Operationalizing racialized exposures in historical research on anti-Asian racism and health: a comparison of two methods.

Background: Addressing contemporary anti-Asian racism and its impacts on health requires understanding its historical roots, including discriminatory restrictions on immigration, citizenship, and land ownership. Archival secondary data such as historical census records provide opportunities to quantitatively analyze structural dynamics that affect the health of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans. Census data overcome weaknesses of other data sources, such as small sample size and aggregation of Asian subgroups. This article explores the strengths and limitations of early twentieth-century census data for understanding Asian Americans and structural racism. Methods: We used California census data from three decennial census spanning 1920-1940 to compare two criteria for identifying Asian Americans: census racial categories and Asian surname lists (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino) that have been validated in contemporary population data. This paper examines the sensitivity and specificity of surname classification compared to census-designated "color or race" at the population level. Results: Surname criteria were found to be highly specific, with each of the five surname lists having a specificity of over 99% for all three census years. The Chinese surname list had the highest sensitivity (ranging from 0.60-0.67 across census years), followed by the Indian (0.54-0.61) and Japanese (0.51-0.62) surname lists. Sensitivity was much lower for Korean (0.40-0.45) and Filipino (0.10-0.21) surnames. With the exception of Indian surnames, the sensitivity values of surname criteria were lower for the 1920-1940 census data than those reported for the 1990 census. The extent of the difference in sensitivity and trends across census years vary by subgroup. Discussion: Surname criteria may have lower sensitivity in detecting Asian subgroups in historical data as opposed to contemporary data as enumeration procedures for Asians have changed across time. We examine how the conflation of race, ethnicity, and nationality in the census could contribute to low sensitivity of surname classification compared to census-designated "color or race." These results can guide decisions when operationalizing race in the context of specific research questions, thus promoting historical quantitative study of Asian American experiences. Furthermore, these results stress the need to situate measures of race and racism in their specific historical context.

Dr. Janet E. Helms: Envisioning and creating a more humane psychological science, theory, and practice.

Dr. Janet E. Helms's use of psychological science to engage the field of psychology in radical progressive debates about race and identity is unprecedented. Her scholarship transformed prevailing paradigms in identity development theory and cognitive ability testing in psychology, to name a few. However, mainstream psychology often ignores, dismisses, and minimizes the importance of Dr. Helms's scientific contributions. Despite the numerous systemic barriers she encounters as a Black woman in psychology, Dr. Helms has persisted and made immeasurable contributions to the field and society. The intellectual gifts she has provided have shaped psychology for decades and will undoubtedly continue to do so for centuries to come. This article aims to provide an overview of Dr. Helms's lifetime contributions to psychology and the social sciences. To achieve this goal, we provide a brief narrative of Dr. Helms's life as a prelude to describing her foundational contributions to psychological science and practice in four domains, including (a) racial identity theories, (b) racially conscious and culturally responsive praxis, (c) womanist identity, and (d) racial biases in cognitive ability tests and measurement. The article concludes with a summary of Dr. Helms's legacy as an exceptional psychologist who offers the quintessential blueprint for envisioning and creating a more humane psychological science, theory, and practice anchored in liberation for all. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Novel methodologies using history to document the effects of African American sexual trauma: Perspectives of Gail E. Wyatt, PhD.

This article describes the nearly half a century career of Dr. Gail E. Wyatt, PhD, and her development of novel methodologies and measures of sexual trauma, specifically the Wyatt Sex History Questionnaire and the University of California, Los Angeles, Life Adversities Screener. These approaches broke the silence around experiences of sexual violence, particularly among African Americans, identifying their effects on sexual functioning and mental health. These novel methods are designed without assuming sexual literacy of respondents, knowledge of anatomy, or that discussing sex is easy or common; they include topics that are considered private and may evoke emotions. Trained professionals administering face-to-face interviews can serve to establish rapport and educate the participant or client while minimizing possible discomfort and shame around the disclosure of sexual practices. In this article, four topics are discussed focusing on African Americans, but they may also be relevant to other racial/ethnic groups: (a) breaking the silence about sex, (b) sexual harassment: its disclosure and effects in the workplace, (c) racial discrimination: identifying its effects as a form of trauma, and (d) the cultural relevance of promoting sexual health. Historical patterns of abuse and trauma can no longer be ignored but need to be better understood by psychologists and used to improve policy and treatment standards. Recommendations for advancing the field using novel methods are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Segregation was already hurting Black health 100 years ago.

