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One of the heroes in American history, Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) sought legal remedies against racial discrimination in education and health care. As director of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) of NAACP from 1940 to 1961, his success in integrating law schools in Texas led to the first black medical student admitted to a state medical school in the South. Representing doctors and dentists needing a facility to perform surgery, the LDF brought cases before the courts in North Carolina that moved the country toward justice in health care. His ultimate legal victory came in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka , the decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. In 1964, the LDF under Jack Greenberg, Marshall's successor as director, won Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital , a decision that held that hospitals accepting federal funds had to admit black patients. The two decisions laid the judicial foundation for the laws and administrative acts that changed America's racial history, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Social Security Act Amendments of 1965 that established Medicare and Medicaid. His achievements came during the hottest period of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Well past the middle of the twentieth century, black Americans were denied access to the full resources of American medicine, locked in a "separate-but-equal" system woefully inadequate in every respect. In abolishing segregation, Marshall initiated the long overdue remedy of the unjust legacies of slavery and Jim Crow., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Mass incarceration fundamentally altered the life course for a generation of American men, but sustained declines in imprisonment in recent years raise questions about how incarceration is shaping current generations. This study makes three primary contributions to a fuller understanding of the contemporary landscape of incarceration in the United States. First, we assess the scope of decarceration. Between 1999 and 2019, the Black male incarceration rate dropped by 44%, and notable declines in Black male imprisonment were evident in all 50 states. Second, our life table analysis demonstrates marked declines in the lifetime risks of incarceration. For Black men, the lifetime risk of incarceration declined by nearly half from 1999 to 2019. We estimate that less than 1 in 5 Black men born in 2001 will be imprisoned, compared with 1 in 3 for the 1981 birth cohort. Third, decarceration has shifted the institutional experiences of young adulthood. In 2009, young Black men were much more likely to experience imprisonment than college graduation. Ten years later, this trend had reversed, with Black men more likely to graduate college than go to prison. Our results suggest that prison has played a smaller role in the institutional landscape for the most recent generation compared with the generation exposed to the peak of mass incarceration., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors.)

The criminal legal system in the USA drives an incarceration rate that is the highest on the planet, with disparities by class and race among its signature features 1-3 . During the first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of incarcerated people in the USA decreased by at least 17%-the largest, fastest reduction in prison population in American history 4 . Here we ask how this reduction influenced the racial composition of US prisons and consider possible mechanisms for these dynamics. Using an original dataset curated from public sources on prison demographics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, we show that incarcerated white people benefited disproportionately from the decrease in the US prison population and that the fraction of incarcerated Black and Latino people sharply increased. This pattern of increased racial disparity exists across prison systems in nearly every state and reverses a decade-long trend before 2020 and the onset of COVID-19, when the proportion of incarcerated white people was increasing amid declining numbers of incarcerated Black people 5 . Although a variety of factors underlie these trends, we find that racial inequities in average sentence length are a major contributor. Ultimately, this study reveals how disruptions caused by COVID-19 exacerbated racial inequalities in the criminal legal system, and highlights key forces that sustain mass incarceration. To advance opportunities for data-driven social science, we publicly released the data associated with this study at Zenodo 6 ., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

This article examines Bey v. City of New York - a recent Second Circuit case where four Black firefights suffering from Pseudofolliculitis Barbae (a skin condition causing irritation when shaving which mostly affects Black men) challenged the New York City Fire Department's Clean Shave Policy - with an intersectional approach utilizing legal theories of racial, disability, and religious discrimination.

Objectives: To assess the extent to which persistent racism shapes perspectives on public health policies aimed at improving health equity in the United States. Specifically we evaluate the relationship between implicit and explicit anti-black attitudes and support for the ACA at the beginning of the Trump administration., Methods: We use bivariate statistics to examine views toward the ACA, anti-black attitudes, and demographic variables. Using logistic regression, we examine how anti-black attitudes and demographic variables relate to participants stating that the ACA has worsened the quality of health care services in the United States., Survey Population: Data for this study come from the American National Election Studies 2016 Time Series Study, which targets US citizens age 18 and older currently living in the United States (N = 3245)., Results: Implicit anti-black attitudes, particularly among whites, are strongly associated with negative feelings toward the ACA. A measure of explicit racial prejudice has the opposite relationship among whites. These results suggest that whites are most critical of the ACA when they hold positive attitudes toward blacks but hold negative stereotypes about blacks' work ethic and reject policies to eliminate racial inequalities., Conclusions: Anti-black racial attitudes are a critical barrier to enacting health policies that stand to improve health equity in the United States. Public health practitioners and policymakers should consider racism as an essential barrier to overcome in the push for greater health equity in the United States.

