by Darron T. Smith, Phd.
03/20/2014
"America eats its babies. No matter what y'all think about me, I'm still your child." -Tupac Shakur
Black children are presently under continual assault by well-maintained practices of white racial domination and exclusion, resulting in the marginalization of Africans and African Americans into adulthood.
Black children are under attack physically, psychologically, and emotionally from the classroom to the movie screen and everything in between. Black children are being unjustly singled out and tormented; while some are denigrated and crucified in the media, others are shot in cold blood for merely wearing a hoodie or listening to loud music.
The most recent psychological offense against a black child occurred when the Oscar-nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis was announced to play the lead role in the remake of the Broadway hit Annie. This time the popular character would be played by a young black actress, to the exasperation of many whites. Similar controversy has erupted over such fictional characters in Hollywood before.
From the backlash against the decision to cast the black actor Michael B. Jordan in the role of Johnny Storm in the new Fantastic Four movie to the white hysteria over casting Amandla Stenberg, a young black actress, as the character Rue in the first installment of The Hunger Games, white America regularly demonstrates its discomfort with the black presence in Hollywood and mass media in general.
Historically, black children were not exempt from white disenfranchisement, as they were anthropometrically measured and classified in the racist frameworks about the origins of humankind, which ranked persons in order of supposed "intelligence" and other imposed attributes, in much the way same as black adults.
Early images of and writings about black children referring to them as "pickaninnies," as they were once called, were well-established throughout the 19th and early 20th century and served to reinforce the psychology of white supremacy by reducing black children to caricatures and objects of amusement.
It is no surprise, then, that the mere mention of black folk visually, geographically, professionally or otherwise in historically white institutions constitutes a threat to the established order of things for those white people who cannot imagine life beyond their own personal sense of self despite the presumption of a shared democracy.
This is one reason that black youth are often portrayed as savages, animal-like menaces to society with a craving for mischief. Black children and other children of color, then, rarely find themselves in white media (film, TV) unless portrayed as less-than-productive members of society.
White children have abundant options and choices to see themselves broadly and positively represented in film, popular music, young-adult novels, and other forms of media created by people who look like them. In particular, young white girls have an increasing number of affirming characters to witness, such as Katniss Everdeen inThe Hunger Games and Beatrice Prior in the Divergent series (whose film adaptation is coming soon). But black children are not so fortunate.
A recent study by Nicole Martins and Kristen Harrison found that exposure to electronic media in long stretches can lower a child's self-esteem, especially if the child is a white girl, a black girl or a black boy. This is especially concerning given that black children watch about 10 more hours of television per week than any other group.
The amount of time exposed to the hegemonic forces of white media and its often-destructive content regarding black people and their children is toxic for their emotional health and physical well-being, as blacks are made to internalize the deleterious messages that they receive daily, reminding them that they do not matter much in the world. Being rendered visible yet invisible induces "psychic violence" on black youth, limiting their ability and capacity to dream of life beyond the confines of white racial stereotypes about their life chances.
As black children grow into adulthood, they become potential competitors with the white status quo for jobs and other resource-generating opportunities, making it easier to justify their exclusion through violent and repressive means.
The racist framing of black children by whites, blacks and others continues presently, informing school discipline policies that leave black youth vulnerable to the whims of the criminal justice system. Young black men are statistically more likely to be suspended from school than their white classmates, setting them up for a catastrophic cycle of inter-generational poverty, despondency, and a general lack of trust.
Guided by white racial knowledge and inheritance, many white teachers use what they have learned through inter-generational transmission of racist images, stories, conversations, and causal discourse about African Americans in society. If school teachers are white and come from predominately middle-class enclaves, as research suggests that they do, then it can be assumed that many have very little contact or sustained interaction with the black community.
Instead of operating from democratic impulses, they act from xenophobic inclinations, viewing black persons in enduringly hostile ways. It should be no surprise, then, that under these undemocratic and racist circumstances, black males are disciplined and harshly punished more for what they represent in the popular imagination than for what they actually do. It is no accident that African Americans (amongst other groups of color) occupy the lower rungs in society, given the legacy that white colonialism and oppression has had on the lives of black Americans over the last 350 years.