Research links structural racism of 1900s U.S. society to striking disparities in childhood mortality.

Os impactos dos racismos nas ocupações da população negra: reflexões para a terapia e a ciência ocupacional / The impacts of racisms on the occupations of the Black population: reflections for occupational therapy and science

Resumo No Brasil, os racismos são estruturais e estruturantes, pois estão enraizados nos arcabouços das sociedades, nas relações interpessoais e nas instituições, atravessando as ocupações significativas dos sujeitos e coletivos. Isto explica as disparidades em diversos setores da sociedade brasileira, notadamente na empregabilidade das pessoas negras, bem como nos seus modos de adoecer e morrer. Entendendo o papel que os racismos desempenham nas ocupações das pessoas negras, este estudo propõe sistematizar observações que nos permitam compreender o fenômeno da produção de injustiças, com base em relações racializadas e, eventualmente, sugerir formas de enfrentamento dessa realidade. Desta forma, discutimos como os racismos foram instaurados no Brasil, reunindo elementos para a compreensão da ocupação humana e seus condicionantes. Em seguida, refletimos sobre os conceitos de justiça e injustiça ocupacional, que evidenciam os processos ocupacionais vivenciados pelas pessoas negras. Considerando que na terapia ocupacional e na ciência ocupacional brasileira ainda são incipientes os estudos que relacionam racismos e ocupação, apontamos algumas estratégias para reorientar as práticas profissionais de terapeutas ocupacionais, de modo a torná-las proativas e transformadoras.

Abstract In Brazil, the many forms of racisms are structural and structuring, since they are rooted deep within society, in interpersonal relationships, and in institutions, traversing significant occupations of subjects and collectives. This explains the disparities in various sectors of Brazilian society, notably in the employability of Black people, as well as in their forms of getting sick and dying. In understanding the role that racisms play in the occupations of Black people, this study proposes to systematize observations that allow us to understand the phenomenon of the production of injustices based on racialized relations and, eventually, suggest ways to confront this reality. Thus, we discuss how racisms were established in Brazil, gathering elements for the understanding of human occupation and its conditioning factors. We then reflect on the concepts of occupational justice and injustice, which bring light to the occupational processes experienced by Black people. Considering that, in occupational therapy and in Brazilian occupational science, studies relating racisms and occupation are still incipient, we point out some strategies to reorient occupational therapists, practices to make them proactive and transformative.

A Legacy of Scientific Racism: William Osler's "An Alabama Student".

William Osler's essay "An Alabama Student" made John Young Bassett (1804-1851) a widely admired avatar of idealism in medicine. However, Bassett fiercely attacked the idea that all humans are members of the same species (known as monogenesis) and asserted that Black inferiority was a justification for slavery. Antebellum physician-anthropologists bequeathed a legacy of scientific racism that in subtler forms still runs deep in American society, including in the field of medicine.

William A. Hinton (1883-1959): Diagnosing and Confronting Racism in the Medical Profession.

Racism impacts every aspect of medicine, including the careers and lives of Black physicians. The story of William Augustus Hinton (1883-1959), who invented the Hinton Test for syphilis before becoming the first African American full professor at Harvard University in 1949, offers an instructive perspective on the intersection of interpersonal and systemic racism, and personal determination, just over our historical horizon. Yet there are sobering and instructive lessons throughout this history. Hinton had to navigate prejudice throughout his career. Indeed, while there is much to be inspired by in the telling of Hinton's story, the forms of racism faced by Hinton and his contemporaries remain persisting features of academic medicine. This article focuses on encounters with racism that affect the course of medical careers and scientific innovation. Hinton's story holds important implications for many health professionals in the twenty-first century and provides unique insights into the history and impact of interpersonal and systemic racism alike in academic medicine.

Psychiatry's Dark Secrets: Black Lives Don't Matter.

There have been significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders; however, racial disparities continue to create inequity in mental health care. In this commentary, we explore mental health disparities disfavoring African Americans in the psychiatric literature. We discuss how discrimination over time has resulted in a difference of perception, misdiagnoses, and conflicts in patient care. The literature reviewed reveals a pattern wherein African Americans are more likely to be misdiagnosed for all types of mental illness compared with other ethnicities due to fallacies perpetuated throughout the history of African Americans. In addition, the aggregation of current information and research on the current COVID-19 pandemic will justify future research on the epidemic of police brutality and shootings of unarmed African Americans. If we address this issue, we will reduce medical mistrust and ultimately reduce racial health inequities.