Tag: people

Mildly Depressed Or Simply Stressed, People Are Tapping ‘Therapy On The Go’ Apps For Mental Health Care
IN OTHER NEWS, TECHNOLOGY

Mildly Depressed Or Simply Stressed, People Are Tapping ‘Therapy On The Go’ Apps For Mental Health Care

It might be surprising to think about browsing for therapists and ordering up mental health care the way you can peruse a menu on Grubhub or summon a car on Lyft. But over the last decade, digital access to therapy has become increasingly common, in some cases replacing the traditional model of in-person weekly sessions between a therapist and client. Apps for mental health and wellness range from mood trackers, meditation tools and journals to therapy apps that match users to a licensed professional. My team’s research focuses on therapy apps that work by matching clients to a licensed professional. As a social work researcher, I am interested in understanding how these apps affect clients and practitioners. My research team has studied the care that app users receive. We have talked t...
Stopping White Supremacists From Killing People Of Color?
SOCIAL JUSTICE

Stopping White Supremacists From Killing People Of Color?

The nation is in shock over yet another mass shooting—this time targeting Black people. Ten African Americans, six women and four men, were massacred on May 14 at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Three other people were injured, one Black and two White, as the suspected shooter fired more than 50 rounds at shoppers and staff while livestreaming his attack. An 18-year-old White man was taken into custody unharmed, reportedly wearing military fatigues and body armor, after law enforcement allegedly talked him down from killing himself. As have many mass shooters before him, the gunman published a manifesto that espoused a fear that people of color are “replacing” White people, adding that he hoped his violence would spark a “race war.” Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson frequen...
Roe V. Wade – Online Data Could Be Used Against People Seeking Abortions
IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS

Roe V. Wade – Online Data Could Be Used Against People Seeking Abortions

When the draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, many of us who have been studying privacy for vulnerable individuals came to a troubling realization: The marginalized and vulnerable populations whose online risks have been the subject of our attention are likely to grow exponentially. These groups are poised to encompass all women of child-bearing age, regardless of how secure and how privileged they may have imagined themselves to be. In overturning Roe, the anticipated decision would not merely deprive women of reproductive control and physical agency as a matter of constitutional law, but it would also change their relationship with the online world. Anyone in a state where abortion becomes illegal who relies on the internet for infor...
Looking Through History May Help Explain Why People Of Color Have Been Missing In The Disability Rights Movement
IN OTHER NEWS

Looking Through History May Help Explain Why People Of Color Have Been Missing In The Disability Rights Movement

Jennifer Erkulwater is a professor of political science at the University of Richmond. Her scholarship focuses on the politics of poverty, Social Security and disability rights. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. Jennifer Erkulwater speaks on her research about people of color and the disability rights movement. What is your research focused on? Erkulwater: My current work involves trying to understand why people of color seem to be missing in debates about disability rights. People of color, especially African Americans, are more likely to report medical impairments than whites, and yet popular media tends to showcase largely white people with disabilities. It’s an absence that’s been critiqued on social media ...
One In Four People Regrets Having Tattoos – Can You Make It Go Away?
HEALTH & WELLNESS, TOP FOUR

One In Four People Regrets Having Tattoos – Can You Make It Go Away?

Almost half of people between 18 and 35 have tattoos, and almost one in four regrets it, according to a 2016 Harris Poll. Based on an estimate of about 60 million people in that age group, that would mean that about 7.5 million people have tattoo regret. As a primary care physician, I’ve noticed anecdotally that many of my younger patients have regrets about their tattoos. When I ask about them, many say that they got them when they were young, and at the time put little or no research into the decision. With no source (reliable or otherwise) of tattoo information to suggest to my patients, I began to investigate the topic myself. My goal was to write a quick reference for teens that reviewed the health and social issues they might encounter after getting a tattoo. What I found was myri...
Even If It Happened To Someone Who Is White – People Are More Likely To React To A Black Person’s Story Of Injustice
Journalism, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Even If It Happened To Someone Who Is White – People Are More Likely To React To A Black Person’s Story Of Injustice

People appear more willing to boycott a retailer in response to a video message about a consumer’s experience of injustice while shopping when the narrator is Black, even when the source of the actual information is from a white person, according to research I conducted with several colleagues that’s currently under peer review. We wanted to observe whether and how the race of the person telling a story of racial injustice affects the reaction of their audience. So we conducted three studies that manipulated details about the race of the storyteller and victim to isolate the role the storyteller’s race plays. In the first study, we recruited 370 white male participants using a crowdsourced academic research panel. We asked them to watch a video in which a professional male actor portrayi...
How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests
SOCIAL JUSTICE

How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests

Considered to be the largest social justice movement since the civil rights era of the 1960s, Black Lives Matter is more than the scores of street protests organized by the social justice group that attracted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across the world. From its early days in 2014 after Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown, Jr. to the protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black Lives Matter has opened the door for social change by expanding the way we think about the complicated issues that involve race. As sociologists who study how protests lay the groundwork for social change, we understand their necessity as a tactic to draw attention toward a movement’s broader agenda. In our study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ...
As Gender Discrimination And Racism Intersect Transgender People Of Color Face Unique Challenges
LGBTQ, TOP FOUR

As Gender Discrimination And Racism Intersect Transgender People Of Color Face Unique Challenges

Throughout history, transgender people of color have had a place of honor in many indigenous cultures around the world. This changed in many places, however, as European colonizers began forcing indigenous people to follow white social norms. These include anti-Blackness, Christianity and a gender binary that reduced gender to just man and woman. Colonizers presumed that being cisgender, or having a gender identity that is congruent with gender assigned at birth, was the only acceptable norm. For trans people who refused or were unable to conform, colonial societies often used racism and cissexism, or behaviors and beliefs that assume the inferiority of trans people, to invalidate their existence, limit their access to resources and threaten their well-being. For example, colonizers in s...
4 essential reads – How Poetry Can Help People Get Through Hard Times
BOOKS

4 essential reads – How Poetry Can Help People Get Through Hard Times

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian American writer Ilya Kaminsky’s poem “We Lived Happily During the War” went viral across social media. Poetry can often help people make sense of the world in difficult times. For World Poetry Day, The Conversation U.S. has gathered four articles on the power of poetry. 1. Poetry gives people a voice In 1991, Kentucky poet Frank X. Walker coined the term “Affrilachian” after attending a poetry reading that featured several Black Appalachian poets. Amy M. Alvarez, assistant teaching professor of English at West Virginia University, and Jameka Hartley, an instructor of gender and race studies at University of Alabama, wrote on the history of how Black people in Appalachia found their voice in poetry. “By coining the terms ‘Affrilachia’ and ‘Affrilach...
How Do You Live With Yourself: How Landlords Unfairly Control People’s Lives
LIFESTYLE, TOP FOUR

How Do You Live With Yourself: How Landlords Unfairly Control People’s Lives

The last 20 years have seen a boom in private renting. Approximately 4.6 million households in England, about 19% of all households, now rely on a private landlord for the roof over their head – and there are growing concerns over poor standards in the sector. In 2018, a quarter of privately rented houses failed to meet the decent homes standard, meaning that they have a serious hazard, are not in a suitable state of repair, do not have reasonably modern facilities or lack adequate heating. There is also growing evidence of the adverse effects renting and landlord practice can have on tenants’ wellbeing. Research has shown that private renting can cause renters anxiety due to a lack of security and control over their home. With this in mind, we examine five ways that landlords can exerci...