Objectives: State policies regarding alcohol use during pregnancy (alcohol/pregnancy policies) have been in effect for more than 40 years. Previous research finds some policies increase adverse birth outcomes and decrease prenatal care utilization. This research examines whether effects of alcohol/pregnancy policies vary by race; the general hypothesis is that health benefits of policies are concentrated among White women and health harms of policies are concentrated among Black women., Methods: This study uses 1972-2015 Vital Statistics data and policy data from NIAAA's Alcohol Policy Information System and original legal research. The dataset includes more than 150 million singleton births. Outcomes are preterm birth (PTB), low birthweight (LBW), and prenatal care utilization. Logistic regression models include raceXpolicy interaction terms as main predictors, adjust for individual- and state-level controls, include fixed effects for state, year and state-specific time trends, and account for clustering by state., Results: The impact of alcohol/pregnancy policies varied by race for preterm birth, varied in a few cases for low birthweight, and generally did not vary for prenatal care utilization. The hypothesis regarding the direction of differential effects was not supported. Six policies had an adverse impact on PTB and/or LBW for White women. Findings differed for Black women; for Black women, four policies had a beneficial impact for PTB and one had an adverse impact for LBW., Conclusions: The impact of alcohol/pregnancy policies on birth outcomes varies by race. Future research should explore why some policies appear to have opposite effects for White v. Black women., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Drug courts have been an important part of the criminal justice system since 1989. They continue to expand throughout the United States because nearly three decades of research has shown that they are more effective than other interventions, such as traditional probation. There is a pattern, though, in some drug courts where African Americans are less likely to graduate than their Caucasian counterparts. This qualitative study explores this phenomenon by asking African American participants ( n  = 31) their views on the most helpful aspects of drug court and how drug court could be more helpful in supporting them in graduating the program. Participants felt that the respect and compassion they received from the drug court judge and their case managers, as well as the camaraderie they developed with other participants, was an aspect of drug court that supported them in graduating the program. Next, participants felt that graduation rates would improve if drug court better supported them in gaining employment or sustaining the employment they already had. Implications for drug court practice are discussed.

Racism is defined as a psychopathology and the ground in which the covenant of whiteness is rooted and mirrored in the system of apartheid structured by American Constitutional Jurisprudence between 1857 and 1954. This historical period overshadowed Carl Jung's visit to America between 1909 and 1937. The spirit of the times and practices of racism coloured Jung's views, attitudes, and theories about African Americans, just as colonialism coloured his attitudes toward Africa and Africans. Consequently Jung failed to see the African Diaspora and the extraordinary intellectual and artistic period of the Harlem Renaissance (1919-1929). Its introduction here foregrounds the exceptionalism of African Americans and the cultural continuity of African ancestry. This exceptionalism was not seen by Jung and there have been no attempts to redress its omission from analytical psychology and other sub-disciplines of Western psychology. Jung's theories of personality and psychoanalysis and his negative projections about primitivism among Africans and African American 'Negroes' would have been mediated by knowledge of a legislated American apartheid and the Harlem Renaissance which occurred within the barriers of apartheid. In this paper I posit that culture, kinship libido, and the African principle of Ubuntu are healing modalities that play a critical role in instinct and the relational ground of human psychology and biology, from which culture as an environmental expression constellates around common goals of the human species. Cultural equivalencies and expressions within the wisdom traditions and mythologies of the Africa Diaspora are considered. Specifically, the Bantu principle of Ubuntu or 'humanity' is identified as the relational ground in African cultures, while the Kemetic-Egyptian deity Maat, as an archetypal anima figure and the religio-mythology offer a transcendent position from which to critique the inequities and constitutional jurisprudence that structured American apartheid. Maat is the personification of truth, justice, balance and weighing of the heart in orderly judicial processes. In her we find the alignment of the spirit and matter in the law and judgement. The paper concludes with reflections on pathways toward healing the psychopathology of racism and recommendations to enhance clinical training and practice., (© 2019, The Society of Analytical Psychology.)

