Institutional Racism Research Articles

Denied a Certificate of Fitness to Marry: The Nuremberg Race Laws as a Threat to Black German Futures

Abstract The 1935 Nuremberg Race Laws were one of the cornerstones of Nazi racial policy. Among other racial restrictions, they prohibited marriages and sexual relationships between German Jews and so-called Aryans. Wilhelm Frick, the Minister of the Interior, extended them to also cover men and women racialized as Black. The fact that this extension remains widely unknown is emblematic of the wider public and academic ignorance of Black experiences under the Nazis racial state. Using a wide range of new source materials, this article considers the application of the Race Laws, in word and spirit, as part of a more general assault on Germany’s Black residents, their children, and their white partners, which the Nazi regime undertook to protect German “racial purity.” In multiple localities, Nazi policing forces intervened in the private lives of Black residents, resorting to violence, in particular the very real threat of sterilization, to prevent the development of future generations of Black Germans.

The Autobiography of Malcom X: A Modern Mythical Hero’s Journey from Self-destruction to Global Outreach

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with its influential rhetoric and powerful ideas, has continued to inspire generations since its publication. This research argues that part of the autobiography’s enduring appeal stems from its mythical structure and the portrayal of heroism throughout Malcolm X’s narrative and rhetoric. Specifically, this study explores how Malcolm’s autobiography aligns with Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, or "hero’s journey." Campbell’s model includes several stages that resonate with Malcolm’s life story. This research examines how racism drives Malcolm to leave Michigan, initiating his journey in accordance with Campbell’s "departure" from the ordinary world to the special world. It also explores how Malcolm’s years as a ghetto hustler, his conversion to Islam, and his time as a Black Muslim correspond to Campbell’s "initiation" stage. Lastly, the research addresses Malcolm’s break from the Nation of Islam and his transformative pilgrimage, culminating in his global outreach and new convictions, which mirror Campbell’s "return to the ordinary world." Additionally, this study incorporates critical race theory to examine how systemic racism and Malcolm’s resistance to it shape his journey, adding depth to his heroic transformation. Reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X in light of Campbell's hero’s journey allows readers to recognize the universal patterns in the lives of influential heroes and provides an additional explanation for Malcolm’s timeless appeal.

Intimate Geopolitics and “Rural as White” Narratives in the Rural Rust Belt

ABSTRACT This paper uses intimate geopolitics to disrupt the focus of ‘rural as white’ narratives in rural geographies. ‘Rural as white’ narratives have evolved from settler colonialism, systemic racism, Orientalism, and institutionalised genocide and enslavement that shape and uphold geopolitical positions of the United States. Meanwhile, intimate geopolitics, particularly Pain’s (2021) concept of geotrauma, has served as a lens to view the local impacts of global phenomena in intimate spaces (Pain 2014). I demonstrate how connecting geotrauma and ‘rural as white’ narratives to the experiences of people of colour living in rural Rust Belt spaces provides a more nuanced approach to rural scholarship. Scholars have noted how geopolitical actors and states intimately impact people’s everyday lives (Barabantseva, Ní Mhurchú, and Barabantseva, Ní Mhurchú, and Spike Peterson 2021). I demonstrate how nationalism and geopolitics shape intimate experiences for many minoritized communities in rural spaces. More importantly, I show how everyday geopolitical rhetoric manifests as rural geotrauma in rural Rust Belt communities.

Using Traffic Stops to Engage Preservice Teachers in Thinking About Systemic Racism

Racism impacts the lives of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) in a myriad of ways. It is important that future teachers go beyond individual acts of racism to understand how racism operates as a system. To this end, we designed and implemented a statistical investigation with 13 preservice teachers using real traffic stop data from a local city. We were interested in how preservice teachers explained the role of racism in the policing of traffic stops. Drawing on a framing of systemic racism as an intertwining of individual, cultural, and institutional factors, we found that most of the preservice teachers made connections between the results of their statistical investigations and broader institutional factors that affect policing. Statistical investigations using large datasets that highlight disparities based on race provide affordances for preservice teachers to start thinking about systemic racism. Further, the investigations can normalize challenging conversations around race and racism in mathematics and statistics content courses.

