggest that lower median household income alone may not account for a higher inpatient mortality rate. The causes and prevention of racial and ethnic inequities in hospitalized children need to be explored further.

Whiteness in the bones: Structures and practices in justice-centered teacher preparation

Drawing on critical race theory and critical whiteness studies, this year-long critical ethnography explores the question: How do justice-centered reform initiative leaders’ work practices and policies reproduce or disrupt racial inequities? Findings indicate patterns that reflected a commitment to raising awareness of racial injustice in education among reform initiative leaders while at the same time operating with white ideologies that led to unequal power dynamics, operating structures rooted in whiteness that avoided the possibility of institutional change, and acknowledgment of racial bias with little action to alter it. Implications for teacher education are included.

Highlighting health consequences of racial disparities sparks support for action.

Racial disparities arise across many vital areas of American life, including employment, health, and interpersonal treatment. For example, one in three Black children lives in poverty (versus one in nine white children), and, on average, Black Americans live four fewer years compared with white Americans. Which disparity is more likely to spark reduction efforts? We find that highlighting disparities in health-related (versus economic) outcomes spurs greater social media engagement and support for disparity-mitigating policy. Further, reading about racial health disparities elicits greater support for action (e.g., protesting) compared with economic- or belonging-based disparities. This occurs in part because people view health disparities as violating morally sacred values, which enhances perceived injustice. This work elucidates which manifestations of racial inequality are most likely to prompt Americans to action.

DISSECTING RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCEPTION OF DOMAIN-SPECIFIC LIFE SATISFACTION

Abstract This study examines factors contributing to racial differences in domain-specific life satisfaction. Our study offers a major contribution to prior research that has tended to pay greater attention to psychological well-being outcomes such as life satisfaction which do not directly pertain to material circumstances of older adults. Those studies generally report better life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms among Black older adults than their White counterparts. Our study is based on 409 randomly selected older adults from Cleveland (mean age 79 and 25% African American). We considered socioeconomic status, stressors such as recent negative life events and coping resources such as religiosity to understand their impact on domain specific life- satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with neighborhood, housing, and standard of living). Our ordinary least squares regression estimates suggest that, on average, Black older adults reported lower levels of domain-specific life satisfaction (b=-0.81, p< 0.01) compared to their White counterparts, despite having stronger social support and being more religious. Even though social support and religiosity did not contribute to racial differences in domain specific life satisfaction, the inclusion of education, income, and recent negative life events fully explain such differences. Findings indicate that interrelated factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage and greater life adversities such as negative life events contribute to lower domain life satisfaction among Black older adults. This finding highlights the need for further exploration of factors shaping material-related well-being outcomes for Black older adults. Our study informs future policies addressing racial well-being inequities.

The stories about racism and health: the development of a framework for racism narratives in medical literature using a computational grounded theory approach

IntroductionThe scientific study of racism as a root cause of health inequities has been hampered by the policies and practices of medical journals. Monitoring the discourse around racism and health inequities (i.e., racism narratives) in scientific publications is a critical aspect of understanding, confronting, and ultimately dismantling racism in medicine. A conceptual framework and multi-level construct is needed to evaluate the changes in the prevalence and composition of racism over time and across journals.ObjectiveTo develop a framework for classifying racism narratives in scientific medical journals.MethodsWe constructed an initial set of racism narratives based on an exploratory literature search. Using a computational grounded theory approach, we analyzed a targeted sample of 31 articles in four top medical journals which mentioned the word ‘racism’. We compiled and evaluated 80 excerpts of text that illustrate racism narratives. Two coders grouped and ordered the excerpts, iteratively revising and refining racism narratives.ResultsWe developed a qualitative framework of racism narratives, ordered on an anti-racism spectrum from impeding anti-racism to strong anti-racism, consisting of 4 broad categories and 12 granular modalities for classifying racism narratives. The broad narratives were “dismissal,” “person-level,” “societal,” and “actionable.” Granular modalities further specified how race-related health differences were related to racism (e.g., natural, aberrant, or structurally modifiable). We curated a “reference set” of example sentences to empirically ground each label.ConclusionWe demonstrated racism narratives of dismissal, person-level, societal, and actionable explanations within influential medical articles. Our framework can help clinicians, researchers, and educators gain insight into which narratives have been used to describe the causes of racial and ethnic health inequities, and to evaluate medical literature more critically. This work is a first step towards monitoring racism narratives over time, which can more clearly expose the limits of how the medical community has come to understand the root causes of health inequities. This is a fundamental aspect of medicine’s long-term trajectory towards racial justice and health equity.

SOCIAL INEQUITIES AND THE IMPAIRMENT PARADOX IN LATER LIFE

Abstract Research on health across the life course consistently documents widening racial and socioeconomic disparities from childhood through adulthood, followed by stabilization or convergence in later life. This pattern appears to contradict expectations set by cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) theory. Informed by the punctuated equilibrium perspective, we examine the relationship between midlife health and subsequent health change and mortality and consider the impact of earlier socioeconomic exposures on observed disparities. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we characterize the functional impairment histories of a nationally representative sample of 8464 older adults between 1994 and 2016. We employ nonparametric and discrete outcome multinomial logistic regression to examine the competing risks of mortality, health change, and attrition. As expected, exposures to disadvantages are associated with poorer functional health in midlife and mortality. However, we find that a higher number of functional limitations in midlife is negatively associated with the accumulation of subsequent limitations for White men and women and for Black women, and the impact of educational attainment, occupation, wealth, and marriage on later-life health differs across race and gender groups. We conclude that the observed stability or convergence in later-life functional health disparities is not a departure from the dynamics posited by CAD, but rather a result of the differential impact of racial and socioeconomic inequities on mortality and health at older ages. Higher exposure to disadvantages and a lower protective impact of advantageous exposures lead to higher mortality among Black Americans, a pattern which masks persistent health inequities later in life.