Background: African Americans are disproportionately burdened by substance use consequences and criminal justice system involvement, yet their interrelationship over the life course is not well understood. This study aimed to assess how substance use, crime, and justice system involvement may influence one another from adolescence to midlife., Methods: Data come from a community cohort of urban African Americans first assessed in childhood and followed up into midlife (n = 1242, 606 males, 636 females). We draw on interview data and local, state, and federal criminal records. Participants were assessed at ages 6, 16, 32, and 42, with additional record retrieval at age 52. Utilizing structural equation modeling, we estimate pathways between substance use, criminal behavior, and arrests over time by gender., Results: For males, significant paths were found between childhood behavioral problems and adolescent substance use, delinquency, and police interactions. For females, a significant path was found between childhood behavioral problems and only adolescent delinquency. We observed continuity between substance use and between arrest constructs from adolescence through midlife for men only. Direct paths were found between substance use and later arrests for both males and females. Paths were also observed between arrests and later substance use for both genders., Conclusions: Findings of reciprocal relationships highlight the critical need to break the cycle of substance use and crime and point to specific times in the life course when intervention is necessary. Findings introduce the potential role of the criminal justice system as a key intervention agent in redirecting substance use careers., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Previous research found racial and ethnic disparities in meeting medication therapy management (MTM) eligibility criteria implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in accordance with the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA)., Objective: To examine whether alternative MTM eligibility criteria based on the CMS Part D star ratings quality evaluation system can reduce racial and ethnic disparities., Methods: This study analyzed the Beneficiary Summary File and claims files for Medicare beneficiaries linked to the Area Health Resource File. Three million Medicare beneficiaries with continuous Parts A, B, and D enrollment in 2012-2013 were included. Proposed star ratings criteria included 9 existing medication safety and adherence measures developed mostly by the Pharmacy Quality Alliance. Logistic regression and the Blinder-Oaxaca approach were used to test disparities in meeting MMA and star ratings eligibility criteria across racial and ethnic groups. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine whether there was a disparity reduction by comparing individuals who were MTM-eligible under MMA but not under star ratings criteria and those who were MTM-eligible under star ratings criteria but not under the MMA. Concerning MMA-based MTM criteria, main and sensitivity analyses were performed to represent the entire range of the MMA eligibility thresholds reported by plans in 2009, 2013, and proposed by CMS in 2015. Regarding star ratings criteria, meeting any 1 of the 9 measures was examined as the main analysis, and various measure combinations were examined as the sensitivity analyses., Results: In the main analysis, adjusted odds ratios for non-Hispanic blacks (backs) and Hispanics to non-Hispanic whites (whites) were 1.394 (95% CI = 1.375-1.414) and 1.197 (95% CI = 1.176-1.218), respectively, under star ratings. Blacks were 39.4% and Hispanics were 19.7% more likely to be MTM-eligible than whites. Blacks and Hispanics were less likely to be MTM-eligible than whites in some sensitivity analyses. Disparities were not completely explained by differences in patient characteristics based on the Blinder-Oaxaca approach. The multinomial logistic regression of each main analysis found significant adjusted relative risk ratios (RRR) between whites and blacks for 2009 (RRR = 0.459, 95% CI = 0.438-0.481); 2013 (RRR = 0.449, 95% CI = 0.434-0.465); and 2015 (RRR = 0.436, 95% CI = 0.425-0.446) and between whites and Hispanics for 2009 (RRR = 0.559, 95% CI = 0.528-0.593); 2013 (RRR = 0.544, 95% CI = 0.521-0.569); and 2015 (RRR = 0.503, 95% CI = 0.488-0.518). These findings indicate a significant reduction in racial and ethnic disparities when using star ratings eligibility criteria; for example, black-white disparities in the likelihood of meeting MTM eligibility criteria were reduced by 55.1% based on star ratings compared with MMA in 2013. Similar patterns were found in most sensitivity and disease-specific analyses., Conclusions: This study found that minorities were more likely than whites to be MTM-eligible under the star ratings criteria. In addition, MTM eligibility criteria based on star ratings would reduce racial and ethnic disparities associated with MMA in the general Medicare population and those with specific chronic conditions., Disclosures: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01AG049696. The content of this study is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Cushman reports an Eli Lilly grant and uncompensated consulting for Takeda Pharmaceuticals outside this work. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to report. Study concept and design were contributed by Wang and Shih, along with Wan, Kuhle, Spivey, and Cushman. Wang, Qiao, and Wan took the lead in data collection, with assistance from the other authors. Data interpretation was performed by Wang, Kuhle, and Qiao, with assistance from the other authors. The manuscript was written by Spivey and Qiao, along with the other authors, and revised by Cushman, Dagogo-Jack, and Chisholm-Burns, along with the other authors.