Black angels and the call for advocacy

ABSTRACT The Black Angels: The untold story of the Nurses who helped cure Tuberculosis is the story of the nurses who helped cure tuberculosis. It is really a tale of two stories, the first recounting the battle of Black nurses escaping the Jim Crow south only to experience systemic and institutional racism in the north, and secondly of tuberculosis an infectious and often deadly disease, which has plagued humanity for centuries. “The Black Angels,” is a must read for all in health care, not simply for the history lesson but for the urgent message for today.

Black and (E)raced: socializing high-achieving black students to minimize racism

ABSTRACT Our education system has been ‘whitewashed’, obscuring the talent and spirit of the African Diaspora. Black students often find themselves compelled to conform to an education system that overlooks their identity, offering them an assimilationist strategy. Assimilation is characterized by White frames in educational ideologies, a model built on White elite thinking despite their assertations that knowledge creation is race neutral and indifferent to power dynamics. This study investigates the experiences of high-achieving Black students who minimize the role of race in STEM education. It sheds light on race-avoidance tactics in predominantly White STEM departments which tend to perpetuate racial erasure and systemic racism. The study also identifies a shift among some students who abandoned race-avoiding tactics and became racially consciousness. The paper underscores the urgency to revisit the systemic roots of racism in educational institutions. Drawing from Afrofuturism, the paper suggests the need for a paradigm shift that celebrates Black identities.

Life After the Storm: An Examination of Bereavement and Posttraumatic Growth Among Urban Adolescents.

Although the challenges of bereavement among adolescents are well-documented, there is potential for loss to foster growth, development, and positive psychological changes during this developmental period. To examine this possibility, 408 adolescents (46.6% male; 53.4% female) in grades 6-12 from three urban schools were surveyed about their experiences with bereavement and posttraumatic growth (PTG), along with several hypothesized moderators: type of loss, relationship with the deceased, active and ruminative coping, and social support. Seventy-six percent of the participants reported signs of PTG. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed significant main effects for bereavement, active coping, and social support on PTG, but found no evidence of moderation for any variables. The findings are discussed in the context of systemic racism and cultural strengths, with directions for future research provided.

The Minority Tax: Stories from Family Physicians.

The minority tax has been defined as a set of disparities that those who are underrepresented in medicine face in addition to clinical care, education, and research responsibilities. These taxes include systemic racism, diversity efforts, clinical and promotion disparities, lack of faculty development, and isolation. Much has been added to the literature to better define and characterize the minority tax and propose suggestions for mitigations. This article builds on the existing literature that defines clinical efforts and diversity efforts disparities by exploring the intersections of these disparities through the experiences of family medicine faculty in the clinical environment. The authors, who are all academic family medicine physicians from minoritized communities, use their lived experiences to share how the diversity efforts disparity impacts patient care. Themes noted include health system wide challenges for patients whose preferred language is not English and the importance of racial and ethnic concordance between patients and the physician workforce.

P-1276. Infant Treatment for Congenital Syphilis Among Syphilis-Impacted Pregnancies

Abstract Background Congenital syphilis (CS) has been rising in the U.S. since 2013 and is a significant public health challenge1. The Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Treatment Guidelines provide treatment recommendations for four different clinical scenarios based on adequacy of treatment during pregnancy, laboratory testing of both the infant and birth parent, and clinical signs2. We used data from the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Pregnant People and Infants Network3 from five U.S. state and local health departments to describe patterns of treatment among infants born to people with syphilis during pregnancy (Figure 1). Methods Infants were classified based on modified STI Treatment Guidelines clinical scenarios2, and included three of the four clinical scenarios: confirmed/highly probable CS, possible CS, and CS less likely. We describe the frequency of prenatal and neonatal characteristics among those who did and did not receive treatment as recommended by the STI Treatment Guidelines (Figure 2). Results Of the 1368 liveborn infants with complete medical record abstraction, 13% were classified as confirmed/highly probable CS, 33% as possible CS, and 54% as CS less likely (Figure 3). Frequency of receiving the standard of care was 65% for confirmed/highly probable, 76% for possible, and 34% for CS less likely. The frequency of no reported treatment was 16% for confirmed/highly probable CS, 20% for possible CS, and 45% for CS less likely. The frequency of no reported treatment among confirmed/highly probable CS was highest among infants born to people who were Black non-Hispanic, though numbers were small. Of infants with CS less likely, 18% received more than the recommended one dose (Table). Conclusion This report highlights opportunities for improvement in care of infants exposed to syphilis, including racial disparities in recommended care4, that require multipronged approaches to address. Provider education and strong partnerships with well-resourced public health systems can improve coordination of care to ensure infants receive the standard of care. Efforts to improve care of syphilis exposed infants must include efforts to better address larger issues of systematic racism and historical injustices in healthcare and public health to improve equity.Table.Cohort Characteristics by Clinical Scenario and Infant Treatment Status Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

