The COVID-19 pandemic affects us all, but it has taken an especially severe toll on Black and Hispanic state residents, magnifying inequities that have long produced worse health outcomes for people of color.
This reality has led to many policy proposals to address health inequities, as well as conversations that center on the role of racism in producing disparate health outcomes. In response, some have asked why focus on race or racism, rather than other factors, such as income, education, or geography.
As the leader of a foundation focused on health equity, I hear these questions often, and I would like to offer some answers.
First, why focus on race?
It’s important to understand that even controlling for income, education, and other factors, people of color face worse health outcomes than their white counterparts. For example, a Black woman with a college degree or higher is 1.6 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than a white woman without a high school diploma. While other factors, such as income, play a role in health, we will not achieve equitable outcomes if we do not address race.
People often assume there could be genetic differences behind these disparities. While genetics contribute to some conditions, such as sickle cell anemia, there is no genetic explanation for the racial and ethnic disparities we see in conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, infant mortality, and adverse maternal outcomes.
So what causes worse health outcomes for people of color?
There are several explanations, both within the health care system and outside of it.
Research shows that Black and Hispanic patients receive less aggressive treatment than white patients. One study found that Hispanic patients were half as likely to be given pain medication in the emergency room when they had a broken bone. Another study of pediatric patients with appendicitis found that Black children and teens were significantly less likely to be given opioids to treat pain.
Read the complete article at: CT Mirror
Also Read: Health Care Conference Addresses the Legacy of Racism in Black Health
In the wake of nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last summer, calls for racial equity led to changes in workplaces, neighborhoods and schools, including Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, an independent Catholic girls school in Miami’s Coconut Grove.
Ahead of the current school year, the school took note of complaints about its culture, adopting an inclusion policy and an amended mission statement to include a commitment to denouncing discrimination and tackling structures that perpetuate racism.
But the steps the school took led to a backlash: More than 150 parents and alumni — including former Florida House Speaker José Oliva and Coral Gables Vice Mayor Vince Lago — signed an 11-page letter addressed to Carrollton administrators and board members stating that the school’s efforts to address racism were incompatible with its Catholic foundation.
“What we are seeing time and again is that what is being shared in Carrollton classrooms is, at the very least, controversial political rhetoric and often extends to anti-Catholic indoctrination,” states the Oct. 23 letter, which began to circulate in recent weeks and was shared with the Miami Herald.
The tension between the school’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the pushback from parents comes as Miami grapples with issues of racism, religion and a deep-seated belief among a wide swath of Miami that the ongoing movement for racial equity is rooted in socialist teachings.
Echoing a conservative viewpoint, the letter stated that phrases such as “systemic racism” and “racial equality” stem from critical race theory, a philosophical offshoot of a German school with a foundation in Marxism. The letter also says students who express Catholic viewpoints on abortion and euthanasia, among other topics, are “targeted and ostracized” by their teachers.
Read the complete article at: Miami Herald
Also Read: How systemic racism shaped Floyd’s life and hobbled his ambition
An Asian American woman who was attacked in downtown San Francisco last week will donate nearly $1 million to combat racism against Asians, according to her grandson.
The 75-year-old woman, Xiao Zhen Xie, is recovering after the brutal attack last week, which left her with two swollen and bleeding black eyes. The money comes from an online fundraiser her grandson, John Chen, organized to pay her medical bills.
San Francisco police said 39-year-old Steven Jenkins struck Xie, unprovoked, at 7th and Market streets on March 17.
KPIX-TV Channel 5 reported that Xie defended herself by punching her attacker. Videos showed the woman on a street corner with a bruised face as the attacker lay on a stretcher.
