Reality Of Race Research Articles

Confronting racism as a healthcare challenge: A teaching and learning approach

Across the United Kingdom, medical schools are acknowledging the need to respond to inequalities experienced by minority groups, racism within healthcare, and the need to decolonise medical curricula. Understanding the impact of structural racism is increasingly recognised as part of health professionals’ training. In this paper we report the delivery of a new lecture and workshop on racism to first year medical students at Hull York Medical School, aimed to teach students about structural racism and the impact it has on health and healthcare services. Whereas comparable training programmes focus on personal values of inclusivity and diversity, these sessions encourage students to consider the reality of racism as part of health and healthcare experiences. The session includes conceptual content alongside applied examples of microaggression experienced by a healthcare professional. We report the results of student feedback attained through surveys using Likert scales and free text. We conclude by discussing the benefits of teaching medical students about racism, and its impact on patients and staff, rather than just inclusive practice.

Exploring everyday racist symbolism in community recreation spaces: a critical race content analysis

ABSTRACT There has been a palpable shift in the public’s collective consciousness about the realities of racism in recent years. Community recreation organizations, like all other institutions, are not exempt from promoting racial inequity through taken for granted policies and practices. The purpose of this study was to explore some of the racist symbolism found within everyday artifacts at local community centres in a sub-urban area of Ontario, Canada. A Critical Race Content Analysis methodology was used to analyze bandages, promotional materials, and sunscreen. This study found that bandages in first aid supplies were exclusively for White skin tones, images in promotional materials featured mostly White people, and the sunscreen products stocked were not made for dark skinned folx. A discussion on the implications of each finding is provided followed by limitations and recommendations for research and practice.

Landscapes of Hope

Historians have examined vernacular duplex homes in Milwaukee’s north side neighborhoods to write the history of the white working-class immigrants who settled this industrial metropolis during the early years of the twentieth century. African Americans moved into these neighborhoods in the later decades of the twentieth century. This paper explores how current Black residents construe the history of their neighborhood. To examine what such a historical narrative might look like, this paper presents three stories from a single city block: a twentieth century narrative of growth, a more recent story of decline, and a longer aspirational dream of a shared commons. Grounded in the material world that they observe around them, the current inhabitants assemble these diverse memories in anachronic ways, around multiple experiences of time such as nostalgia, a sense of disenfranchisement in the present moment, and an aspirational dream of a yet unrealized future. This ability to craft a complex narrative of place in a precarious world has emerged as a form of collective resistance against realities of racism, segregation, and urban disinvestment.

Toward an understanding of intergenerational trauma and storytelling in Black families.

Despite growing attention to the intergenerational effects of trauma, including racial trauma, within Black communities, little empirical evidence exists. This qualitative study explored intergenerational trauma and storytelling within Black families in the United States, with two key aims: (1) explore if and how family members talk about their trauma experiences with one another, and (2) explore if and how sharing stories may impact family members' mental health and well-being. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 adults across eight self-identifying Black families, examining the stories they share. Interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four primary themes were identified: (1) Sharing is Caring …, (2) Family Ties, (3) The Reality of Racism, and (4) Safety in Silence. These themes underscore the direct effects of the traumas on those who experience and talk about them, and the meaning and impact that these traumas and stories carry across generations. Parents who shared stories of their trauma with their adult children described that doing so had a positive impact on their well-being. Adult children endorsed feeling similarly in some instances. However, they also experienced an internal conflict, feeling connected to yet burdened by these stories. Silence and protection also played a significant role. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Racism in counseling and psychotherapy: Illuminate and disarm.

