#racialdisparities — Public Fediverse posts

DATE: October 9, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Childhood ADHD diagnosis linked to lower adult religious attendance

URL: https://www.psypost.org/childhood-adhd-diagnosis-linked-to-lower-adult-religious-attendance/

A childhood diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is linked to lower religious service attendance in adulthood, though it does not appear to diminish private religious practices like prayer. The decline in public religious participation is especially pronounced among Black and Asian American adults. The research was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, and impulse regulation. These traits frequently extend well beyond childhood, affecting educational attainment, physical health, and social relationships into adulthood. One area of social life that researchers have rarely examined in relation to ADHD is religious participation. Religious communities often provide emotional support, coping resources, and a sense of belonging for individuals and families.

Sociologists Laura Upenieks and Samuel H. Fishman of Baylor University conducted the study to better understand how neurodiversity shapes lifelong religious engagement. A person with ADHD might struggle with behavioral inhibition, emotional regulation, and working memory. These constraints can make following a structured liturgy or sitting through long sermons physically and mentally exhausting. When people repeatedly fail to meet these behavioral expectations, they might feel excluded or judged, prompting them to permanently disengage from public worship.

To explore these dynamics, Upenieks and Fishman analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This large, nationally representative study tracked participants from their teenage years in the mid-1990s into early midlife, between 2016 and 2018. The final sample included 9,785 adults from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The researchers categorized participants based on whether they had been diagnosed with ADHD before age 18, after age 18, or never. They then looked at three different measures of adult religiosity: how often participants attended religious services, how often they prayed, and how important they considered religion to be in their daily lives.

The researchers built statistical models to assess the relationship between an ADHD diagnosis and later religious service attendance. They adjusted their models to account for childhood demographics, family structure, early-life health indicators like depression, and the participants’ religious habits as teenagers. They found that an ADHD diagnosis before age 18 was consistently associated with approximately 50 percent lower odds of regularly attending services in early midlife. A diagnosis received in adulthood did not show the same association.

Next, the researchers examined private religious practices and beliefs. In initial models, individuals with a childhood diagnosis appeared less likely to pray frequently or view religion as highly important, but these associations disappeared once researchers adjusted for demographic backgrounds and adolescent religious involvement. This suggests that ADHD primarily disrupts the behavioral capacity to participate in socially structured religious settings, rather than diminishing personal spiritual commitments. Private practices like solitary prayer allow for personal control and flexibility without the interpersonal pressures required in congregational settings.

The researchers also investigated whether the relationship between ADHD and religious attendance varied across racial and ethnic lines. They built an additional model that allowed the influence of an ADHD diagnosis to interact with a participant’s race or ethnicity. They found that the decline in attendance was substantially larger for Black and Asian American adults than for White adults. Black participants diagnosed with ADHD in childhood had 78 percent lower odds of attending services weekly compared to White participants without an ADHD diagnosis. Asian American adults with a childhood diagnosis exhibited 90 percent lower odds of weekly attendance.

These outcomes might be shaped by differing congregational norms and structural inequalities. Black congregations often host much longer worship services than other religious groups, which may place higher demands on sustained attention and make regular attendance more difficult. Meanwhile, many Asian American religious traditions place a strong cultural emphasis on discipline and interdependence, which can make behavioral nonconformity stand out and increase feelings of alienation. Structural inequalities in healthcare also mean that Black and Asian American children are often under-diagnosed or face punitive disciplinary measures rather than medical treatment for behavioral struggles.

An early ADHD diagnosis serves as a marker for the presence of sustained symptoms and institutional labeling, rather than acting as a direct cause of religious disengagement. Because the study relied on self-reported diagnoses, some individuals who experienced ADHD symptoms but lacked access to a formal medical evaluation might have been grouped with those who never had the condition.