INSTITUTIONAL EXPERIENCES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION: INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLE ANALYSIS

Abstract In addition to enduring the ongoing and persistent legacy of structural racism in the United States, Black adults often encounter sources of social stress, like racial discrimination, that have documented associations with health outcomes. As inequities in cognitive aging persist for Black adults, research has worked to examine modifiable factors, like racial discrimination, that may serve as the basis for intervention development. The dysregulation of inflammatory biomarkers has been proposed as one pathway through which racial discrimination becomes embodied to contribute to racial inequities in cognitive function. We assessed how racial discrimination occurring in institutional settings affects cognitive function among a sample of Black and white adults from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. To mitigate the influences of measurement error and unmeasured or residual confounding on our findings, we used an instrumental variable analysis to estimate the unbiased, causal association between racial discrimination in institutional settings and a battery of standardized cognitive function measures. We found that increased experiences of racial discrimination had adverse impacts on cognitive function. Understanding how racial discrimination in these settings influences cognitive outcomes supplies insight into points of potential intervention at institutional and policy levels.

Racial disparities without racism: Some conceptual & analytical considerations

AbstractMost studies on racial inequality begin with a series of statistics highlighting racial variations in an outcome of interest to illustrate how wide (or narrow) the gaps between racialized groups are. This approach is standard in racial inequality research because emphasizing racial differentials between racialized groups helps researchers frame inequality as a social problem. Scholars across academic disciplines and across sub‐areas within sociology report racial statistics to pay attention to what social scientists refer to as racial disparities. Presenting racial disparities is extremely important for documenting inequality; however, family scholars tend to provide descriptive statistical portraits along ethno‐racial lines (disparities) in the absence of racism, which, in turn, conceals the United States' racialized historical context. In other words, reporting racial inequality as disparities without addressing racism is a critical omission in family science research. Emphasizing racism is important because biological explanation still permeates the American imagination about racial inequality. The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual and analytical considerations for future racial inequality and family research by recasting disparities as manifestations of racism instead of mere statistical differences. To illustrate the conceptual considerations, I first build on Williams' theoretical model focusing on structural racism and Black family life. I expand on how racism not only makes the idea of race possible but also manifests in observable, measurable outcomes. In the second section, I present an analytical consideration for understanding Black families' inequality by focusing on within‐group analyses. These conceptual and analytical considerations serve as ways to adequately represent Black families and children in the US.

Racial and ethnic inequities in stillbirth in the US: Looking upstream to close the gap: Seminars in Perinatology

Though stillbirth rates in the United States improved over the previous decades, inequities in stillbirth by race and ethnicity have persisted nearly unchanged since data collection began. Black and Indigenous pregnant people face a two-fold greater risk of experiencing the devastating consequences of stillbirth compared to their White counterparts. Because race is a social rather than biological construct, inequities in stillbirth rates are a downstream consequence of structural, institutional, and interpersonal racism which shape a landscape of differential access to opportunities for health. These downstream consequences can include differences in the prevalence of chronic health conditions as well as structural differences in the quality of health care or healthy neighborhood conditions, each of which likely plays a role in racial and ethnic inequities in stillbirth. Research and intervention approaches that utilize an equity lens may identify ways to close gaps in stillbirth incidence or in responding to the health and socioemotional consequences of stillbirth. A community-engaged approach that incorporates experiential wisdom will be necessary to create a full picture of the causes and consequences of inequity in stillbirth outcomes. Investigators working in tandem with community partners, utilizing a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and implementation science approaches, may more fully elucidate the underpinnings of racial and ethnic inequities in stillbirth outcomes.

Racial Inequality in Firearm Homicide Victimization—but not Other Types of US Violence

Research QuestionIs violent crime victimization among US minority groups higher than for White Americans in general, or is there a distinct failure of equal protection by race with respect to firearm homicide?DataThis analysis examines per capita rates of violent victimization for Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites as reported in recent years in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), as well as the firearms homicide data collected from local and state death certificates by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC).MethodThe analysis compares the extent of disparity between White and minority victimization rates for different kinds of violent crimes. The framework is to calculate the ratio of minority victimization rates to the White rates for the same offense categories.FindingsWhile there are very small differences in victimization rates by race/ethnicity for most types of violent crime, and while Whites report higher victimization rates than minorities do for some kinds of violent crimes, there is a massive ratio for rates of firearms homicides. Black Americans of all ages, for example, suffer firearm homicides at a rate that is 12 times higher per capita than for Whites. Hispanic Americans are twice as likely to be victimized by firearm homicide than Whites.ConclusionsPolicing strategies often fail to distinguish different types of violence, even when discussing racial disparity in policing actions. The evidence of this report provides the most direct support for police increasing the precision of their focus on crime prevention efforts that can reduce homicide as the most important racial disparity in criminal victimization, and, in the US context, firearm homicide in particular.