For the first time in its 130-year history, the American Psychological Association formally admitted to its ugly racist past and acknowledged how White supremacy continues to pervade the profession. Although the apology spans the entire field of psychology, the primary focus of this article is on how the profession of counseling and psychotherapy has reinforced and contributed to the oppression of people of color. First, we contend that psychology mirrors cultural racism/White supremacy and represents the major framework from which psychologists and other social scientists with power and privilege located the source of problems within people of color, their family values/structures, and their communities. Second, we maintain that the concept of professionalism has resulted in four legitimizing pillars of counseling and psychotherapy in which polarities are created that value universalism over relativism, individualism over collectivism, objectivism over subjectivism, and empiricism over experientialism. These four foundations of a White epistemology channel and subsidize racism by equating racial/cultural differences with pathology; promoting color and power blindness; blaming the victim; dehumanization and objectification; and denial of different racial realities. Last, we offer solutions for dismantling racism in counseling and psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Transitional Justice and Redress for Racial Injustices against Marginalized Minorities: Lessons from Indigenous Twa People in Post-Genocide Rwanda

ABSTRACT∞ This article addresses the question of how countries respond to racial injustices through transitional justice. It draws on the case of Rwanda and explores the experiences of the marginalized indigenous Twa minorities with transitional justice implemented after the 1994 genocide through the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and Gacaca courts. The lessons from Rwanda highlight the limitations of transitional justice in providing redress for racial injustices of marginalized minorities when it is practised within an authoritarian political context. The article discusses how the transitional justice approach in Rwanda contributed to the construction of a flawed record of the past and marginalized the racial realities of Rwandans by imposing an official historical narrative. It was also used as a tool of the government to negate racial injustices against the most marginalized communities of Twa people but also to preserve racial injustices and human rights violations against them by denying their ethnic identity and indigenous way of life.

A naturalist approach to social ontology

I argue that a certain kind of naturalist approach to social ontology is likely to be both philosophically fruitful and relevant to empirical social science. The kind of naturalism I employ might be called contextualism, which emphasizes the constant presence of assumed background knowledge, is suspicious of general inference rules and all or nothing claims about the ontology of the social sciences, and argues that Quine’s quantificational criterion for ontological commitment has to be supplemented with local interpretations and arguments about what specific social science research is committed to. I look at three case studies employing this perspective, one on agent based models and individualism, a second on the reality of social class, and a third on the reality of race. In all three cases work is first needed to clarifying what empirical social science is claiming, what ontology or ontologies it seems to presuppose, and then description of the kinds of evidence that supports its commitments.

Layers of Meaning in Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird"

Maya Angelou was a renowned American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist who had the talent of capturing the essence of the human spirit through her powerful words. Her poetry touched people’s minds and hearts offering a voice to those who had been silenced and shedding light on the realities of racism, injustice, and the struggles faced by marginalized communities. Social segregation, identity exploring, and the image of the body are some of the main themes portrayed in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and many other poems. Maya Angelou's impact as a poet is undeniable, as she used her words to inspire and empower individuals to overcome adversity and fight for equality. Maya Angelou's metaphorical expressions allowed readers to perceive the world differently, encouraging introspection and fostering a deeper understanding of human experience. The aim of this study is to show how Angelou's metaphorical language in her poems helped to create vivid imagery and convey complex emotions through analyzing layers of meaning and metaphors which serve as a bridge between abstract concepts and tangible experiences, to allow readers to connect with her poetry on a deeply personal level.

The Realities of Racism: Exploring Attitudes in Manitoba, Canada

ABSTRACT Between December 2020 and January 2021, we conducted an online mixed-methods survey to explore racism in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The survey was completed by exactly 500 residents of the province and was largely representative of the demographics of the province. The survey measured views on racism, multiculturalism, religious diversity, assimilation and linguistic diversity, and also explored lived experiences with racism. In this article, we report respondents’ views on multiculturalism, religious diversity, assimilation and racism. The strong majority of Manitobans recognized that racism is a problem in their area of the province, and yet views towards assimilation and support for religious diversity remain mixed. These findings show contradictions between overall support for broad themes like diversity or multiculturalism yet high levels of continuing discrimination and racism in the province. Our findings emphasize the impacts of whiteness, with the intersectional complexities further emphasized by the qualitative stories shared by participants, giving accounts of racism at work, in stores, healthcare, justice and in different demographic groups. Specifically, incidents of racism against Indigenous Peoples were the most commonly experienced and witnessed.