The frustration that most black Americans feel over everyday forms of racism can and often does cause emotional stress, anger and even self-hatred. We live in a racist society where black youth are routinely shamed by whites and other groups for their own inherited circumstances in life. Both Wallis and Stenberg are no strangers to racism, having been violently attacked through the media.
During the Oscars in February 2013, satirical news outlet The Onion sent out a controversial tweet referring to Wallis as a "cunt." Though this drew instant backlash and public ridicule, the very same public is now crazed over her recent casting in place of a redheaded, freckled-faced white girl to play a fictional character. Stenberg was called a "black bitch" and other horrifying epithets as an onslaught of fans expressed their regret for having cried over the death of what they later learned to be a black child.
Wounds like these are deeply etched in the collective memories of black people and have pernicious effects on health, which can linger for generations. The self-concept of black girls are uniformly shaped by what they glean from white U.S. media, which typically consists of debasing characterizations and unrealistic comparisons to white-female-normative standards of beauty and womanhood.
In contrast, black boys and young men of color are typically depicted as the thug, the gang banger, the token black person, the comic relief, the ladies' man, the athlete/dancer, the absentee father or, most damagingly, the violent and angry black man destined for a showdown with the criminal justice system.
America doesn't care about black youth (especially boys and young men of color, whom they fear). This is evident in the way schooling is unequally funded, pushing poor black and brown children out. The most nefarious of abuses to blacks occurs in public education, as they are deprived of the opportunity to be educated on their terms in ways that foster success, which begins with healthy racial identity development and positive affirmation that blackness matters.
White America has consistently put up the middle finger to black children through halfhearted policy measures that have done very little to alter the footprint of our nation's past as it pertains to black children.
To love black children means to embrace them as your own while recognizing their unique challenges through no fault of their own in a color-conscious society where racism remains foundational to the American experience.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
The Epigenetics of Being Black and Feeling Blue: Understanding African-American Vulnerability to Disease
by
Darron T. Smith, Ph.D.
Black Americans have endured many hardships ever since twenty Africans set foot in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. For 85% percent of our nation's existence, white-imposed systems of oppression via slavery and Jim Crow "separate but equal" were the bloody and violent norm.
Since that time, the persistence of racial discrimination has remained a routine part of their everyday experience. Black folk have worked very hard on a steady path of social mobility through group uplift and self-determination against overwhelming odds.
In this milieu of racist deprivation, some black Americans have managed to find economic, political and other forms of success against the hegemonic countervailing forces of white institutional racism and all of its permutations that thwart black life as we know it.
This systemic inequality has an impact on more than class position. It influences human biology and physiology at the cellular level, leaving the bodies of the poor, the impoverished, and the targeted more vulnerable to chronic disease.
Epigenetics is the science of how the external environment affects us at the molecular level by altering gene expression and function that can, in turn, be heritable. It refers to chemical modifications or "tags" that mark specific genes around the intricate DNA complex.
These modifications can alter gene expression influencing our biology and function. Think of a tag as a volume control knob that signals the gene to turn up or down its programmed function.
Our genes listen for cues from the environment such as the food we eat, the kind of milieus where we live and work, the circumstances of our birth, and the race and class-based interactions we share with one another. These factors, in part, determine how our genes respond in ways that expose more vulnerable populations to disease.
Human wars, famines, droughts, plagues, physical and emotional abuse, and other forms of social deprivation not only leave their mark on society in harmful ways, but they also reek havoc deep within the cells of our bodies. The cells react to stressors in the larger social structure at crucial developmental times in the womb that have an influence on human health later in adult life, leaving us more sensitive to our environment and susceptible to disease.
The longitudinal Dutch Famine Birth Cohort that began shortly after World War II in 1945 captures the complexity of environmental factors on our genes. The study analyzed the long-term physical and emotional effects in children who were exposed to maternal malnutrition in the fetal environment.
They found that poor nutrition leads to epigenetic changes in gene regulation of the fetus and its developing biological systems, which predisposes cells to certain diseases of slow accumulation that include obesity, kidney disease, lung problems, cardiac disease, breast cancer, and a host of additional physical and mental health disorders.