In the setting of the current social and political climate, the focus on protection of Black lives in America has come to the forefront. We evaluate how health in the Black community should be a paramount concern that can be addressed in three ways: 1. Connecting the medical community to the Black community, empowering patients with knowledge, and diversifying the medical workforce. These three initiatives will help to decrease the health disparities seen in Black health., (Copyright © 2018 National Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

African American young adults ages 18-25 smoke less than their Caucasian peers, yet the burden of tobacco-related illness is significantly higher in African Americans than in Caucasians across the lifespan. Little is known about how clean indoor air laws affect tobacco smoking among African American young adults. We conducted a systematic observation of bars and clubs with events targeted to African American adults 18-25 in Baltimore City at two timepoints (October and November of 2008 and 2010) after enforcement of the Maryland Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA). Twenty venues-selected on the basis of youth reports of popular venues-were rated during peak hours. All surveillance checklist items were restricted to what was observable in the public domain. There was a significant decrease in observed indoor smoking after CIAA enforcement. Observed outdoor smoking also decreased, but this change was not significant. Facilities for smoking outdoors increased significantly. The statewide smoking ban became effective February 1, 2008, yet measurable changes in smoking behavior in bars were not evident until the City engaged in stringent enforcement of the ban several months later.

Both residential mobility and community disadvantage have been shown to be associated with negative outcomes for adolescents generally and juvenile offenders specifically. The current study examines the effects of moving among a large sample (n = 13,096) of previously adjudicated youth (31.6 % female, 41.2 % Black, 16.5 % Hispanic). Additionally, we examine whether moving upward to a more affluent neighborhood, moving downward to an area of greater disadvantage, or moving laterally to a similar neighborhood tempers the effects of residential mobility. We use a combination of analytical techniques, including propensity score matching to untangle the effects of mobility sans pre-existing conditions between movers and non-movers. Results show relocation increases recidivism, irrespective of the direction of the move with regard to socioeconomic context. Moving upward has the most detrimental impact for adjudicated male adolescents, while downward relocations evidenced the largest effect for female youth. Implications for policy and future research needs are discussed.

The relationship between drug policy and HIV vulnerability is well documented. However, little research examines the links between racial/ethnic HIV disparities via the Drug War, sexual risk, and stigma. The Drug War HIV/AIDS Inequities Model has been developed to address this dearth. This model contends that inequitable policing and sentencing promotes sexual risks, resource deprivation, and ultimately greater HIV risk for African-Americans. The Drug War also socially marginalizes African Americans and compounds stigma for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated persons living with HIV/AIDS. This marginalization has implications for sexual risk-taking, access to health-promoting resources, and continuum of care participation. The Drug War HIV/AIDS Inequities Model may help illuminate mechanisms that promote increased HIV vulnerability as well as inform structural intervention development and targeting to address racial/ethnic disparities., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Heterocyclic aromatic amines formed in cooked meat may be an underlying mechanism for the red meat-colorectal cancer (CRC) association. These compounds require bioactivaction by N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2). An interaction effect between red meat consumption and NAT2 in increasing CRC risk has been inconsistently reported in whites. We investigated this interaction in two populations in which the high-activity rapid NAT2 phenotype is 10- and 2-fold more common than in whites. We meta-analyzed four studies of Japanese (2,217 cases, 3,788 controls) and three studies of African Americans (527 cases, 4,527 controls). NAT2 phenotype was inferred from an optimized seven-SNP genotyping panel. Processed and total red meat intakes were associated with an increased CRC risk in Japanese and in both ethnic groups combined (P's ≤ 0.002). We observed an interaction between processed meat intake and NAT2 in Japanese (P = 0.04), African Americans (P = 0.02), and in both groups combined (P = 0.006). The association of processed meat with CRC was strongest among individuals with the rapid NAT2 phenotype (combined analysis, OR for highest vs. lowest quartile: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.28-2.05; Ptrend = 8.0×10-5), intermediate among those with the intermediate NAT2 phenotype (1.29, 95% CI: 1.05-1.59; Ptrend = 0.05) and null among those with the slow phenotype (Ptrend = 0.45). A similar interaction was found for NAT2 and total red meat (Pinteraction = 0.03). Our findings support a role for NAT2 in modifying the association between red meat consumption and CRC in Japanese and African Americans.