School-based racial equity collaborations: White principals implementing an active anti-racist stance

This study explores how White principals in the Seattle metropolitan area implemented an active anti-racist stance through school-based racial equity collaborations. Using participatory action research, the study follows three White principals in the Ally Engagement program, a community-based racial affinity leadership intervention, during the 2022-23 academic year. Our research-practice partnership asked: How do White school leaders implement their developing understanding of an active anti-racist stance? Findings reveal that principals used school-based racial equity collaborations to begin to ensure the influential presence of Black and Brown individuals in decision-making processes, foster race-specific conversations among predominantly White staff, and integrate anti-racist ideas and tools into daily school routines. By applying a racialized lens and engaging in critical self-reflection, these principals sought to navigate challenges, including institutional resistance, to address systemic racism. The study underscores the complexities and opportunities in leading for racial justice, emphasizing the need for meaningful action over performative commitments. We argue that school-based racial equity collaborations can help create a system of accountability for White principals to redistribute power, educate White folks, and work toward system-level change.

Dropping gems: How a critical community of practice supported science teacher leaders to develop resources for anti‐racist science teaching

AbstractAddressing systemic racism in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is essential to improving science education for students of Color. In this article, we argue that science teacher leaders (STLs) are one mechanism to address this need. However, they likely need access to resources and information to address the multiple needs of science teachers when tasked with addressing issues of racism in STEM. We operationalized STLs who seek out these resources as critical boundary spanners and designed a professional learning program to support their work. We used design‐based research methods to test the conjecture that a critical community of practice will support STLs as critical boundary spanners. We found that three key features of the professional learning program supported the STLs as critical boundary spanners: collectively defining anti‐racist science teaching, modeled facilitation of anti‐racist science activities, and sharing their learning with other STLs and science teachers. These findings contribute valuable insights into the support structures needed for STLs engaged in the vital work of advancing racial justice in science education.

The 2024 SSSP Presidential Address “Every Damn Day in America”: Racism and the Politics of Gun Violence

Abstract This presidential address disrupts common misperceptions about what gun violence in the United States looks like, who is most affected, and how we should think about reducing the scourge of gun violence. I draw on seven years of ethnographic and interview-based research on gun violence prevention activism in Connecticut and nationally. Focusing on community gun violence and mass shootings, I demonstrate that structural racism and racist discourse distort what we know about gun violence, the experience of gun violence, and how we respond to and organize to reduce gun violence. Theoretically, I take a multi-institutional politics approach to understanding gun violence, examining how racist meaning systems as well as structural and institutional power shape discussions of gun violence. I conclude with a call for policy approaches that support intervention and prevention organizations, while simultaneously addressing the underlying causes of community gun violence that stem from the legacy of systemic racism: disenfranchisement, segregation, crumbling infrastructure, despair, warrior policing, lack of well-paying jobs and affordable housing, and lack of activities for youth.

Our learning journey: Creating continuing education courses for pharmacy team members on First Nations cultural safety and humility in British Columbia, Canada.