In epidemiology and other closely related social science disciplines, it has been well established that social-class position is inversely linked to poor health. Further, it is well known that health status follows a social gradient with class-based differences in disease frequencies that mirror society.African Americans are constantly relegated to the margins of society where there are continuously exposed to the mundane effects of white-imposed discrimination.
Within this space, many African Americans endure daily hassles and sustained assaults for just being black. These micro-aggressions can have negative health-related consequences for their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing by epigenetically-altering the expression of certain cells that control for important bodily functions.
Research over the last four decades has mounted strong evidence that race-based mistreatment on the basis of physical characteristics (i.e., hair, bone, lips, skin color, eye shape, etc.) takes a heavy toll on black people not only at the social, political and economic levels of society, but also at the physiological level where cortisol, the body's "fight or flight" hormone, is seen at elevated levels in African Americans. DNA and its sequencing is genetically programmed to perform functions of the body such as this very stress response.
However, biological processes that regulate these functions can be epigenetically altered to increase the physiological stress response in the body at a rate higher and longer than what is normal. This, in turn, can influence the normal function of a cluster of differing cells that regulate blood pressure, kidney function, and cardiac function. Scientists can now investigate these epigenetic modifications on cells induced by the environment such as in the Dutch famine example.
The science of epigenetics is unlocking significant clues as to how racial discrimination can induce changes to the expression of certain genes linked to biological development and the existence of disease. These epigenetic changes can linger for a lifetime and can potentially be transmitted to offspring.
Because black Americans and their forbears have endured over 20 generations of white-imposed race-related inequities in every major sector in society, including persistent race-based discrimination in housing, education, healthcare, jobs, and the prison industrial complex, they carry a higher burden of disease.
Health and disease are no longer purely infectious in nature, but instead, social and environmental factors account for most chronic disease. It is a function of the dynamic interaction between our genes and the larger society, and epigenetics is providing deeper understanding as to how our genes operate in these situations.
African Americans and their descendants have paid an exorbitantly high price for living in an unequal society in a number of reprehensible ways through the practice of forced labor, high incarceration rates, frequent under/unemployment and low educational expectation. And now, significant health care challenges are among the more salient forms of white on black discrimination.
In the absence of sweeping governmental reforms that place human rights over property rights, African Americans must take greater ownership in their own health care by becoming better informed on effective ways to reduce stress--to the extent possible given the maintenance of systems of domination and oppression--to have an impact upon the quality of black life.
Otherwise, these persistently elevated stress levels from chronic exposure to race-based discrimination have been shown to be physiologically and mentally bad for health and well-being, both at the individual and institutional levels of society. The result is epigenetic tags with harmful gene expressions.
Black Americans have endured many hardships ever since twenty Africans set foot in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. For 85% percent of our nation's existence, white-imposed systems of oppression via slavery and Jim Crow "separate but equal" were the bloody and violent norm.
Since that time, the persistence of racial discrimination has remained a routine part of their everyday experience. Black folk have worked very hard on a steady path of social mobility through group uplift and self-determination against overwhelming odds.
In this milieu of racist deprivation, some black Americans have managed to find economic, political and other forms of success against the hegemonic countervailing forces of white institutional racism and all of its permutations that thwart black life as we know it.
This systemic inequality has an impact on more than class position. It influences human biology and physiology at the cellular level, leaving the bodies of the poor, the impoverished, and the targeted more vulnerable to chronic disease.
Epigenetics is the science of how the external environment affects us at the molecular level by altering gene expression and function that can, in turn, be heritable. It refers to chemical modifications or "tags" that mark specific genes around the intricate DNA complex.
These modifications can alter gene expression influencing our biology and function. Think of a tag as a volume control knob that signals the gene to turn up or down its programmed function.
Our genes listen for cues from the environment such as the food we eat, the kind of milieus where we live and work, the circumstances of our birth, and the race and class-based interactions we share with one another. These factors, in part, determine how our genes respond in ways that expose more vulnerable populations to disease.