Black African American and the Reality of Racism in Gwendolyn Brooks’s A Street in Bronzeville

Gwendolyn Brooks has become the doubly disadvantaged poet, mostly because of her "race" as a black woman, and secondly, by consideration for her gender. Such a double pressure is evident in Brooks's poetry. For her race and culture, Brooks took great pride as well as supports, honors womanhood too. However, Brooks's poetry discusses black consciousness and also exposes the essence of the concerns of black women. The Black women, their psychological state as well as their depressed feelings are portrayed in Brooks's poetry. The goal of Brooks is to show the readers, what African American women should be. The major aspect is that women characters are independent women, who reject the boundaries of the appropriate role, by both the Blacks as well as the general Western society. The suffering and resentment of American blacks, the misery with the strength of ordinary black citizens, is brilliantly pointed out by Brooks. She concentrated through her poems on people in general and women in particular. Although, she depicts African American women as moms, wives, sisters, girlfriends, as well as daughters, in different ways. Undoubtedly, Black female characters for Brooks are still victims of racism, slavery, sexism, exploitation, discrimination, injustice, oppression, and violence.

Conversational Silencing of Racism in Psychological Science: Toward Decolonization in Practice

This article addresses a paradox between self-perceptions of psychology as a liberal, progressive, antiracist discipline and profession and the persistent criticisms of racism and calls for decolonization. It builds on the criticisms of epistemic exclusion and White centering, arguing that White supremacy is maintained by “conversational silencing” in which the focus on doing good psychology systematically draws attention away from the realities of racism and the operation of power. The process is illustrated by investigations of disciplinary discourse around non-Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic psychology and on stereotyping, racism, and prejudice reduction, which constitute the vanguard of liberal scholarship in the discipline. This progressive scholarship nurtures “White ignorance,” an absence of belief about systemic racism that psychology plays a part in upholding.

Black Sound, Sonic Emotion, and Racist Violence in Lovecraft Country

This article addresses race and inequality through the horror sci-fi genre and the musical landscape of two episodes of Misha Green’s TV series Lovecraft Country (2020). Moral responsibilities are mediated throughout the series via sonic culture; through analysis of the series’ aurality, focus is on the sonic reimagining and resignifying of two episodes: Episode One (E1) “Sundown” and Episode Five (E5) “Strange Case.” The unique blend of sci-fi and Cthulhu Mythos adds an additional layer of horror when situated against the backdrop of the racial realities of African Americans in the 1950s and guides the viewer to experience the familiar horror trope by disrupting the ways we experience sound in TV viewing. The soundtrack produces and thematises different sonic emotions and the result is a 21st-century representation of the 1950s: one that reframes racial inequalities of the time for contemporary sensibilities, while actively using the past as raw material for a new present. In this analysis of historical injustices of Black culture through sonic emotion, this article provides a demonstration on how Lovecraft Country engages with race, gender, and sonic culture while embracing the rich tapestry of Black sound by disrupting narratives, challenging racial temporalities, and inviting change.

I cinesi among others: the contested racial perceptions among Chinese migrants in Italy

ABSTRACT This article examines the vernacular system of racial designations and perceptions deployed by Chinese migrants in Italy for making sense of the pluralistic and hierarchical racial reality in which they live. Data primarily came from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Bologna from 2014 to 2015 and the subsequent annual visits until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Focusing on three major racial labels, it sheds light on the ways in which Chinese diasporic subjects produce a racialized vocabulary related to racism and practice racial formations in transnational contexts. Their localised racial ideology reflects their predicament of being simultaneously both socially vulnerable and economically privileged. It paradoxically both reproduces and negotiates the preexisting Italian racial hierarchy that also reflects globally circulating racial hierarchies, while intersecting with their own understandings of civility and modernity. The perspectives of Chinese migrants who, themselves subject to racialisation, also racialise others reveal a contested bottom-up narrative of racial formation in a European society experiencing rapid demographic change. This ethnographic study thus challenges the existing narratives of racialisation and immigration beyond Eurocentric frameworks.

"Mentally you don't function the same": a Qualitative Examination of the Normalization, Embodiment, and Psychological Impact of Everyday Racism.