Read the complete article at: Los Angeles Times
An Asian American woman who was attacked in downtown San Francisco last week will donate nearly $1 million to combat racism against Asians, according to her grandson. The 75-year-old woman, Xiao Zhen Xie, is recovering after the brutal attack last week, which left her with two swollen and bleeding black eyes. The money comes from an online fundraiser her grandson, John Chen, organized to pay her medical bills. San Francisco police said 39-year-old Steven Jenkins struck Xie, unprovoked, at 7th and Market streets on March 17. KPIX-TV Channel 5 reported that Xie defended herself by punching her attacker. Videos showed the woman on a street corner with a bruised face as the attacker lay on a stretcher. The 75-year-old woman, Xiao Zhen Xie, is recovering after the brutal attack last week, which left her with two swollen and bleeding black eyes. The money comes from an online fundraiser her grandson, John Chen, organized to pay her medical bills. San Francisco police said 39-year-old Steven Jenkins struck Xie, unprovoked, at 7th and Market streets on March 17. KPIX-TV Channel 5 reported that Xie defended herself by punching her attacker. Videos showed the woman on a street corner with a bruised face as the attacker lay on a stretcher.
Do Black students receive lower grades in law school? If so, why? Do Black students receive lower grades in law school? If so, why?
It has now become dangerous to ask those questions. And that’s very bad news for anyone who cares about systemic racism — or freedom of speech — in the United States. We’ll never solve America’s glaring racial inequities unless we can also talk about them.
That’s the real take-away of last week’s imbroglio at Georgetown Law School, where adjunct professor Sandra A. Sellers was fired for saying that her Black students often underachieve academically. “I hate to say this,” Ms. Sellers told fellow adjunct David C. Batson, apparently unaware that she was still being recorded after a virtual class. “I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower [students] are Blacks … You get some really good ones. But there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.”
Read the complete article at: Baltimore Sun
Do Black students receive lower grades in law school? If so, why? It has now become dangerous to ask those questions. And that’s very bad news for anyone who cares about systemic racism — or freedom of speech — in the United States. We’ll never solve America’s glaring racial inequities unless we can also talk about them. That’s the real take-away of last week’s imbroglio at Georgetown Law School, where adjunct professor Sandra A. Sellers was fired for saying that her Black students often underachieve academically. “I hate to say this,” Ms. Sellers told fellow adjunct David C. Batson, apparently unaware that she was still being recorded after a virtual class. “I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower [students] are Blacks … You get some really good ones. But there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.” address systemic racism address systemic racism
In 2019, a joint committee on community pediatrics and adolescent health published, “The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health,” a policy statement calling on medical professionals to take decisive steps to both end racism and take better care of people impacted by it. Published in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) journal Pediatrics, the statement labeled racism as a “socially transmitted disease.”
The diagnosis fits. Racism infects institutions and interpersonal relationships. It is suffocating and relentless and omnipresent in hospital delivery rooms and doctor’s offices, school classrooms and admissions offices, police stations, courtrooms, places of business, and bank lending offices. The damage wrought by racism is visible, quantifiable, and traceable through generations.
But what is often lost in discussion is the physiological toll it carries. Racism, asserts the AAP policy paper, is a “determinant of health that has a profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families.” And it turns out that perhaps the most pernicious symptom of racism is the stress and stress-related illnesses it causes.
Read the complete article at: Fatherly
In 2019, a joint committee on community pediatrics and adolescent health published, “The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health,” a policy statement calling on medical professionals to take decisive steps to both end racism and take better care of people impacted by it. Published in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) journal Pediatrics, the statement labeled racism as a “socially transmitted disease.” The diagnosis fits. Racism infects institutions and interpersonal relationships. It is suffocating and relentless and omnipresent in hospital delivery rooms and doctor’s offices, school classrooms and admissions offices, police stations, courtrooms, places of business, and bank lending offices. The damage wrought by racism is visible, quantifiable, and traceable through generations. But what is often lost in discussion is the physiological toll it carries. Racism, asserts the AAP policy paper, is a “determinant of health that has a profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families.” And it turns out that perhaps the most pernicious symptom of racism is the stress and stress-related illnesses it causes. Holds Kids Back Holds Kids Back
In a controversial 7-to-5 vote in February, North Carolina’s State Board of Education affirmed a new standard requiring K-12 social studies teachers to discuss racism and discrimination in their classrooms. To pass, the word “systemic” had to be removed from “racism,” but opponents nevertheless charged the standard was “anti-American.”