This is especially relevant for women, who are historically under-diagnosed because their symptoms often present as internal inattentiveness rather than disruptive hyperactivity. The reliance on a binary formal diagnosis means the researchers could not measure the exact severity of the ADHD traits or determine if hyperactivity and inattentiveness affect religious behavior differently.

Additionally, the study’s measures of religion primarily capture Christian traditions, which heavily dominate the United States religious landscape. The survey aggregates many non-Christian traditions into a single “other religion” category, masking important differences in worship styles and cultural expectations. Future studies will need to examine whether specific religious traditions with varied community norms might be more accommodating to neurodiverse individuals. As ADHD diagnoses continue to rise, religious institutions may need to consider offering sensory-friendly spaces, shorter service options, and more flexible expectations to support all members of their communities.

The study, “Paths of Faith and Focus? ADHD, Adult Religiosity, and Moderation by Race in the Add Health Study,” was authored by Laura Upenieks and Samuel H. Fishman.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/childhood-adhd-diagnosis-linked-to-lower-adult-religious-attendance/

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The Clancy-Sanders Trials: Same Judge, Same Charge, Same Defense, Different Verdicts

Table of Contents

1. The Mirror of Plymouth County
2. The Physical Reality: Cell Block vs. Treatment Ward
3. The Clinical Patient vs. The Pop-Culture Monster
4. Anticipating the Detractors: Why They Would Say There Was No Bias
5. The Constitutional Myth of the “Peer”
6. The Intent Trap and the Fiction of Colorblindness
7. The Broader Horizon: Colorblindness as a Weapon
8. Glossary of Legal and Sociological Terms
9. Bibliography and Legal Authorities

The Mirror of Plymouth County

There are rare moments in American jurisprudence when the curtain drops completely, exposing the enduring racial double standard that Black Americans have navigated since the founding of this republic. We are often told that the disparities in our courts are the product of differing criminal records, varying levels of violence, or mismatched statutes. But every so often, two cases arise from the exact same soil, under the exact same law, before the exact same judge, presenting a factual mirror so clearly that the legal system’s procedural excuses collapse under their own weight.

The trials of Latarsha Sanders and Lindsay Clancy are that mirror[cite: 1].

Consider the striking baseline of both cases:

• Both matters involved mothers taking the lives of their young children inside the family residence during an acute psychiatric crisis[cite: 1].
• Both women suffered from severe, debilitating conditions characterized by active psychosis and a documented detachment from reality[cite: 1].
• Neither case involved financial gain, domestic retaliation, or spite directed toward the children[cite: 1].
• In neither trial was identity or the physical act contested; both defense teams conceded the underlying acts occurred[cite: 1].
• The sole disputed issue before both juries was criminal responsibility under Massachusetts’ foundational standard, Commonwealth v. McHoul[cite: 1]. Under this rule, once mental defect is raised, the Commonwealth bears the strict burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant possessed substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or conform her actions to the law.
• Both cases were prosecuted by the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office under identical charges of first-degree murder alleging deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity[cite: 1].
• Both juries were drawn from the broader county venire of Plymouth County[cite: 1].
• Both trials were presided over in the exact same courtroom by the exact same jurist: Judge William F. Sullivan[cite: 1].

Yet the outcomes were vastly different[cite: 1].

In December 2022, Latarsha Sanders—a low-income Black mother from Brockton—was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by an all-white jury that deliberated for barely four hours[cite: 1]. Judge Sullivan sentenced her to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole[cite: 1]. She spent years in maximum-security confinement before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) stepped in on August 6, 2026, unanimously vacating her convictions and remanding the case for a new trial[cite: 1].

In September 2026, Lindsay Clancy—a white, middle-class labor-and-delivery nurse from suburban Duxbury—stood trial in that same courtroom[cite: 1]. Her proceedings ended in a dramatic mistrial after seven days of agonizing deliberations[cite: 1]. Eleven jurors voted to find her not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility due to postpartum psychosis[cite: 1]. The lone holdout refusing to join that consensus was the only Black person on the panel: a young man in his thirties[cite: 1]. Clancy avoided a murder conviction and remains in medical custody pending retrial hearings or a civil disposition[cite: 1].