Human wars, famines, droughts, plagues, physical and emotional abuse, and other forms of social deprivation not only leave their mark on society in harmful ways, but they also reek havoc deep within the cells of our bodies. The cells react to stressors in the larger social structure at crucial developmental times in the womb that have an influence on human health later in adult life, leaving us more sensitive to our environment and susceptible to disease.
The longitudinal Dutch Famine Birth Cohort that began shortly after World War II in 1945 captures the complexity of environmental factors on our genes. The study analyzed the long-term physical and emotional effects in children who were exposed to maternal malnutrition in the fetal environment.
They found that poor nutrition leads to epigenetic changes in gene regulation of the fetus and its developing biological systems, which predisposes cells to certain diseases of slow accumulation that include obesity, kidney disease, lung problems, cardiac disease, breast cancer, and a host of additional physical and mental health disorders.
In epidemiology and other closely related social science disciplines, it has been well established that social-class position is inversely linked to poor health. Further, it is well known that health status follows a social gradient with class-based differences in disease frequencies that mirror society.African Americans are constantly relegated to the margins of society where there are continuously exposed to the mundane effects of white-imposed discrimination.
Within this space, many African Americans endure daily hassles and sustained assaults for just being black. These micro-aggressions can have negative health-related consequences for their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing by epigenetically-altering the expression of certain cells that control for important bodily functions.
Research over the last four decades has mounted strong evidence that race-based mistreatment on the basis of physical characteristics (i.e., hair, bone, lips, skin color, eye shape, etc.) takes a heavy toll on black people not only at the social, political and economic levels of society, but also at the physiological level where cortisol, the body's "fight or flight" hormone, is seen at elevated levels in African Americans. DNA and its sequencing is genetically programmed to perform functions of the body such as this very stress response.
However, biological processes that regulate these functions can be epigenetically altered to increase the physiological stress response in the body at a rate higher and longer than what is normal. This, in turn, can influence the normal function of a cluster of differing cells that regulate blood pressure, kidney function, and cardiac function. Scientists can now investigate these epigenetic modifications on cells induced by the environment such as in the Dutch famine example.
The science of epigenetics is unlocking significant clues as to how racial discrimination can induce changes to the expression of certain genes linked to biological development and the existence of disease. These epigenetic changes can linger for a lifetime and can potentially be transmitted to offspring.
Because black Americans and their forbears have endured over 20 generations of white-imposed race-related inequities in every major sector in society, including persistent race-based discrimination in housing, education, healthcare, jobs, and the prison industrial complex, they carry a higher burden of disease.
Health and disease are no longer purely infectious in nature, but instead, social and environmental factors account for most chronic disease. It is a function of the dynamic interaction between our genes and the larger society, and epigenetics is providing deeper understanding as to how our genes operate in these situations.
African Americans and their descendants have paid an exorbitantly high price for living in an unequal society in a number of reprehensible ways through the practice of forced labor, high incarceration rates, frequent under/unemployment and low educational expectation. And now, significant health care challenges are among the more salient forms of white on black discrimination.
In the absence of sweeping governmental reforms that place human rights over property rights, African Americans must take greater ownership in their own health care by becoming better informed on effective ways to reduce stress--to the extent possible given the maintenance of systems of domination and oppression--to have an impact upon the quality of black life.
Otherwise, these persistently elevated stress levels from chronic exposure to race-based discrimination have been shown to be physiologically and mentally bad for health and well-being, both at the individual and institutional levels of society. The result is epigenetic tags with harmful gene expressions.
Racism May Accelerate Aging in African-American Men
Date: January 7, 2014
Source: University of Maryland
A new study reveals
that racism may impact aging at the cellular level. Researchers found signs of
accelerated aging in African American men, ages reporting high levels of racial
discrimination and who had internalized anti-Black attitudes. Findings from the
study, which is the first to link racism-related factors and biological aging,
are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Racial disparities in
health are well-documented, with African Americans having shorter life
expectancy, and a greater likelihood of suffering from aging-related illnesses
at younger ages compared to Whites. Accelerated aging at the biological level
may be one mechanism linking racism and disease risk.
"We examined a
biomarker of systemic aging, known as leukocyte telomere length,"
explained Dr. David H. Chae, assistant professor of epidemiology at the
University of Maryland School of Public Health and the study's lead
investigator.