This vote is emblematic of a wider reckoning in American education. One side, galvanized by the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, insists that teaching about systemic racism is un-American. Another argues that teaching children about how policies and practices embedded in American society and law have long disadvantaged people based on race is crucial to ameliorating their pernicious — and continuing — effects. While the phrase “systemic racism” has become controversial, the history of the 1920s teaches us that without such language we risk perpetuating the very laws, structures and legacies that have imposed such a burden on communities of color.
Against a backdrop of racial violence, Jim Crow laws and immigration restrictions, educators in the 1920s agitated for some of the first “antiprejudice” curriculums to serve the most diverse body of students enrolled in American schools to date. The national organization of the Junior Red Cross ensured that anti-prejudice lessons — most common in urban centers in the Northeast and West due to their large immigrant populations — reached more than 4 million students in every U.S. state and territory. As historian Diana Selig writes, “these efforts were a dynamic, widespread phenomenon” by the 1930s.
Read the complete article at: Washington Post
Against a backdrop of racial violence, Jim Crow laws and immigration restrictions, educators in the 1920s agitated for some of the first “antiprejudice” curriculums to serve the most diverse body of students enrolled in American schools to date. The national organization of the Junior Red Cross ensured that anti-prejudice lessons — most common in urban centers in the Northeast and West due to their large immigrant populations — reached more than 4 million students in every U.S. state and territory. As historian Diana Selig writes, “these efforts were a dynamic, widespread phenomenon” by the 1930s. Teaching children
In the week after the Dr Seuss estate announced it would cease publication of six of his titles due to racist tropes, some conservative talking heads have been quick to label Seuss as the latest victim of “cancel culture”. But over the decades, many beloved children’s books have been quietly updated to remove racist content: some people will have never read their childhood favourites in their original form, because they were updated long before modern audiences saw them.
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, which debuted in 1927 and 1930 respectively, were originally packed with unflattering portraits of ethnic villains, who were “swarthy”, “hook-nosed”, or “dark, and rather stupid looking”. In The Hardy Boys’ Hidden Harbor Mystery, the criminal exploits are executed by Luke Jones, a Black man who wears stolen diamond rings, speaks in a heavy dialect and refers to himself in the second person: “Luke Jones don’t stand for no nonsense from white folks! Ah pays mah fare, an’ Ah puts mah shoes where Ah please.” Meanwhile, Nancy Drew solved The Mystery at Lilac Inn by means of racial profiling: spotting a “dark-complexioned” girl at an upscale dress shop, Nancy notes: “Surely a girl in her circumstances cannot afford to buy dresses at such a place as this.”
Read the complete article at: The Guardian
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, which debuted in 1927 and 1930 respectively, were originally packed with unflattering portraits of ethnic villains, who were “swarthy”, “hook-nosed”, or “dark, and rather stupid looking”. In The Hardy Boys’ Hidden Harbor Mystery, the criminal exploits are executed by Luke Jones, a Black man who wears stolen diamond rings, speaks in a heavy dialect and refers to himself in the second person: “Luke Jones don’t stand for no nonsense from white folks! Ah pays mah fare, an’ Ah puts mah shoes where Ah please.” Meanwhile, Nancy Drew solved The Mystery at Lilac Inn by means of racial profiling: spotting a “dark-complexioned” girl at an upscale dress shop, Nancy notes: “Surely a girl in her circumstances cannot afford to buy dresses at such a place as this.” cutting racism cutting racism
A group of New York City students filed a sweeping lawsuit on Tuesday that accuses the United States’ largest public school system of perpetuating racism via a flawed admissions process for selective programs that favors white students.