The Physical Reality: Cell Block vs. Treatment Ward

Strip away the legal briefs, the courtroom motions, and the procedural jargon, and look at the physical reality of where these two women sit today:

Latarsha Sanders has spent eight years and eight months locked inside a state prison—four of them under the shadow of dying behind bars on a conviction Massachusetts’ highest court ruled was fundamentally tainted[cite: 1]. Lindsay Clancy is currently residing at Tewksbury Hospital, a state-run psychiatric and medical treatment facility in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, receiving specialized inpatient therapeutic care while the state weighs whether it can even retry her. One mother was treated as a clinical patient whose tragedy belonged in a treatment ward; the other was treated as a disposable criminal whose severe illness belonged in a cell block[cite: 1].

Why did two cases with near-identical legal parameters end in such radically different institutions[cite: 1]? The answer lies in the discretionary choices made inside the courtroom and the stark contrast between an unchecked, homogenous jury and one interrupted by a single dissenting voice[cite: 1].

The Clinical Patient vs. The Pop-Culture Monster

The divergent paths of these two mothers were paved by evidentiary rulings[cite: 1]. In Clancy’s trial, the courtroom was flooded with clinical empathy[cite: 1]. The jury heard comprehensive testimony detailing her medical history: outpatient treatment for postpartum depression, prescription drug regimens, consultations with psychiatrists, and post-arrest evaluations charting her psychotic collapse[cite: 1]. The medical narrative was the center of gravity[cite: 1].

In Sanders’ trial, Judge Sullivan slammed that evidentiary door shut[cite: 1]. The court barred her defense from introducing thousands of pages of psychiatric evaluations and hospital records compiled after her arrest while she was confined at Worcester Recovery Center and Framingham MCI[cite: 1]. Sullivan ruled that post-offense records did not directly prove her mental state at the exact moment of the tragedy[cite: 1]. He dictated that the defense could only reference those diagnoses if the prosecution “opened the door” during cross-examination—a tactical invitation the prosecutor pointedly declined[cite: 1].

Stripped of her medical records, Sanders was left legally defenseless[cite: 1]. The prosecution filled that manufactured vacuum with sensational fiction[cite: 1]. In closing arguments, prosecutors pointed to the fact that an episode of Law & Order: SVU happened to be playing on a television when police arrived, arguing to the jury that Sanders had drawn inspiration from fictional plots involving voodoo and ritual sacrifice[cite: 1]. There was no evidence she had watched the broadcast or modeled her conduct after it[cite: 1]. The state’s highest court later ruled that this argument was improper, speculative, and unsupported by the record, explicitly finding that excluding her records had stripped her defense of its medical foundation[cite: 1].

When a white mother suffers a psychotic breakdown, the justice system treats her as a patient failed by healthcare infrastructure[cite: 1]. When a Black mother suffers an identical breakdown, the system withholds her medical records and recasts her as a calculating, pop-culture monster[cite: 1].

Anticipating the Detractors: Why They Would Say There Was No Bias

Legal traditionalists or discrimination apologists will immediately reach for technical defenses to explain away this contrast.

First, detractors will argue that Clancy possessed pre-existing, contemporary medical records, whereas Sanders’ records were generated post-arrest during years of competency evaluations[cite: 1]. They will argue that Judge Sullivan’s ruling was based on “temporal relevance,” not racial bias.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court answered that argument directly on August 6, 2026[cite: 1]. The SJC explicitly held that schizophrenia spectrum disorders do not emerge overnight[cite: 1]. These records, collected continuously over a long period of time, generated post-arrest, are critical evidence of chronic illness, indispensable for evaluating criminal responsibility under McHoul[cite: 1]. Moreover, post-arrest evaluations were admitted and weighed extensively in Clancy’s case[cite: 1]. The question remains: why did the court apply a hyper-restrictive view of relevance to a low-income Black mother, while applying an expansive, humane lens to a white suburban one[cite: 1]?