The recent nonindictments of police officers who killed unarmed Black men have incited popular and scholarly discussions on racial injustices in our legal system, racialized police violence, and police (mis)conduct. What is glaringly absent is a public health perspective in response to these events. We aim to fill this gap and expand the current dialogue beyond these isolated incidents to a broader discussion of racism in America and how it affects the health and well-being of people of color. Our goal is not only to reiterate how salient structural racism is in our society, but how critical antiracist work is to the core goals and values of public health.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children is an enduring social problem that has recently become the focus of numerous legislative initiatives. In particular, recent federal- and state-level legislation have sought to reclassify youth involved in commercial sexual exploitation as victims rather than as offenders. So-called Safe Harbor laws have been developed and centered on decriminalization of "juvenile prostitution." In addition to or instead of decriminalization, Safe Harbor policies also include diversion, law enforcement training, and increased penalties for adults seeking sexual contact with minors. The purpose of this paper is to review the underlying rationale of Safe Harbor laws, examine specific policy responses currently enacted by the states, and consider the effects of policy variations. Directions for future research and policy are addressed.

Little information is available on the lives and experiences of black physicians who practiced in the South during the Jim Crow era of legalized segregation. In Mississippi and elsewhere, it is a story of disenfranchised professionals who risked life, limb, and personal success to improve the lot of those they served. In this second article on this topic, we present the stories of some of the physicians who were leaders in the civil rights movement in Mississippi as examples. Because the health disparities they sought to address have, not of their own making, been passed on to the next generation of physicians, the lessons learned from their experience are worthy of consideration., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The roles of black physicians in the South in the period leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have not been fully disclosed. In Mississippi and elsewhere in the South, it is a story of disenfranchised professionals who risked life, limb, and personal success to improve the lot of those they served. This first of 2 articles on the subject provides an overview of the forces for and against the struggle for civil rights and social justice in medicine in the South. We use newly available data from Mississippi as a prime example. An understanding of these forces is essential to an understanding of medical education and medical practice in this period and helps explain why the South remains in last place in most indicators of health today., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article examines and describes the traumatic effects of political humiliation in the life of Malcolm X, and the psychosocial changes exhibited in his moving from being snared by the talons of racism to a greater sense of freedom and flexibility in working with a wide variety of people. Malcolm X's suffering and psychosocial changes are framed in terms of object relating and use, as well as by his search for a transformational object that would restore and secure his self-worth and efficacy.

As the U.S. population becomes more racially diverse and different groups move in to previously White-dominated spaces, new techniques of exclusion and marginalization are being employed in an effort to regulate the opportunities and progress available to racialized minority groups. In this article, the author argues that mass media’s preoccupation with the Williams sisters’ “on-court” play and “off-court” activities constitutes a form of surveillance that is used by Whites to identify, observe, and ultimately, limit the range of available representations of Venus and Serena Williams. The author also suggests that this kind of public scrutiny produces racialized images and narratives constitutive of “race talk,” a key manifestation of the new racism(s) characteristic of the politics of this sociohistorical moment.

Concurrent validation procedures were employed, using a sample of African American precollege students, to determine the extent to which scale scores obtained from the first edition of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) were appropriate for diagnostic purposes. Data analysis revealed that 2 of the 10 LASSI scales (i.e., Anxiety and Test Strategies) significantly correlated with a measure of academic ability. These results suggested that scores obtained from these LASSI scales may provide valid assessments of African American precollege students’ academic aptitude. Implications for teachers, school counselors, and developmental studies professionals were discussed.

This article examines the extent and intensity of Facebook usage among African American college students and investigates their reasons for using Facebook. As expected, 98% of students in the survey had a Facebook account, and a large number of Facebook “friends.” Younger users spent significantly more time on Facebook than older ones. Our findings underscore the importance of cultural influence for African American online users. Displaying photographs and personal interests on Facebook signals racial identity among African American college students. Personality traits, such as self-esteem, trust in people, satisfaction with university life, and racial identity, were not significant predictors on the time spent on Facebook.

This essay positions sport as a pedagogical social institution from which people learn about race, gender, power, and privilege. The National Basketball Association is examined closely with a critical race lens with regard to the commodification of Black masculinity. A critical race analysis reveals the sharp contradictions between the league’s progressive image as an “industry leader” of racial diversity (Lapchick, Bustamante, & Ruiz, 2007, p.1) and the actualization of league discourse, policy, and practice.

Using a modified grounded theory method and Black feminist theory, the author explored the factors that influence the decision-making processes of Black aunts parenting nieces and nephews. Analysis revealed six themes that facilitated beliefs in a lack of agency in the decision-making process: perceptions of a crisis, fulfillment of family obligations, personal identities, faith in God, gendered expectations, and the role of the Black aunt. Findings emphasized the impact of cultural traditions and gendered expectations on the meanings that Black aunts attach to familial roles and the influence of past and current racism on their definitions of the situation.