Everyday racism consists of covert and oppressive practices that uphold systems of power and reproduce White supremacy through subtle forms of repetitive and normalized discriminatory actions. While attention to the material and physical damage everyday racism evokes upon Black Americans is receiving increased attention, inconsistencies regarding its conceptualization and operationalization are impeding our understanding of the impact of everyday racism. Utilizing critical race theory (CRT) as an analytical framework, this article intends to respond to gaps in the literature and deepen the understanding of the psychological burden experiences of everyday racism places upon a sample of (n = 40) Black Americans. We engaged with the racial realism and Whiteness as property tenets to analyze individual in-depth interviews and (1) enhance our interrogation of micro/macro-level interactions and (2) aid in the conceptualization of everyday racism. Three themes emerged from the data: hypervigilance and the normalization of everyday racism, mental preparation for navigating White spaces, and the mental health impact of everyday racism. Participant narratives reveal how the normalization of everyday racism impacts them on a psychological and corporeal (i.e., bodily) level. Their accounts also spoke to how Whiteness operates as a property right that exacerbates everyday racism and places invisible boundaries upon how they navigate space. This study provides conceptual clarity about the realities of racism, deeper awareness of structural and individual measures, and an in-depth understanding of how often taken for granted and assumed "normal" forms of racism generate pathways to negative mental health outcomes.

Eye Brother Horn by Bridget Pitt

Reviewed by: Eye Brother Horn by Bridget Pitt Daniel Bokemper BRIDGET PITT Eye Brother Horn Minneapolis, Minnesota. Catalyst Press. 2023. 278 pages. BRIDGET PITT'S Eye Brother Horn could have been a saga of empty gestures, unearned revelations, and inconsequential atonement. In other words, it could've been just another white-savior tale. Yet Pitt does so much more with cultural sincerity and this heartwarming—and wrenching—tale of brothers forced to exist at odds. Eye Brother Horn is a creation myth in of itself, not for any religion or group, but of harmony. Two boys, Moses and Daniel, are raised by white missionaries in nineteenth-century South Africa. Daniel, the missionaries' biological child, possesses a magically real connection to animals after miraculously surviving a rhino [End Page 69] attack as an infant. Moses, who was rescued as a newborn, desperately tries to find his identity lodged somewhere between an adoptive white community and his Zulu roots. As the two grow, the reality of racism and classism tries to tear them apart. The novel alternates between Moses's and Daniel's perspectives, offering smaller passages within larger movements separated by years at a time. Their tales are rarely redundant, and neither is boiled down to a simple reaction. Pitt doesn't overexpose or underrepresent either character, bolstering the reader's investment in both. The dual narrative also frames the friction between the colonizer's Christianity and South Africa's native, ancestral spirituality. Through the divide, the boys' ideas begin to meld. Despite Daniel's privilege—his "birthright"—he's afflicted by debilitating episodes whenever his family hunts the local wildlife. Conversely, Moses distances himself from weapons of any kind, instead finding comfort in the stars and science. As young adults, the dreams they share are quelled, but their bond ties their hope tighter. Pitt's prose is tight and clear. While not overly simple, her consistency keeps the boys' transition to their twenties seamless. Their vernacular and experiences just click, as if we're privy to all the formative years the story doesn't explore. The novel begins to compromise its balance near its climax, but not without cause. Even so, there's a sense that Moses could have had a bit more of presence as he and Daniel butt heads with the latter's wealthy uncle, Roland. It's a minor setback to an otherwise powerful finale. Eye Brother Horn is a testament to the strength of kinship. It illustrates the connection we share while dissecting the constructs that separate us. Pitt has a gift for weaving modern turmoil into historic figures. The novel is a reminder that no consequence is harsh enough to extinguish hope. Daniel Bokemper Oklahoma City Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Development of Cultural Racism and the Subsequent Effect

This paper focuses on the concept of cultural racism, a relatively new term that emerged after World War II. The term, which is also referred to as new racism, postmodern racism, neo-racism, and differentialist racism, generally refers to the form of racism that deems one racial group superior over another based on cultural differences, not biological differences. Biological racism believes racial superiority is determined based on physical and genetic features. The study takes an in-depth analysis of the process in which the backlash of World War II and following social movements caused the shift from biological racism to cultural racism. Cultural racism functions the same way as biological racism. Cultural stereotypes and associated identities are used as justifications for racial discrimination. In Europe, cultural racism presents itself in the form of European cultural superiority, justifying discrimination and exclusion of immigrants and refugees. In South Africa, cultural racism is used to rule under the system of Apartheid and continue anti-black racism. In the United States, cultural racism combines with stereotypical cultural stereotypes to maintain the racist status quo and hide the racial reality of the country.