Systemic racism across healthcare systems perpetuates health disparities. While pharmacy curricula are changing, most pharmacy team members in Canada have received minimal to no training in First Nations cultural safety and humility. At the time this work was undertaken, no pharmacy-specific First Nations cultural safety and humility courses existed for practicing pharmacy team members. Two online interactive modules were developed for pharmacy team members in British Columbia, Canada. The first focuses on anti-racism and forming relationships built on trust with First Nations clients. The second focuses on how to approach pharmacy-specific interactions with First Nations clients. Both modules leverage the CARE framework (being Considerate, Aware, Respectful, Empowering). Content was guided by a First Nations advisory group. A pharmacy advisory group helped ensure teachings could be actioned by pharmacy team members. Many lessons were learned throughout this journey. These included the importance of relationships coming first and recognizing First Nations individuals for sharing their experiences. In relation to module content, lessons centered on determining and communicating project scope, having respect for information that is not ours to share and how much language matters. Lessons in the development process included how doing things in a good way takes time and the need to look beyond module content. These pharmacy-specific First Nations cultural safety and humility modules serve as a good step in affecting change within the profession. Having an awareness of the learning and unlearning that took place during our work may help other educators as they develop local culturally responsive projects.

Post-Traumatic Stress Across Color Lines: A History of Anti-Black Exclusion & PTSD.

Black Americans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder have less access to mental healthcare compared to White Americans. Many factors contribute to thisinequity, including broader disparities within the healthcare system driven by systemic racism, and an underutilization of mental health services by Black Americans due to provider bias and stigma around mental healthcare. These disparities are rooted in a racist historical context of exclusion and abuse of the Black community by the White psychiatric establishment, and a perpetration of further trauma on Black clients, a context that is largely missing from traditional mental health education and literature on Black mental health today. This article aims to provide a necessary historical context of how the U.S. mental health care system has excluded Black Americans from trauma treatment. We use a contemporary trauma lens to demonstrate the ways in which Black trauma has existed throughout U.S. history, but how White psychiatryhas cast trauma symptoms as evidence of racial inferiority, hasexcluded Black individuals from treatment, and hasabused Black patients, thereby increasing Black trauma. The purpose of this review is to inform and educate mental health providers about our collective history, to counter a narrative of amnesia which identifies Black underutilization of services but forgets the exclusion from and abuse of Black people within the mental health system. We conclude with recommendations that providers can utilize to engage in antiracist practice and create an affirmative space for Black Americans to utilize trauma treatment and mental health care freely.

Learning (Not) to Know: Examining How White Ignorance Manifests and Functions in White Adolescents' Racial Identity Narratives.

In critical approaches to the study of whiteness, white ignorance refers to systematic and intentional ways of (not) knowing that function to perpetuate racism. The current critical qualitative analysis examines how white ignorance surfaces in the racial identity narratives of white adolescents (N = 69, Mage = 15.91, SD = 0.49, data collected 2017-2019). Using semi-structured interview data, we identified three manifestations of accommodation to white ignorance: constructing white as disadvantaged, framing race(ism) as unimportant and elsewhere, and the active refusal to know or imagine racial oppression. Alongside this accommodation we also observed a less common but important thread of resistance to white ignorance: seeing (and naming) systemic racism. The findings reveal how white ignorance as a macrosystemic cultural practice becomes embedded in, and strengthened through, the micro-level racial identities of white adolescents. Implications for conceptualizing and contextualizing white racial identity in developmental science are discussed.

From Worker Victory to Policy Reform: Injured Migrant Workers Fight for Return to Work Justice in Workers' Compensation in Ontario, Canada.

This article explores the challenges facing injured migrant farm workers in the workers' compensation system in Canada's province of Ontario, with a focus on their fight for return to work justice. Told from the perspective of one of the lawyers who represented the workers, it highlights a recent victory achieved by 4 workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in defending their rights to workers' compensation support. The workers' compensation tribunal decided that the workers' compensation board must evaluate these workers' ability to return to work, access retraining, and receive compensation based on their labor markets in Jamaica-instead of based on fictional job prospects in Ontario. The tribunal also called out the need to consider systemic anti-Black racism in workers' compensation law and policy. The article analyzes how this legal victory could reshape workers' compensation policy in Ontario for injured migrant farm workers. It also discusses the implications of the win for injured workers in other temporary work programs and precarious employment sectors.