Body mass index (BMI) values reflect the net balance between nutrition, work effort, and calories consumed to fight disease. Nineteenth-century prison records in the United States demonstrate that the BMI values of blacks and whites were distributed symmetrically; neither underweight nor obese individuals were common among the working class. BMI values declined throughout the nineteenth century. By modern standards, however, nineteenth-century BMIs were in healthy weight ranges, though the biological living standards in rural areas exceeded those in urban areas. The increase in BMIs during the twentieth century did not have its origin in the nineteenth century.

Black women face the same struggles as White women; however, they have to face issues of diversity on top of inequality. The purpose of this study was to explore work-related stressors that affect the lives of Black women and how they cope with them. Using an exploratory design with grounded-theory methods, five basic themes emerged that identify when racism and sexism are experienced as stressors for African American women in the workplace. The themes are: (1) being hired or promoted in the workplace, (2) defending one’s race and lack of mentorship, (3) shifting or code switching to overcome barriers to employment, (4) coping with racism and discrimination, and (5) being isolated and/or excluded. The results from this study indicate African American women use emotion- and problem-focused coping responses to manage stress (e.g., racism and sexism) in the workplace. The article concludes with a discussion of practice implications of these findings.

Despite popular claims that racism and discrimination are no longer salient issues in contemporary society, members of racially underrepresented groups continue to experience disparate treatment in everyday public interactions. The context of full-service restaurants is one such public setting wherein African Americans, in particular, encounter racial prejudices and discriminatory treatment. To further understand the pervasiveness of such anti-Black attitudes and actions within the restaurant context, this article analyzes primary survey data derived from a community sample of servers (N = 200). Participants were asked a series of questions ascertaining information about the racial climate of their workplaces. Findings reveal substantial server negativity toward African Americans' tipping and dining behaviors. Racialized discourse and discriminatory behaviors are also shown to be quite common in the restaurant context. The anti-Black attitudes and actions that the authors document in this research are illustrative of the continuing significance of race in contemporary society, and the authors encourage further research on this relatively neglected area of inquiry.

Study Design: Telephone survey and longitudinal analysis of judicial database for cohort of worker's compensation (WC) claimants in Missouri., Objective: To compare legal difficulties experienced by African American and white WC claimants presettlement versus postsettlement., Summary of Background Data: Retrospective studies suggest that workers with occupational back injuries experience financial and personal duress after claim settlement. This study examined these issues by comparing financial and domestic court actions for the 5-year presettlement against 5-year postsettlement. Sociodemographic differences also were examined., Methods: Missouri judicial records were reviewed for African American (n = 580) and non-Hispanic white (n = 892) WC claimants to determine the frequency with which four types of cases occurred: general financial, domestic financial, residence financial, and domestic behavior. Average annual level of judicial activity during the 5 years before claim settlement was compared to activity for each of five postsettlement years; significance of change was evaluated with univariate and multivariate repeated measures analyses., Results: Statistically significant (P < 0.001) postsettlement increases in legal cases were noted for each of the four categories of cases. There were significant interactions between race and time for general financial and domestic financial cases. A significant interaction between age and time occurred for general financial cases. Significant three-way interactions (race × income change × time) emerged for general and domestic financial cases., Conclusion: The results confirm that workers with occupational back injuries, especially African American and younger adults, encounter long-term financial and domestic duress that appears to escalate with each passing year after claim settlement. This pattern suggests that short-term studies underestimate postsettlement difficulties, particularly among selected demographic cohorts.

African American children’s rates for fatal and non-fatal drowning events are alarmingly elevated, with some age groups having three times the rate as compared to White peers. Adequate swimming skills are considered a protective agent toward the prevention of drowning, but marginalized youth report limited swimming ability. This research examined minority children’s and parents/caregivers’ fear of drowning as a possible variable associated with limited swimming ability. Results confirmed that there were significant racial differences concerning the fear of drowning, and adolescent African American females were notably more likely to fear drowning while swimming than any other group. The “fear of drowning” responses by parents/ caregivers of minority children were also significantly different from their White counterparts.