Whites Only: Race and Mobility in Kym Ragusa's The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging and Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric

Whites Only: Race and Mobility in Kym Ragusa's <i>The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging</i> and Claudia Rankine's <i>Citizen: An American Lyric</i>

Youth as pattern makers for racial justice: How speculative design pedagogy in science can promote restorative futures through radical care practices

ABSTRACT Background We examine the development of youth sociopolitical consciousness and agency in an eighth-grade science classroom as students of color engage in critical speculative design activities, exploring the multi-scalar, racial realities and possibilities of the science and engineering of pervasive digital technologies—specifically involving the entanglement of lightwaves and melanin in computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Methods Through case studies of two girls of color (ES and GS), we analyze the youths’ learning pathways across three instructional phases: threading practices (learners’ sociopolitical interpretation); weaving practices (learners’ coordination of multiple ways of knowing and being in relation to their interpretation); and patternmaking practices (learners’ visions of more just patterns, practices, and politics through speculative design). Findings Our analyses show how youth use their felt, cultural, and community knowledges, as well as their developing scientific knowledge of physics, to confront and analyze manifestations of racial bias in technologies. The findings highlight the significance of teachers’ pedagogical support and providing opportunities for meaningful transdisciplinary science investigations and speculative designing for more just and thriving futures. Contribution The Critical Speculative Design Pedagogy framework developed suggests how such activities in the classroom can cultivate equitable, expansive science learning that is consequential to youth and their communities.

Travel-Logical Readings of Cugoano, Equiano, Sancho, Wright and Brathwaite and the 21st Century Racial Realities in the West

Travel-Logical Readings of Cugoano, Equiano, Sancho, Wright and Brathwaite and the 21st Century Racial Realities in the West

“The Kids in Prison Program”: A Critical Race Personal Counternarrative of a Former Black Charter School Teacher

Background/Context: In New Orleans, Louisiana, in the years following Hurricane Katrina, predominantly white education reformers have used entrepreneurial support to dismantle the predominantly Black city’s public education system. Using racial domination without community approval, these education reformers have educationally disenfranchised the Black community by implementing No Excuses (NE) Charter School Management Organizations (CMO). The rise in these organizations has also led to the mass firing of the city’s majority Black educator base and the hiring of majority white educators. Scholarship on NE CMOs notes their use of dehumanizing behavioral practices meant to control their student populations. Accounts, however, are limited from those who have witnessed, experienced, or resisted these dehumanizing behavioral practices. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study: Through the critical race theory (CRT) lens of racial realism, this paper provides a critical race personal counternarrative (CRPCN) that characterizes the racist and racialized disciplinary and surveillance practices used to control Black students’ bodies. It examines my experiences as a teacher within an NE CMO, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) school in New Orleans. Furthermore, this paper underscores my own Black fugitive pedagogic acts alongside my Black students, acts that allowed us to create fleeting moments of freedom inside and outside our classroom. Research Design: I relied on critical race methodology to construct a CRPCN against KIPP, which prides itself on positive behavior practices and social justice. The evidence I drew on included free-written notes, conversations with former students and teachers, media (e.g., photos and videos), and scholarly literature. To analyze data, I drew on CRT concepts of racial realism and the permanence of racism in U.S. society to underscore Black fugitivity, anti-Black surveillance, and discipline. Conclusion/Recommendations: Racial realism provides a lens for identifying the evolution of racialized surveillance technologies on Black bodies within the United States. Although critics characterize racial realism as overly pessimistic, this paper notes one way that scholars, educators, students, and parents can draw on this tool of racial resistance to accept the current racial reality, uncover racially oppressive schooling practices, and highlight strategies of survival through fugitive acts.