“I don’t see anything specifically about Black/African Americans.” Testing an Alzheimer-specific generative AI tool tailored for African American/Black communities

Low levels of health literacy concerning Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias (ADRD) impact African American/Black communities access to appropriate ADRD care. Additionally, a legacy of mistrust in medical research due to systemic racism, has resulted in insufficient participation in ADRD clinical trials among African American/Black adults. This study explores the potential of generative AI to improve ADRD literacy and encourage participation in clinical trials among African American/Black older adults. We designed a mobile health intervention featuring AI-driven conversational agents - a chatbot and a voice assistant - specifically developed for this population. We tested the quality of the intervention using heuristics methodology adapted to the target population along with inputs from African American/ Black medical professionals and UX designers. Key findings highlight the unique needs of the African American/Black communities for culturally relevant content that is accessible to users with varying language levels and tailored to users’ geographical location. Concerning the interaction, high levels of personalization and control over the interaction can promote the use of the tool, by minimizing complexity and maximizing accessibility. These findings show the novel contribution offered by our study in the domain of designing health technology with generative AI, particularly LLMS, for African American/Black communities.

Lethal Violence and the Racialized Failure of the American State

Scholarly work in American politics has yet to confront one of the nation’s starkest inequalities: lethal violence. The risk falls disproportionately on Black Americans, but much like poverty and inequality, lethal violence is a broadly American problem that African Americans are disproportionately likely to experience. The lack of attention to life-threatening violence has limited our understanding of race, criminal justice, and the nature of the American state. We draw on work in American political development and racial politics to extend a racialized state failure framework for understanding the United States as a high-violence society. Life-threatening violence declined dramatically in the nineteenth century in countries where state building involved the integrated consolidation of centralized violence monopolization and universal male suffrage. Such efforts faltered in the US, however, and violence thrived. We argue that this racialized state failure is the result of two reinforcing features of American politics: anti-transformative racial orders and institutional fragmentation. Fragmentation has long provided opportunities for anti-transformative racial orders to limit national intervention in violence control and enfranchisement, even during critical junctures when institutions are less determinate, and actions by decision makers are more likely to generate change. We illustrate the disruption of state building by racial orders, which minimized the state’s capacity to delegitimize violent self-help during two critical junctures in the US: Reconstruction and the crime wave of the mid- to late twentieth century. The resulting institutional configuration, which we refer to as forced localism, reinforces the jurisdictional authority of highly constrained state and local institutions in violence attenuation. The consequence is exceptionally high rates of serious violence and a harsh and exclusionary criminal justice system, with Black Americans exceptionally vulnerable to both.

“It’s Enough to Make Someone… Lose Their Mind”: Exploring the Mental Impact of Racial Capitalism Across the Black American Life Course

This study introduces racial capitalism, the theory that racism and capitalistic exploitation are inextricably linked, into psychology and gerontology by exploring its mental impact across different age groups of Black Americans. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT), 27 participants from diverse age groups and socioeconomic statuses were interviewed via theoretical and purposive sampling. In-depth interviews were conducted to examine their lived experiences of racial capitalism and its evolving mental health impact. Data collection continued until thematic saturation was reached, and analysis followed an iterative coding process to identify emergent themes. The analysis revealed three themes: Individual-level racism impacts older adults’ mental well-being; middle-aged adults are learning from older adults’ poor mental health awareness; and younger adults are mentally struggling under the weight of capitalistic exploitation. Older adults primarily focused on individual-level racism earlier in life, maintaining a generally positive outlook. Middle-aged adults reflected on limited mental health awareness passed down from older cohorts and the strain of limited generational wealth transfer. Younger participants expressed heightened mental distress due to contemporary systemic racism and exploitation. These findings informed the development of Cumulative Racial Capitalism Theory (CRCT), a framework theorizing how racism and capitalism continually evolve, cumulatively impacting Black Americans’ mental health.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Race/Ethnicity, and Suicidality Among Florida High School Students

Previous studies have well-documented that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative health outcomes, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. As historically marginalized groups have long experienced poorer socio-emotional outcomes due to systemic and institutional racism, racial stress, and related factors, surprisingly little is known about how ACEs matter across racial/ethnic adolescent groups. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing data from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS). Utilizing logistic regression models, we investigate how ACEs influence adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Results reveal a significant link between ACEs and these outcomes, indicating that higher ACE scores correlate with increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts. Racial/ethnic variations in ACE effects on suicidality are observed among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/Latinx youth. We also find that despite generally experiencing fewer ACEs, Asian American youth were nearly 30% more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-Hispanic White youth.