Second, critics will point to the calendar. Sanders went to trial in December 2022; the SJC issued its reversal on August 6, 2026, while the Clancy trial was actively underway[cite: 1]. Detractors will claim Sullivan was merely obeying the SJC, applying a new mandate from above, not offering suburban favoritism.

We must examine the human cost of that learning curve[cite: 1]. Why is it that a low-income Black mother has to spend nearly nine years behind prison walls to serve as the system’s constitutional guinea pig, while a white suburban defendant received the benefit of that SJC correction in real time[cite: 1]? The mechanism may appear procedural on paper, but its human impact is undeniably stratified by race and class[cite: 1].

Third, defenders of the system will weaponize the Clancy mistrial itself[cite: 1]. They will argue that because Clancy was not acquitted outright, the 11–1 deadlock disproves racial bias[cite: 1]. “The lone Black juror held out for conviction,” they will argue, “proving that the system allows rigorous dissent.”

This claim misunderstands the mechanics of deliberation[cite: 1]. The Clancy jury deliberated for seven days precisely because a non-majority peer was in the room to question the consensus and demand strict accountability[cite: 1]. In Sanders’ case, there was no such peer[cite: 1]. An all-white jury accepted the state’s narrative in four hours[cite: 1]. The presence of a single Black juror in Clancy did not prove the system is free of bias; it proved that demographic diversity is the only thing that prevents reflexive assumptions from executing swift, uncritical verdicts[cite: 1].

The Constitutional Myth of the “Peer”

The Sixth Amendment promises every accused citizen an impartial jury of their peers. Yet American jurisprudence has hollowed out the word “peer” until it means nothing more than random geographic selection.

In Taylor v. Louisiana (1975), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution requires the juror pool (the venire) to represent a fair cross-section of the community but explicitly rejected the requirement that the final twelve-person jury in the box reflect that cross-section. Under the banner of Equal Protection, courts have ruled that actively ensuring racial representation on a jury constitutes unconstitutional “racial balancing.” The defense cannot demand a peer; it can only raise reactive objections under Batson v. Kentucky if a prosecutor overtly strikes a juror for discriminatory reasons.

This framework creates an institutional failure in places like Plymouth County. Brockton is a diverse, working-class, majority-minority city. Yet county-wide venires pull predominantly from affluent, white South Shore suburbs. The result is structural dilution: urban Black defendants are routinely tried by suburban, all-white juries who share none of their lived experiences, cultural realities, or perspectives on community health[cite: 1].

A homogenous jury confirms its assumptions rapidly. Without an outsider’s voice to ask, “Why aren’t we seeing her hospital charts? Where is her medical foundation?”, Sanders was convicted between lunch and dinner[cite: 1]. In contrast, eleven white jurors in the Clancy trial immediately identified with the defendant—a professional mother residing in a pastoral suburb[cite: 1]. They saw themselves in her[cite: 1]. It took a lone Black juror, standing firm for a full week, to interrupt that domestic empathy and force the room to grapple with statutory law[cite: 1].

Representation in the jury box should not be a game of geographic roulette left to chance. If the state possesses the power to strip a citizen of their liberty for life, the obligation to provide an authentic jury of peers must be an affirmative, structural guarantee.

The Intent Trap and the Fiction of Colorblindness

Detractors will inevitably demand: “Where is the proof of racial bias? Did Judge Sullivan or the prosecutors express racial animus?”

This demand for “proof of intent” is the single greatest barrier to civil rights accountability in modern America. Under doctrines like Washington v. Davis (1976) and McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), the Supreme Court constructed an intentional trap: disparate outcomes do not matter unless a Black claimant can uncover subjective malice inside an official’s mind.