This interdisciplinary essay explores a fundamental paradox at the heart of American race relations since the 1960s: "the changing same." The more things change; the more they remain the same. Combining historical and social-scientific evidence with autobiographical reflections, this discussion critically probes the paradoxical decline and persistence of two dimensions of our enduring racial quagmire: racial inequality and white supremacy. The essay argues that these powerful and interrelated elements of America's continuing racial dilemma demand a massive democratic movement to alleviate both at once. This wide-ranging struggle to realize the promise of American democracy requires more than just a revitalized African American Freedom Struggle that is both intraracial and interracial. Progress toward resolving the seemingly intractable problem of racial inequality in the United States demands far more than intensified efforts to alleviate economic inequality; it requires alleviating white supremacy as well.

In the 1960s and 1970s African American “supergangs” emerged in Chicago. Many scholars have touted the “prosocial” goals of these gangs but fail to contextualize them in the larger history of black organized crime. Thus, they have overlooked how gang members sought to reclaim the underground economy in their neighborhoods. Yet even as gangs drove out white organized crime figures, they often lacked the know-how to reorganize the complex informal economy. Inexperienced gang members turned to extreme violence, excessive recruitment programs, and unforgiving extortion schemes to take power over criminal activities. These methods alienated black citizens and exacerbated tensions with law enforcement. In addition, the political shelter enjoyed by the previous generation of black criminals was turned into pervasive pressure to break up street gangs. Black street gangs fulfilled their narrow goal of community control of vice. Their interactions with their neighbors, however, remained contentious.

A growing body of literature in a variety of disciplines has appeared over the last 20 years examining customer racial bias in the secondary sports card market; however, consensus on the matter has yet to emerge. In this article, we explore the more subtle ways that a player's race/ethnicity may affect the value of his sports card including a player's skin tone (light- to dark-skinned). Data were obtained for 383 black, Latino, and white baseball players who had received at least one vote for induction into Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame including their career performance statistics, rookie card price, card availability, Hall of Fame status, and skin tone. Findings indicate that card availability is the primary determinant of card value while a player's skin tone has no direct effect. Subsequent analysis demonstrates that a player's race (white/non-white) rather than skin tone did have an effect as it interacts with Hall of Fame status to influence his rookie card price.

Digital production is a means through which African American adolescents communicate and express their experiences with peers. This study examined the content and the form of the digital productions of 24 urban, low-income African American adolescents who attended a summer academic program. The content of student digital productions focused on academic experiences and friendships. Their production styles revealed that youth used perceptually salient production features, such as rapid scene changes and loud rap music. The results suggest that when placed in a supportive, academic environment and provided with digital production resources, students who traditionally face barriers due to cultural and economic inequalities digitally express to their peers an interest in academics and positive peer relationships, and that these youth communicate their experiences through a shared production style that reflects their broader cultural experiences.

The influential roles of culture and ethnic identity are frequently cited in developing disordered eating and body dissatisfaction, constituting both protective and risk factors. For African American women, strongly identifying with African American cultural beauty ideals may protect against disordered eating to lose weight, but may actually increase risk in development of disordered eating directed at weight gain, such as binge eating. This study compares African American and Caucasian women on disordered eating measures, positing that African American women show greater risk for binge eating due to the impact of ethnic identity on body dissatisfaction. Findings indicate low levels of ethnic identity represent a risk factor for African American women, increasing the likelihood of showing greater binge eating and bulimic pathology. In Caucasian women, high levels of ethnic identity constitute a risk factor, leading to higher levels of both binge eating and global eating pathology. Implications for prevention and treatment are discussed.

The new perspective of the "Black Metropolis" implies that conditions created by the Great Migration helped blacks in northern cities to establish themselves in professional, entrepreneurial, and artistic, entertainment and mass media occupations. The present study evaluates this argument with Census data, focusing on the nation's largest black communities, Harlem (New York) and Bronzeville (Chicago), at time points that capture the first wave of the Great Migration. Contrary to expectations, the odds of black employment in the aforesaid occupations declined or remained essentially unchanged in both communities over the study period. Harlem and Bronzeville were surprisingly limited in their potential to offer opportunities for blacks to become professionals, entrepreneurs, and artists, entertainers and writers, perhaps because these communities were saturated by the tremendous influx from the South. Accordingly, it is recommended that the Black Metropolis perspective be modified, to provide a more accurate view of the consequences of the Great Migration.

Youth violence in African American communities is still considered to be at epidemic proportions. The traditional risk factors for youth violence (i.e. delinquent friends, poverty, drug use, carrying a weapon etc.) do not account for the disproportionate overrepresentation of African American males. This study sought to better understand the propensity for violence among African American males ages 14-19 years (N=224) from four different programmatic sites: a Philadelphia high school, an African-centered charter high school, a youth detention facility, and a program that serves youth who are on probation or parole. The findings indicate that internalized racism enhances the variance explained above the variables typically explored in the delinquency and criminology literature. If further research can replicate these findings, this has implications for the content and direction of prevention approaches with African American male youth.

