White Crossover Research Articles

Re: Age-Specific Incidence of Breast Cancer Subtypes: Understanding the Black–White Crossover

Background Breast cancer incidence is higher among black women than white women before age 40 years, but higher among white women than black women after age 40 years (black–white crossover). We used newly available population-based data to examine whether the age-specific incidences of breast cancer subtypes vary by race and ethnicity. Methods We classified 91908 invasive breast cancers diagnosed in California between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2009, by subtype based on tumor expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR)—together referred to as hormone receptor (HR)—and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Breast cancer subtypes were classified as ER or PR positive and HER2 negative (HR+/HER2−), ER or PR positive and HER2 positive (HR+/HER2+), ER and PR negative and HER2 positive (HR−/HER2+), and ER, PR, and HER2 negative (triple-negative). We calculated and compared age-specific incidence rates, incidence rate ratios, and 95% confidence intervals by subtype and race (black, white, Hispanic, and Asian). All P values are two-sided. Results We did not observe an age-related black–white crossover in incidence for any molecular subtype of breast cancer. Compared with white women, black women had statistically significantly higher rates of triple-negative breast cancer at all ages but statistically significantly lower rates of HR+/HER2− breast cancers after age 35 years (all P < .05). The age-specific incidence of HR+/HER2+ and HR−/HER2+ subtypes did not vary markedly between white and black women. Conclusions The black–white crossover in breast cancer incidence occurs only when all breast cancer subtypes are combined and relates largely to higher rates of triple-negative breast cancers and lower rates of HR+/HER2− breast cancers in black vs white women.

Age-Specific Incidence of Breast Cancer Subtypes: Understanding the Black–White Crossover

Breast cancer incidence is higher among black women than white women before age 40 years, but higher among white women than black women after age 40 years (black-white crossover). We used newly available population-based data to examine whether the age-specific incidences of breast cancer subtypes vary by race and ethnicity. We classified 91908 invasive breast cancers diagnosed in California between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2009, by subtype based on tumor expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR)-together referred to as hormone receptor (HR)-and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Breast cancer subtypes were classified as ER or PR positive and HER2 negative (HR(+)/HER2(-)), ER or PR positive and HER2 positive (HR(+)/HER2(+)), ER and PR negative and HER2 positive (HR(-)/HER2(+)), and ER, PR, and HER2 negative (triple-negative). We calculated and compared age-specific incidence rates, incidence rate ratios, and 95% confidence intervals by subtype and race (black, white, Hispanic, and Asian). All P values are two-sided. We did not observe an age-related black-white crossover in incidence for any molecular subtype of breast cancer. Compared with white women, black women had statistically significantly higher rates of triple-negative breast cancer at all ages but statistically significantly lower rates of HR(+)/HER2(-) breast cancers after age 35 years (all P < .05). The age-specific incidence of HR(+)/HER2(+) and HR(-)/HER2(+) subtypes did not vary markedly between white and black women. The black-white crossover in breast cancer incidence occurs only when all breast cancer subtypes are combined and relates largely to higher rates of triple-negative breast cancers and lower rates of HR(+)/HER2(-) breast cancers in black vs white women.

The Obama Factor: The Impact of the 2008 Presidential Election on Future Voting Rights Litigation

Some commentators have begun pointing to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential victory as singular evidence that we have overcome and resolved the problem of race in America. In particular, some have suggested that his victory marks the beginning of a post-racial era in which race bears less significance or consequence. In this Article, I focus on a particular aspect of this ongoing debate - the presence of racially polarized voting in the 2008 presidential election cycle. The commentary surrounding Obama's electoral success provides some insights into prevailing attitudes about the pace of racial progress. However, there is a more immediate and pragmatic issue for those who study and litigate vote dilution claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: the probative value of the 2008 presidential contest on future efforts to measure racially polarized voting -- one of the critical pieces of evidence that plaintiffs must offer to support traditional vote dilution claims. Here, I offer some preliminary observations regarding the implications of Obama's electoral success for voting rights litigants and find that no overarching conclusions about racially polarized voting can be drawn from it. Initial analysis of the 2008 presidential election outcome reveals a mixed pattern of racially polarized voting in some jurisdictions and significant cross-racial coalition building in others. Notably, exit polling results from the November 2008 general election reveal stark racial polarization in the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina alongside exceptionally high levels of white crossover voting in the New England states of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. While Obama's victory most certainly represents significant progress in the ongoing effort to achieve political equality, courts should hesitate to substitute Obama's electoral success for a more careful assessment and localized inquiry that can help accurately determine whether racially polarized voting persists in a particular jurisdiction.

The black to white breast cancer incidence rate crossover.

Abstract Abstract #2086 Background: Although breast cancer incidence rates are higher among Blacks than Whites prior to age 40 years, the reverse is true after age 40 years. This so-called Black to White ethnic crossover has been described but never systematically studied.&amp;#x2028; Materials and Methods: To further assess the Black to White incidence rate crossover, we obtained data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Invasive female breast cancers were stratified by Black and White race and estrogen receptor (ER) expression. Standard descriptive epidemiology was supplemented with “comparative” age-period-cohort (APC) models.&amp;#x2028; Results:]We observed “qualitative” (reversing or crossing) age-interactions by race, stratified by birth-cohort and adjusted for calendar-period. For example, APC fitted age-at-onset curves were higher among Blacks than Whites prior to age 40 years, and then rates crossed, after which age-specific rates were higher for Whites (p ∼ 0 for difference). In contrast to age-related differences, secular trends were similar for Blacks and Whites (net drifts, p = 0.85 for difference). For all time periods and age groups, ER negative incidence rates were higher among Blacks, whereas ER positive rates were higher among Whites.&amp;#x2028; Conclusion: When viewed as a qualitative (crossing) age-interaction, the Black to White ethnic crossover reflects the reversal of incidence rate ratios for early-onset/poor prognosis and late-onset/good prognosis breast cancer types. Blacks have more early-onset and ER-negative tumors, even after adjustment for calendar-period (screening) and birth-cohort (exposure) effects.&amp;#x2028; &amp;#x2028; Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 2086.