Institutional bias does not announce itself with overt hostility. It operates through the selective application of discretion:

• Discretion decides whether an unrepresented mother’s psychiatric records are “irrelevant post-arrest paperwork” or “vital medical context”[cite: 1].
• Discretion decides whether a mother’s tragic collapse is framed around clinical empathy or sensationalized SVU storylines[cite: 1].
• Discretion decides whether an accused woman sits in a secure psychiatric hospital room at Tewksbury or inside a state penitentiary[cite: 1].

By demanding subjective proof of malice while ignoring objective disparities in discretion, the justice system retreats behind the veil of “colorblindness.” In doing so, it protects inequality from legal challenge.

The Broader Horizon: Colorblindness as a Weapon

This dynamic extends far beyond the borders of Plymouth County[cite: 1]. Across American civic life, the doctrine of colorblindness has been weaponized into an offensive tool to dismantle the civil rights protections won during Reconstruction and the 1960s:

1. The Inversion of the 14th Amendment: The Reconstruction Amendments were race-conscious measures designed specifically to protect newly freed Black Americans from white-dominated state power. Today, conservative legal doctrine has inverted the Equal Protection Clause, using it to bar the state from ever considering race to remedy historic wrongs.
2. Redistricting and the Louisiana Trap: In litigation over Louisiana’s congressional maps (Louisiana v. Callais), Black voters demonstrated under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that their voting power was unconstitutionally diluted. Yet the moment a second majority-Black district was drawn to fix the violation, opponents challenged it under the Fourteenth Amendment as an unconstitutional “racial gerrymander.” The state was placed in a manufactured Catch-22: address systemic dilution and face an Equal Protection lawsuit or remain “colorblind” and preserve white political power.
3. The Assault on the Civil Rights Act: Titles VI and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were passed to break structural barriers in employment and public life. Today, those exact provisions are invoked by executive actions and conservative litigators to outlaw corporate DEI initiatives, racial disparity audits, and targeted grants, manufacturing a false symmetry between racial oppression and proactive correction.
4. The Attack on Citizenship: Even the fundamental guarantee of birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment is facing ideological challenges, as opponents attempt to discard the simple rule of birthright citizenship on American soil and replace it with unequal classes of citizens.

The common thread connecting the Plymouth County courthouse to federal appellate dockets is the deliberate denial of context[cite: 1].

A legal system that claims to be “blind” to race in a nation built upon racial stratification is not impartial; it is complicit. Colorblindness allows an all-white jury to condemn a mentally ill Black mother to state prison in four hours after her medical records are suppressed, while a white mother receives clinical nuance, national advocacy, and treatment at a hospital facility[cite: 1]. It allows mapmakers to disenfranchise Black voters under the banner of neutrality. It transforms the constitutional amendments written for Black freedom into instruments that protect white institutional privilege.

Until our courts abandon the fiction of colorblind neutrality and acknowledge that discretion without accountability is the engine of disparity, the promise of equal justice under law will remain what it was for Latarsha Sanders: a right denied in silence[cite: 1].