Shorter telomere length is associated with increased risk of
premature death and chronic disease such as diabetes, dementia, stroke and
heart disease. "We found that the African American men who experienced
greater racial discrimination and who displayed a stronger bias against their
own racial group had the shortest telomeres of those studied."
Telomeres are
repetitive sequences of DNA capping the ends of chromosomes, which shorten
progressively over time -- at a rate of approximately 50-100 base pairs
annually. Telomere length is variable, shortening more rapidly under conditions
of high psychosocial and physiological stress.
"Telomere length may be a
better indicator of biological age, which can give us insight into variations
in the cumulative 'wear and tear' of the organism net of chronological
age," said Chae. Among African American men with stronger anti-Black
attitudes, investigators found that average telomere length was 140 base pairs
shorter in those reporting high vs. low levels of racial discrimination; this
difference may equate to 1.4 to 2.8 years chronologically.
Participants in the
study were 92 African American men between 30-50 years of age. Investigators
asked them about their experiences of discrimination in different domains,
including work and housing, as well as in getting service at stores or
restaurants, from the police, and in other public settings. They also measured
racial bias using the Black-White Implicit Association Test. This test gauges
unconscious attitudes and beliefs about race groups that people may be unaware
of or unwilling to report.
Even after adjusting for
participants' chronological age, socioeconomic factors, and health-related
characteristics, investigators found that the combination of high racial
discrimination and anti-Black bias was associated with the shortest telomeres.
On the other hand, the data revealed that racial discrimination had little
relationship with telomere length among those holding pro-Black attitudes.
"African American men who have more positive views of their racial group
may be buffered from the negative impact of racial discrimination,"
explained Chae. "In contrast, those who have internalized an anti-Black
bias may be less able to cope with racist experiences, which may result in
greater stress and shorter telomeres."
The findings from
this study are timely in light of regular media reports of racism facing
African American men. "Stop-and-frisk policies, and other forms of
criminal profiling such as 'driving or shopping while Black' are inherently
stressful and have a real impact on the health of African Americans," said
Chae.
Researchers found that racial discrimination by police was most commonly
reported by participants in the study, followed by discrimination in
employment. In addition, African American men are more routinely treated with
less courtesy or respect, and experience other daily hassles related to racism.
Chae indicated the
need for additional research to replicate findings, including larger studies
that follow participants over time. "Despite the limitations of our study,
we contribute to a growing body of research showing that social toxins
disproportionately impacting African American men are harmful to health,"
Chae explained. "Our findings suggest that racism literally makes people
old."
Constant Race-based Discrimination can Lead to 'Racial Battle Fatigue' for African-Americans
Date: March 4, 2011
African Americans who reported in a survey that they experienced more instances of racial discrimination had significantly higher odds of suffering generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) sometime during their lives, according to Jose Soto, assistant professor, psychology.
Generalized anxiety disorder has both psychological and physical symptoms that are so severe that they can significantly affect everyday tasks and job performance. People with the disorder may have chronic worrying, intrusive thoughts and difficulty concentrating. Physically, the disorder may manifest such symptoms as tension headaches, extreme fatigue and ulcers. Some of these symptoms are associated with "racial battle fatigue," a term coined by William A. Smith, associate professor, University of Utah.
"The results of our study suggest that the notion of racial battle fatigue could be a very real phenomenon that might explain how individuals can go from the experience of racism to the experience of a serious mental health disorder," said Soto. "While the term is certainly not trying to say that the conditions are exactly what soldiers face on a battlefield, it borrows from the idea that stress is created in chronically unsafe or hostile environments."
The researchers, who reported their findings in the current issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, examined data from the National Survey of American Life, a study of 5,899 American adults. The study collected data on, among other topics, mental health and experiences of discrimination from 3,570 African Americans (60.5 percent of the total study population), 1,438 Afro-Caribbeans (24.4 percent) and 891 non-Hispanic Whites (15.1 percent).
Of the African Americans surveyed, more than 40 percent reported they experienced some form of racial discrimination, and approximately 4.5 percent reported suffering from GAD. About 39 percent of Afro-Caribbeans reported examples of racial discrimination, but only 2.69 percent had ever developed GAD.