Deracialization And Urban Racial Contexts

Building on previous literature of deracialization and white voting behavior, the author empirically tests whether the effectiveness of deracialization, measured by white crossover vote, may be conditional, dependent on urban racial contexts. The author examined 81 black candidates’ white votes in New Orleans biracial elections between 1977 and 1998. The results of ordinary least squares multiple regressions show that the differences in white crossover voting in New Orleans during the past two decades were related to black candidates’ strength. The relatively larger effect of newspaper endorsement on white crossover voting, compared to that of black incumbency, confirms previous findings regarding the powerful influence of news media on biracial elections in general and the deracialization strategy in particular. The most important finding of this research, however, is that the deracialization strategy was most effective when white voters were no longer the majority in the urban elections.

Racial Transition and White-Voter Support for Black Candidates in Urban Elections

Traditional black threat theory predicts an inverse relationship between the size of a jurisdiction’s black population and white crossover voting. Recently, a modified black threat theory suggests that it may be more reasonable to expect a curvilinear U-shaped relationship between black density and white crossover voting, due to changes in both racial composition and white group status. Using Gary King’s Ecological Inference (EI) procedure to estimate white crossover voting at the election unit level through precinct-level data, this study examines the relationship between black density and white crossover voting across 29 biracial elections in New Orleans between 1977 and 1998. Results of our analysis support neither a negative, nor a U-shaped relationship. Rather, the shape of the relationship is an upward half-U. We explain this nonlinear relationship by suggesting that as blacks become a majority, white voters begin to cast votes for black candidates in a strategic manner.

The Positive Effect of Black Density on White Crossover Voting: Reconsidering Social Interaction Theory

Objective. Social interaction theory has received considerable attention. One limitation of previous studies has been that they did not examine how the positive effect of racial interaction on white racial tolerance may be enhanced or reduced by other factors. This article tests five hypotheses derived from the basic assumption of social interaction theory. Methods. Employing EI procedure, a newly developed ecological inference method, this study uses the precinct‐level data from New Orleans' 29 biracial elections to estimate white crossover voting at the neighborhood level. The hypotheses are tested by both ordinary least squares and weighted least squares models. Results. White crossover voting is positively related to black density. The positive effect of black density, however, is relatively weak. Other factors such as the racial composition of candidate field and election type are more important. Conclusions. Caution needs to be exercised in accepting social interaction theory. The level of racial competition in biracial elections may reverse white support for black candidates.

Racial Contexts and White Interests: Beyond Black Threat and Racial Tolerance

The impact of racial context on white voters' support for black candidates in biracial elections has drawn considerable attention from students of racial politics. Two major theories—black threat and social interaction—use different geographic units and provide conflicting explanations. The present study seeks to contribute to the resolution of the controversy by empirically examining white crossover voting at both election unit and neighborhood levels. Twenty-nine mayoral and councilmanic district elections in New Orleans from 1977 to 1998 are investigated. The findings are not consistent with the hypotheses derived from black threat and social interaction theories. Rather than a reflection of racial tolerance or hostility, the changes in white crossover voting in different racial contexts may indicate a rational and strategic adjustment on the part of white voters when they face the prospect of black electoral success.

White‐Voter Response to Black Political Power: The Case of New Orleans, 1980–1994

This paper examines three current theories employed to explain white voting behavior—racial threat, symbolic racism, and racial tolerance. In so doing, it examines white crossover voting across a series of biracial municipal elections in New Orleans from 1980 through 1994. During this period the City of New Orleans underwent a pronounced change in its racial composition and in the shift from white to black political power. Within the context of this transition, the findings are most compatible with the racial tolerance explanation of white voting behavior. However, these findings suggest that white‐voter support for black candidates is in fact a more complex process than suggested by any of these three theories.

Recent Elections and Black Politics: The Maturation or Death of Black Politics?

Black politics is not maturing and may be degenerating.' To explicate this thesis, let me borrow from Nelson George's (1989) critical study of Afro-American music in the post civil rights era.2 George argues that the development of crossover artists and music, and their effective marketing to mainstream white society, has resulted in the death of the music as an authentic black cultural expression. George, the former Billboard music critic, writes In the twenty years since the Great Society, which marked a high point of R&B music, the community that inspired both social change and artistic creativity has become a sad shell of itself: unhappily, while the drive behind the movement for social change was the greatest inspiration for the music, the very success of the movement spelled the end of the R&B world (1989:xiii). The new black politics initiated in the late 1960s, like the music of the era, was conceived as a social change agent, the continuation of movement politics by other means. It would indeed be sad if the conditions for its success require it to become a deracialized mainstream shell of itself (on the deracialization thesis in terms of the 1989 elections see also McCormick, 1989). Do the 1989 elections really represent a new phenomenon? Do these several elections really indicate something new in terms of candidates, issues, strategies, white crossover voting, and coalition politics? The coverage in the national press and in the early scholarly reports, including several articles in this symposium suggest that there was something entirely different, nearly beyond belief about the election of Wilder and several of the mayors. Although all elections are local in that candidates, issues, and symbols tend to be idiosyncratic, to the extent that patterns are discernible I would argue that the 1989 elections are not all that new in terms of what we know about the post civil rights pattern of black electoral coalitions and govern-