Glossary of Legal and Sociological Terms

• Actus Reus: The objective, physical act or conduct that constitutes the external element of a crime, separate from the mental state (mens rea).
• Batson Challenge (Batson v. Kentucky): An objection made during jury selection asserting that the opposing party used a peremptory strike to exclude a potential juror on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex.
• Colorblind Jurisprudence: A judicial philosophy holding that the Constitution prohibits any governmental consideration of race, treating race-conscious remedial policies designed to combat discrimination the same as race-conscious policies designed to oppress.
• Criminal Responsibility (McHoul Standard): The Massachusetts legal test for the insanity defense derived from Commonwealth v. McHoul (1967). A defendant is not criminally responsible if, as a result of a mental disease or defect, she lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law.
• Discretionary Inequity: The systemic disparity that occurs when judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement exercise lawful decision-making latitude in ways that consistently benefit privileged demographics while penalizing marginalized groups.
• Intent Doctrine: The constitutional barrier established by Washington v. Davis requiring plaintiffs challenging racial disparities under the Fourteenth Amendment to prove subjective, deliberate discriminatory purpose by state actors, rather than merely demonstrating disparate discriminatory impact.
• M.G.L. c. 233, § 79: The Massachusetts statutory hearsay exception governing the admissibility of hospital and medical facility records in judicial proceedings to establish medical history, diagnosis, and treatment.
• Structural Dilution: The diminishing of minority demographic influence that occurs when jury venires or voting districts are drawn across expansive, predominantly white regional jurisdictions, submerging urban, minority populations into conservative, suburban majorities.
• Temporal Relevance: An evidentiary doctrine evaluating whether evidence relates closely enough in time to the events at issue to have probative value regarding a party’s mental state or actions at that exact moment.
• Venire: The broad pool or panel of citizens summoned for jury duty from which the individual petit jury of twelve deliberators is ultimately selected.
• Vicinage: The geographic jurisdiction, county, or district from which a jury is drawn and where a crime is alleged to have been committed.

Bibliography and Legal Authorities

Judicial Opinions and Precedents

• Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986). U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that the Equal Protection Clause forbids prosecutors from challenging prospective jurors solely on account of their race.
• Commonwealth v. Clancy, Plymouth Superior Court (2026). Trial proceedings regarding maternal filicide, criminal responsibility under McHoul, postpartum psychosis, and jury deadlock.
• Commonwealth v. Kostka, 370 Mass. 516 (1976). SJC precedent establishing that once a defendant introduces evidence of mental disease or defect, the prosecution bears the burden of proving sanity beyond a reasonable doubt.
• Commonwealth v. McHoul, 352 Mass. 544 (1967). Seminal Massachusetts decision adopting the Model Penal Code standard governing lack of criminal responsibility due to mental disease or defect.
• Commonwealth v. Sanders, SJC-13552 (Mass. Aug. 6, 2026). Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision vacating two first-degree murder convictions due to the prejudicial exclusion of post-arrest psychiatric records and improper prosecutorial closing argument.
• Commonwealth v. Soares, 377 Mass. 461 (1979). Massachusetts state constitutional counterpart to Batson, prohibiting the use of peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors based on group bias.
• Louisiana v. Callais, 603 U.S. ___ (2024). Federal voting rights litigation examining the conflict between Section 2 remedial compliance under the Voting Rights Act and Equal Protection challenges alleging racial gerrymandering.
• McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987). U.S. Supreme Court ruling holding that complex statistical evidence showing systemic racial disparities in capital sentencing is insufficient to establish an Equal Protection violation without proof of specific, purposeful discriminatory intent.
• Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975). U.S. Supreme Court precedent holding that the Sixth Amendment requires jury venires to be selected from a fair cross-section of the community, while excluding petit juries from mandatory proportional representation.
• Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976). U.S. Supreme Court landmark ruling establishing that disproportionate racial impact alone does not establish unconstitutional discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause without proof of discriminatory purpose.

Statutory and Constitutional Authorities

• U.S. Const. amend. VI. Right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.
• U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Citizenship Clause and Equal Protection Clause guaranteeing birthright citizenship and equal protection of the laws.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (Titles VI & VII). Prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in federally assisted programs and employment.
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 123, § 16. Statutory procedure governing hospitalization, evaluation, and civil commitment of criminal defendants found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
• Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 233, § 79. Statutory rule governing the admissibility of hospital, medical, and clinical records as evidence in court proceedings.

https://www.europesays.com/people/211098/ NYC’s first racial equity plan sets new framework for future budget decisions #AfuaAttaMensah #CityBudget #CommissionOnRacialEquity #dei #DiversityEquityAndInclusion #EquityBudgetReview #Mayoru2019sOfficeOfEquityAndRacialJustice #NewYorkCityBudget #NycCharter #NycGovernment #RacialDisparities #RacialEquity #RacialEquityPlan #ZohranMamdani

California Report Details Stark Violence Disparities for Black, Multiracial Women

A California study from 2005-2022 shows Black women under 65 are 3.8 times more likely to be injured by assault than white women. Multiracial women over 65 also face high risks.

