"We (still) charge genocide": A systematic review and synthesis of the direct and indirect health consequences of police violence in the United States.

Building on historical and contemporary efforts to eliminate police and other forms of state violence, and on the understanding that police violence is a social determinant of health, we conducted a systematic review in which we synthesize the existing literature around 1) racial disparities in police violence; 2) health impacts of direct exposure to police violence; and 3) health impacts of indirect exposure to police violence. We screened 336 studies and excluded 246, due to not meeting our inclusion criteria. Forty-eight additional studies were excluded during the full text review, resulting in a study sample size of 42 studies. Our review showed that Black people in the US are far more likely than white people to experience a range of forms of police violence: from fatal and nonfatal shootings, to assault and psychological violence. Exposure to police violence increases risk of multiple adverse health outcomes. Moreover, police violence may operate as a vicarious and ecological exposure, producing consequences beyond those directly assaulted. In order to successfully eliminate police violence, scholars must work in alignment with social justice movements.

Inequities in Anticipatory Stress of Police Brutality and Depressed Mood Among Women.

BACKGROUND: Police brutality towards racially minoritized populations is structural racism. Even though most of the research on the health impacts of police brutality centers the experiences of men, women are also harmed by this structural violence. OBJECTIVES: We identify factors associated with the anticipatory stress of police brutality among women and examine its relationship with depressed mood across ethno-racial categories. METHODS: Data came from the cross-sectional Survey of the Health of Urban Residents in the United States (N = 2796). Logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with odds of always worrying about the possibility of becoming a victim of police brutality and to examine its association with depression among Latinas, Black, and White women. RESULTS: Odds of always worrying about police brutality were greater among Black women and Latinas compared to White women. Household history of incarceration was associated with anticipation of police brutality among Black women and Latinas but not among White women. Black women and Latinas with constant anticipation of police brutality and history of incarceration of a household member during their childhood had elevated odds of depressed mood. CONCLUSION: Although police brutality harms all women, the stressful anticipation of police brutality does not burden all women equally. Structural racism in communities of color continues to be associated with the anticipatory stress of police brutality and it harms the mental health of women of color. Developing policies to eliminate structural racism and for the allocation of resources to persons who are strongly impacted by these injustices is important.

Hazards of Anti-Blackness in the United States.

On February 26, 2012, a Black child, Trayvon Martin, was executed in Sanford, Florida. Seventeen months later his killer was found not guilty. This is but one example of the state's brazen disregard for Black life, rooted in the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans more than 400 years ago, and the ways in which they and their descendants were systematically tortured. Trayvon Martin's murder catalyzed the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which names and resists deeply entrenched state violence and inequities against Black people in the U.S. In this manuscript we: (1) summarize examples of structural disregard for Black lives in the U.S.; (2) describe how this disregard is reflected in differential patterns of social inequities, morbidity, and mortality; and (3) discuss how we can better employ the BLM perspective to frame a more historicized understanding of patterns in population health and to envision ways to resist health inequities.

Exploring Discrimination and Mental Health Disparities Faced By Black Sexual Minority Women Using a Minority Stress Framework.

Black sexual minority women are triply marginalized due to their race, gender, and sexual orientation. We compared three dimensions of discrimination-frequency (regularity of occurrences), scope (number of types of discriminatory acts experienced), and number of bases (number of social statuses to which discrimination was attributed)-and self-reported mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and social well-being) between 64 Black sexual minority women and each of two groups sharing two of three marginalized statuses: (a) 67 White sexual minority women and (b) 67 Black sexual minority men. Black sexual minority women reported greater discrimination frequency, scope, and number of bases and poorer psychological and social well-being than White sexual minority women and more discrimination bases, a higher level of depressive symptoms, and poorer social well-being than Black sexual minority men. We then tested and contrasted dimensions of discrimination as mediators between social status (race or gender) and mental health outcomes. Discrimination frequency and scope mediated the association between race and mental health, with a stronger effect via frequency among sexual minority women. Number of discrimination bases mediated the association between gender and mental health among Black sexual minorities. Future research and clinical practice would benefit from considering Black sexual minority women's mental health in a multidimensional minority stress context.

Perceived discrimination and psychological well-being in the U.S.A. and South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: To explore levels of perceived racial and non-racial discrimination and their associations with self-esteem and mastery in the U.S.A. and South Africa. DESIGN: We used ordinary least square regressions to test the cross-sectional associations between discrimination and psychological resources using two national probability samples of adults: the National Survey of American Life and the South African Stress and Health Study. RESULTS: Levels of perceived racial discrimination were higher in the U.S.A. than in South Africa. In the U.S.A., both African-Americans and Caribbean blacks have comparable or higher levels of self-esteem and mastery than whites. In contrast, South African whites have higher levels of both self-esteem and mastery than Africans, Coloureds, and Indians. Perceived discrimination, especially chronic everyday discrimination, is inversely related to self-esteem and mastery in both societies. In South Africa, stress and socioeconomic status (SES) but not discrimination are important determinants of racial differences in self-esteem and mastery. CONCLUSIONS: In two racialized societies, perceived discrimination acts independent of demographic factors, general stressors, social desirability bias, racial identity, and SES, to negatively affect the psychological resources of self-esteem and mastery.

'Stuck in the quagmire of an HIV ghetto': the meaning of stigma in the lives of older black gay and bisexual men living with HIV in New York City.

In this paper, we analyse the life history narratives of 10 poor gay and bisexual Black men over the age of 50 living with HIV/AIDS in New York City, focusing on experiences of stigma. Three overarching themes are identified. First, participants described the ways in which stigma marks them as 'just one more body' within social and medical institutions, emphasising the dehumanisation they experience in these settings. Second, respondents described the process of 'knowing your place' within social hierarchies as a means through which they are rendered tolerable. Finally, interviewees described the dynamics of stigma as all-consuming, relegating them to the 'quagmire of an HIV ghetto'. These findings emphasise that despite advances in treatment and an aging population of persons living with HIV, entrenched social stigmas continue to endanger the well-being of Black men who have sex with men.

"We'd Be Free": Narratives of Life Without Homophobia, Racism, or Sexism.

Stigma and social inequality deprive disadvantaged social groups of a sense of social well-being. Stress researchers have focused on prejudice-related events and conditions but have not described more intangible stressors experienced by sexual minorities. We use narrative methods to examine how sexual minorities experience stigma and social inequality as we focus on the more intangible stressors that are both pervasive and difficult to measure. Three themes emerged in the narratives of our ethnically diverse sample of 57 adult sexual minority women and men: (a) stigma deprived them of access to critical possibilities and opportunities; (b) stigma deprives them of safety and acceptance; and (c) despite this, the experience of stigma is also related to the adoption of a positive and collective orientation towards their stigmatized identities. Recognizing these stressors and related resilience can direct policy makers toward interventions that go even beyond eliminating prejudice by including goals to strengthen minority communities.