Anger is a common reaction to stressful life events. However, little is known about anger’s use and efficacy as a coping strategy for racism. Is anger a coping strategy for racism that improves mental health? Or does anger operate in an opposing way, deteriorating mental health? The analyses for this research focused on a probability sample of African Americans who reported experiences of acute (n = 246) or chronic (n = 120) racial discrimination in a survey interview. General linear model results revealed that using anger to cope with racial discrimination negatively affected the general well-being and psychological distress of African Americans. These findings raise concerns about the effectiveness (or lack therefore of) of anger as a common coping mechanism for racism, given the deleterious effects it may have on African Americans’ mental health.

Nearly fifty years ago, the American Academy organized a conference and two issues of its journal "Daedalus" on the topic of "The Negro American." The project engaged top intellectuals and policy-makers around the conflicts and limitations of mid-1960s liberalism in dealing with race. Specifically, they grappled with the persistent question of how to integrate a forced-worker population that had been needed but that was socially undesirable once its original purpose no longer existed. Today, racism has been discredited as an idea and legally sanctioned segregation belongs to the past, yet the question the conference participants explored -- in essence, how to make the unwanted wanted -- still remains. Recent political developments and anticipated demographic shifts, however, have recast the terms of the debate. Gerald Early, guest editor for the present volume, uses Barack Obama's election to the presidency as a pretext for returning to the central question of "The Negro American" project and, in turn, asking how white liberalism will fare in the context of a growing minority population in the United States. Placing his observations alongside those made by John Hope Franklin in 1965, Early positions his essay, and this issue overall, as a meditation on how far we have come in America to reach "the age of Obama" and at the same time how far we have to go before we can overcome "the two worlds of race."

This essay explores come of the reasons for the continuing power of racial categorization in our era, and thus offers some friendly amendments to the more optimistic renderings of the term post-racial. Focusing mainly on the relationship between black and white Americans, it argues that the widespread embrace of universal values of freedom and equality, which most regard as antidotes to racial exclusion, actually reinforce it. The internal logic of these categories requires the construction of the "other." In America, where freedom and equality still stand at the contested center of collective identity, a history of racial oppression informs the very meaning of these terms. Thus the irony: much of the effort exerted to transcend race tends to fuel continuing division.

This article explores the racial/ethnic identities of multiracial Black-Mexicans or “Blaxicans.” In-depth interviews with 12 Blaxican individuals in California reveal how they negotiate distinct cultural systems to accomplish multiracial identities. I argue that choosing, accomplishing, and asserting a Blaxican identity challenges the dominant monoracial discourse in the United States, in particular among African American and Chicana/o communities. That is, Blaxican respondents are held accountable by African Americans and Chicanas/os/Mexicans to monoracial notions of “authenticity.” The process whereby Blaxicans move between these monoracial spaces to create multiracial identities illustrates crucial aspects of the social construction of race/ethnicity in the United States and the influence of social interactions in shaping how Blaxicans develop their multiracial identities.

How does the newly arrived immigrant respond to the news that an identity already awaits him? How does an African American hip-hop artist translate his struggles and triumphs across oceanic divides? What significance do American demographic shifts have in a global context? Hsu's essay examines what happens once individuals or identities migrate beyond the contexts that first produced them. He explores a variety of circuits: the satellite communities of Asian immigrant students who arrived on American university campuses in the late 1960s; enduring debates about a "post-city" identity, spurred by advances in cheap, efficient, world-shrinking communication technologies; and the new affinities and categories of self-identification made possible by a present-day culture that prizes interactivity and participation.

The study surveyed a national sample of 100 African American master of social work graduates to retroactively assess perceived diversity content in Human Behavior courses before and after the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) established accreditation standards on diversity. Seventy-one percent of the respondents were females, the mean age was 45.8 years, and their graduation years ranged from 1958 to 2002. Most graduated from northeastern schools (34%), followed by midwestern (28%), southeastern (22%), northwestern (11%), and southwestern (5%) schools. Investigators used the Preparation for Graduate Education Social Work Education Scale and the Human Behavior Survey Addendum (alpha = .97). There were no statistically significant differences on diversity content scores for participants enrolled before and after CSWE diversity standards were established, but graduates of historically Black colleges gave higher diversity content scores in every area. Study includes discussion and implications for Afrocentric theory and the need to prepare practitioners for future social work careers in multicultural communities.