#CaliforniaViolence, #WomensHealth, #RacialDisparities, #AssaultAwareness, #PublicHealth

https://newsletter.tf/california-violence-disparities-black-multiracial-women/

New California data shows Black women under 65 are 3.8 times more likely to suffer assault injuries compared to white women. This is a significant increase in risk.

#CaliforniaViolence, #WomensHealth, #RacialDisparities, #AssaultAwareness, #PublicHealth
https://newsletter.tf/california-violence-disparities-black-multiracial-women/

https://www.europesays.com/people/23714/ NYC mayor cites $180K racial wealth gap to justify taxes, police cuts #DiversityInitiatives #MayorOfNewYork #NewYork #NewYorkCity #queens #RacialDisparities #RacialEquity #WealthDisparities #ZohranMamdani

https://www.europesays.com/people/14141/ Mamdani unveils new ‘racial equity plan’ for more ‘equitable future’ that prompts quick DOJ pushback #AffordabilityCrisis #DonaldTrump #EquityPlan #JusticeDepartment #NewYorkCity #RacialDisparities #RacialEquity #RacialEquityPlan #RacialInequity #ZohranMamdani

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https://www.europesays.com/africa/153236/ Ghana’s Bold Move: UN Resolution on Transatlantic Slavery #AfricanUnion #ColonialPowers #Ghana #HistoricalInjustices #PoliticalWeight #RacialDisparities #reparations #SamuelAblakwa #TransatlanticSlavery #UNResolution

Did you know that chronic health conditions like diabetes affect different populations in unique ways? For example, American Indians have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes than other groups, and even modest weight gain can put them at high risk. Let's work to address these disparities!
Watch full episode at https://shorturl.at/DU00O
#HealthEquity #DiabetesAwareness #RacialDisparities

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#Coincidence or #Conspiracy ?

Black women lost 319,000 jobs in #USA
since #DJT took office, while #WhiteMen saw the largest hiring increase — 365,000 newly acquired jobs.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010334838/why-black-women-are-seeing-job-losses.html?smid=url-share #USA #JobLosses #RacialDisparities #NyTimes #Equiity #Employment

Noticing something about this article. Compare

Group 1-------------

"We need race info to save lives"
-- Director of public health association

"Nobody can act responsibly when we erase past and present injustices"
-- Medical historian, org about ethics, history, & public health

Group 2 -------------

"No DEI-related words allowed"
-- RFK

"It's time to rethink our words," "race words are so divisive," "these words close people's minds"
-- Dean at WSTLU

Important note: a dean is not a regular faculty member. A dean is someone who chose to wear suits and learn #business jargon so they could make a lot more money than they could as a mere #professor. Deans have different pay structures, incentives, and professional-social groups than regular faculty. In other words, deans are #management, not #labor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/trump-dei-cdc-language.html

#publichealth #race #racialdisparities #rfk #uspol #dei

#Black #suspects, even when #unarmed, are not afforded the same #deference by #police, often facing #lethalforce. This highlights #racialdisparities in #lawenforcement’s #decisionmaking on the #useofforce.

