african – Page 2

Why African Americans Need To Take The COVID-19 Vaccine – What’s Not Being Said

23Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Why African Americans Need To Take The COVID-19 Vaccine – What’s Not Being Said

Dr. Anthony Fauci and other national health leaders have said that African Americans need to take the COVID-19 vaccine to protect their health. What Fauci and others have not stated is that if African Americans don’t take the vaccine, the nation as whole will never get to herd immunity. The concept of herd immunity, also referred to as community immunity, is fairly simple. When a significant proportion of the population, or the herd, becomes immune from the virus, the entire population will have some acceptable degree of protection. Immunity can occur through natural immunity from personal infection and recovery, or through vaccination. Once a population reaches herd immunity, the likelihood of person-to-person spread becomes very low. The big lie is one of omission. Yes, it is true that...

Racism linked to cognitive decline in African American women

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Racism linked to cognitive decline in African American women

African Americans have higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than white Americans. Chronic stress, associated with cognitive impairment and reduced volume in the brain’s memory area, could be a culprit. But racism may be one of the ultimate causes. And for African American women, the problem may be particularly pernicious. We are epidemiologists at Boston University. Our work is focused on the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), a landmark investigation that has followed 59,000 African American women since 1995. Previous data from our study showed that racism experiences are associated with increased risks of premature birth, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, uterine fibroids, adult-onset asthma and insomnia. More recently, we wanted to see how racism might impact cognition in African...

African Americans have long defied white supremacy and celebrated Black culture in public spaces

12Aug

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LIFESTYLE

African Americans have long defied white supremacy and celebrated Black culture in public spaces

From Richmond to New York City to Seattle, anti-racist activists are getting results as Confederate monuments are coming down by the dozens. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters have changed the story of Lee Circle, home to a 130-year-old monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It’s now a new community space where graffiti, music and projected images turn the statue of Lee from a monument to white supremacy into a backdrop proclaiming that Black Lives Matter. This isn’t a new phenomenon. I’m a historian of celebrations and protests after the Civil War. And in my research, I have found that long before Confederate monuments occupied city squares, African Americans used those same public spaces to celebrate their history. But those African American memorial cultures have often been o...

African American teens face mental health crisis but are less likely than whites to get treatment

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

African American teens face mental health crisis but are less likely than whites to get treatment

Black youth in the U.S. experience more illness, poverty, and discrimination than their white counterparts. These issues put them at higher risk for depression and other mental health problems. Yet Black youth are less likely to seek treatment. About 9% of them reported an episode of major depression in the past year, but less than half of those – about 40% – received treatment. By comparison, about 46% of white youth who reported an episode were treated for depressive symptoms. Instead, some turn to suicide, now the second leading cause of death among Black children ages 10 to 19. That rate is rising faster for them than any other racial or ethnic group. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the rate of suicide attempts for Black adolescents rose 73% from 1991 to ...

How Racism Hinders Care And Costs Lives Of African Americans In US Health System

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

How Racism Hinders Care And Costs Lives Of African Americans In US Health System

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the U.S., the virus hit African Americans disproportionately hard. African Americans are still contracting the illness – and dying from it – at rates twice as high as would be expected based on their share of the population. In Michigan, African Americans are only 14% of the population, but account for one-third of the state’s COVID-19 cases and 40% of its deaths. In some states the disparities are even more stark. Wisconsin and Missouri have infection and mortality rates three or more times greater than expected based on their share of the population. Speculation has suggested these disproportions are due to several factors: African Americans are more likely to live in poor neighborhoods, work at riskier occupations, and have more underlying health...

8Jun

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Where are the African American leaders?

As protests rock the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, there is a notable absence in the national public discourse: African American community leaders. My scholarship in the discipline of black politics can explain why there aren’t any national African American leaders at this moment, filling roles like Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and others once did. In past eras, leaders of the African American community were instrumental in creating huge social and legal changes, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Sweeping changes were possible because black leaders were willing to call out problems before they became crises, and risk their lives and livelihoods to eleva...

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

4Apr

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

The mere act of growing up brings special challenges to young African Americans, particularly those living in rural areas. Resources there are often limited, compared to what’s offered in the city. There’s more chronic poverty and economic stress, and less of almost everything else: employment opportunities, public transportation, recreational facilities, families with discretionary income, and health care, both physical and mental. There are bright spots, however, as I’ve learned from over 20 years of research. One was the caregiving practices of many African American families. That nurturing has helped their children avoid major problems, including behaviors that place them at risk for HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. With that in mind, I developed the Strong African American Famili...

‘It don’t be like that now’ — the English history of African American English

14Feb

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LIFESTYLE

‘It don’t be like that now’ — the English history of African American English

After students at a California high school were recently told to “translate” Black English phrases into standard English, a community member at a school board hearing said: “The last thing they need — our children — is to be forced to attend class and to be mocked and bullied by students because of a lesson plan used to highlight African American Vernacular English.” Few dialects of English have garnered so much negative attention. From the classroom to the courtroom, the place of African American Vernacular English is hotly debated. This is because people associate it with linguistic features now denounced as grammatically incorrect, like “double negatives” or verbs that don’t agree with their subjects. For example: You might as well not tell them, ‘cause you ain’t getting no thanks fo...

African Americans take on more debt for grad school – but the payoff is also bigger

4Apr

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EDUCATION

African Americans take on more debt for grad school – but the payoff is also bigger

African Americans take on greater debt than whites to earn an advanced degree. Does the payoff make it worth it? When seeking graduate and professional degrees, African Americans take on over 50% more debt than white students. On the upside, African Americans also see a bigger payoff to earning such degrees. Whether or not that payoff is enough to make up for the additional debt burden is unclear. These are some key takeaways from a study we released in January 2020 in the journal Sociology of Education that examined graduate school debt. We are researchers who study issues of inequality and disadvantage in education. Our findings come at a time when there is an ongoing public debate about whether higher education is worth the cost. We believe these debates represent a paradox for Afric...

23Aug

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Journalism

Ghana: Homecoming for African Americans

African Americans find new home in Ghana - gateway of the brutal African slave trade to the US that began 400 years ago. The Cape Coast castle, built with local labour in the 17th century, is frequented by tourists [Edem Robby Abbeyquaye/Al Jazeera] Accra, Ghana - Afia Khalia Tweneboa Kodua, then a resident of Los Angeles, still remembers the day she left Ghana in 2011 on her first trip there. "I am not a public emotional person so I got to the airport and asked [myself]: 'what is this? Are those tears?" "It was clear something had awoken in me and ignited in me and I have to come back. My ancestors are telling me; I have to come back," she told Al Jazeera. And so in 2017, she left Los Angeles, California and moved permanently to Accra, Ghana's...