The lawsuit in state court in Manhattan argues that a “rigged system” begins sorting children academically when they are as young as 4 years old, using criteria that disproportionately benefit more affluent, white students.
As a result, minority students are often denied an opportunity to gain access to more selective programs, from elementary to high school, and are instead relegated to failing schools that exacerbate existing inequities, the lawsuit contends.
The complaint asks a judge to order the school system to eliminate its current admissions screening process for intensely competitive selective programs, including gifted and talented programs and more academically rigorous middle and high schools.
Read the complete article at: Reuters
A group of New York City students filed a sweeping lawsuit on Tuesday that accuses the United States’ largest public school system of perpetuating racism via a flawed admissions process for selective programs that favors white students. The lawsuit in state court in Manhattan argues that a “rigged system” begins sorting children academically when they are as young as 4 years old, using criteria that disproportionately benefit more affluent, white students. As a result, minority students are often denied an opportunity to gain access to more selective programs, from elementary to high school, and are instead relegated to failing schools that exacerbate existing inequities, the lawsuit contends. The complaint asks a judge to order the school system to eliminate its current admissions screening process for intensely competitive selective programs, including gifted and talented programs and more academically rigorous middle and high schools. The complaint asks a judge to order the school system to eliminate its current admissions screening process for intensely competitive selective programs, including gifted and talented programs and more academically rigorous middle and high schools. perpetuates racism perpetuates racism
Activists and scholars across a breadth of disciplines gathered virtually for the fifth annual student-run Black Health Matters conference this weekend to discuss the effects of systemic racism on Black health.
The Harvard Undergraduate Black Health Advocates organized the two-day event, which featured a series of keynote addresses, panels, and workshops guided by speakers affiliated with Harvard and organizations around the country.
Abigail Joseph ’21, who served as conference co-president alongside Akosua F. O. Adubofour ’21, said the purpose of the conference was to look at Black health issues through an intersectional lens.
“It felt reductive to always talk about Black people as a monolith, so I wanted our conference to kind of dig into more of those differences and to tease them out health-wise,” she said.
Read the complete article at: The Harvard Crimson
Activists and scholars across a breadth of disciplines gathered virtually for the fifth annual student-run Black Health Matters conference this weekend to discuss the effects of systemic racism on Black health. The Harvard Undergraduate Black Health Advocates organized the two-day event, which featured a series of keynote addresses, panels, and workshops guided by speakers affiliated with Harvard and organizations around the country. Abigail Joseph ’21, who served as conference co-president alongside Akosua F. O. Adubofour ’21, said the purpose of the conference was to look at Black health issues through an intersectional lens. “It felt reductive to always talk about Black people as a monolith, so I wanted our conference to kind of dig into more of those differences and to tease them out health-wise,” she said. Abigail Joseph ’21, who served as conference co-president alongside Akosua F. O. Adubofour ’21, said the purpose of the conference was to look at Black health issues through an intersectional lens. “It felt reductive to always talk about Black people as a monolith, so I wanted our conference to kind of dig into more of those differences and to tease them out health-wise,” she said.
In the midst of a devastating COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged thousands of lives, we all witnessed this summer the surge of another pandemic — one fueled by a different virus that has mutated frequently throughout history, yet remains embedded in this country’s foundations: racism.
The police brutality documented over the summer and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests across the globe inspired many Princeton students to take action. Books such as ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ had wait times at the University’s eBook website stretching up to 10 weeks, and University administrators distributed an anti-racist reading list compiled by two students. Others, including the previous Editorial Board, began to interrogate and demand a reimagining of policing and public safety on our campus.
While there are certainly students and student groups still doing necessary work to address systemic racism on campus, the concerted energy and desire for change we witnessed over the summer have undoubtedly diminished. Nevertheless, the work to create a more racially just society both nationally and here at Princeton remains urgent and unfinished. Thus, as Black History Month comes to an end, this Board has a message for all University community members: let’s start at home.
Read the complete article at: The Daily Princetonian