The experience of racial discrimination, however, was not associated with GAD for Afro-Caribbeans. Soto, who worked with Nana Dawson, graduate student in psychology and Rhonda BeLue, assistant professor, health policy and administration, suggested that because Afro-Caribbeans have a different history from African Americans, they may both define and manage racial discrimination differently.
While non-Hispanic whites had higher rates of generalized anxiety disorder than both African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans, only 7.79 percent of non-Hispanic whites reported incidents of racial discrimination. Although experiences of racial discrimination among non-Hispanic whites were not associated with the development of GAD, experiencing other forms of discrimination, such as age and gender discrimination, was associated with the disorder.
"One interesting finding from the study is that non-racial discrimination seems to be associated with the development of GAD for all three groups in the sample," Soto said. "About 49 percent of non-Hispanic whites said they suffered other forms of discrimination." Soto said the connection between racism and severe anxiety underscores the negative impact that discrimination has on society.
"This is just one instance of how powerful social stressors can impact healthy functioning," Soto said. "And I would suspect, if we could wave a wand and eliminate racism from our past and our present, we would also eliminate a lot of health disparities."
Source: Penn State
Just as
the constant pressure soldiers face on the battlefield can follow them home in
the form of debilitating stress, African Americans who face chronic exposure to
racial discrimination may have an increased likelihood of suffering a
race-based battle fatigue, according to Penn State researchers.African Americans who reported in a survey that they experienced more instances of racial discrimination had significantly higher odds of suffering generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) sometime during their lives, according to Jose Soto, assistant professor, psychology.
Generalized anxiety disorder has both psychological and physical symptoms that are so severe that they can significantly affect everyday tasks and job performance. People with the disorder may have chronic worrying, intrusive thoughts and difficulty concentrating. Physically, the disorder may manifest such symptoms as tension headaches, extreme fatigue and ulcers. Some of these symptoms are associated with "racial battle fatigue," a term coined by William A. Smith, associate professor, University of Utah.
"The results of our study suggest that the notion of racial battle fatigue could be a very real phenomenon that might explain how individuals can go from the experience of racism to the experience of a serious mental health disorder," said Soto. "While the term is certainly not trying to say that the conditions are exactly what soldiers face on a battlefield, it borrows from the idea that stress is created in chronically unsafe or hostile environments."
The researchers, who reported their findings in the current issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, examined data from the National Survey of American Life, a study of 5,899 American adults. The study collected data on, among other topics, mental health and experiences of discrimination from 3,570 African Americans (60.5 percent of the total study population), 1,438 Afro-Caribbeans (24.4 percent) and 891 non-Hispanic Whites (15.1 percent).
Of the African Americans surveyed, more than 40 percent reported they experienced some form of racial discrimination, and approximately 4.5 percent reported suffering from GAD. About 39 percent of Afro-Caribbeans reported examples of racial discrimination, but only 2.69 percent had ever developed GAD.
The experience of racial discrimination, however, was not associated with GAD for Afro-Caribbeans. Soto, who worked with Nana Dawson, graduate student in psychology and Rhonda BeLue, assistant professor, health policy and administration, suggested that because Afro-Caribbeans have a different history from African Americans, they may both define and manage racial discrimination differently.
While non-Hispanic whites had higher rates of generalized anxiety disorder than both African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans, only 7.79 percent of non-Hispanic whites reported incidents of racial discrimination. Although experiences of racial discrimination among non-Hispanic whites were not associated with the development of GAD, experiencing other forms of discrimination, such as age and gender discrimination, was associated with the disorder.
"One interesting finding from the study is that non-racial discrimination seems to be associated with the development of GAD for all three groups in the sample," Soto said. "About 49 percent of non-Hispanic whites said they suffered other forms of discrimination." Soto said the connection between racism and severe anxiety underscores the negative impact that discrimination has on society.
"This is just one instance of how powerful social stressors can impact healthy functioning," Soto said. "And I would suspect, if we could wave a wand and eliminate racism from our past and our present, we would also eliminate a lot of health disparities."
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