Young African-American women tend to live closer to pharmacies than their white counterparts but they face contraceptive access challenges such as more difficult access to condoms (49% vs 85% on the shelf instead of restricted access or n/a) #NICHDImpact #RacialDisparities #Contraception #Neighborhoods
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30788813

Incarceration is linked to chronic disease markers and elevated depression risk; Racial disparities in arrests and incarceration drive Black-White health gaps. #NICHDImpact #RacialDisparities #ChronicDisease #Incarceration #Depression #Race #Arrests

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32648484

Living in an area with high police presence increases the odds of a premature birth for both Black and white residents. Greater police presence in Black vs white neighborhoods may contribute to the persistent Black-White preterm birth disparity. #NICHDimpact #PrematureBirths #Health #Neighborhoods #Policing #RacialDisparities
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34878551

Native Americans, on average, die 12-13 years earlier than their white counterparts, with the largest disparities in the northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states. The disparity in age at death is in part due to Native Americans dying from diseases at younger ages than white Americans and higher levels of homicide. #NICHDImpact #RockyMountains #GreatPlains #Indigenous #NativeAmericans #Mortality #RacialDisparities
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35300314

https://sfbayview.com/2023/08/a-reparations-explanation-for-angry-white-people/

#ReparationsNow
#RacialDisparities
#RacialJustice
#BlackFedi
#BlackFediverse
#BlackMastodon

Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults aged <65 years were all more highly vaccinated than White populations of the same ages during most of Minnesota’s Delta and Omicron surges. However, White mortality rates were lower than those of all other groups.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36653101

#NICHDImpact #COVID19 #Mortality #HealthDisparities #RacialDisparities #Vaccine

Hispanic/Latinx children less likely to have diagnosed developmental disabilities: Cultural differences in knowledge/understanding of what constitutes a disability or differential treatment within the healthcare system may be the reason.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31292923/

#NICHDImpact #Disability #Healthcare #DevelopmentalDisabilities #ChildDevelopment #HealthDisparities #RacialDisparities

Between 2002 and 2014, U.S. households reduced sugar-sweetened beverage purchases in both absolute and relative terms—racial/ethnic disparities in total sugar-sweetened beverage purchases narrowed, but income disparity patterns persisted.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32362508

@uncpopcenter #NICHDImpact #Sugar #Obesity #RacialDisparities #IncomeDisparities #PublicHealth #Health

Excess deaths due to COVID-19 appear underestimated – inequities are concentrated in counties with high income inequality, low median income, low homeownership, and high percentages of Black residents.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34014945

#NICHDImpact #COVID19 #Mortality #IncomeInequality #RacialDisparities #ClassDisparities

The military's critical role in providing institutional protection from incarceration has eroded for young, undereducated African American men as the military has downsized. Drop in military employment of those with less than a high school education is associated with large increases in incarceration rates

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33889727

#NICHDImpact #MassIncarceration #RacialDisparities #Employment #Incarceration #Military

Eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines based solely on age benefit older white populations at the expense of younger Black, Indigenous, Hispanic populations with higher risk of death. Strategies that prioritize high-risk geographic areas for vaccination at all ages better target mortality risk than age-based strategies alone.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33791718

@wrigleyfield #NICHDImpact #COVID19 #Age #RacialDisparities #Mortality #Vaccination

Higher level of premature births among black mothers than white linked to socioeconomic factors (mother’s education, marital status, paternity acknowledgment, source of payment for delivery) and hypertension in pregnancy. Birth spacing plays a role for non-first-borns.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31561920

#NICHDImpact #HealthDisparities #Pregnancy #RacialDisparities #Birth #FPRH

New paper w Aja Antoine-Jones, James Feigenbaum, Lauren Hoehn-Velasco, and Chris Muller

"Racial Inequality in the Prime of Life: Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1906–1933"

tells us two new things about the staggering racial inequity in this era

(cont'd)

#demography #sociology #history #RacialDisparities #mortality #EpidemiologicalTransition #HealthEquity #HistoricalDemography

https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2023.4

Young African-American women tend to live closer to pharmacies than their white counterparts but they face contraceptive access challenges such as more difficult access to condoms (49% vs 85% on the shelf instead of restricted access or n/a)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30788813

#NICHDImpact #Contraception #RacialDisparities #Pharmacy

Incarceration is linked to chronic disease markers and elevated depression risk; racial disparities in arrests and incarceration drive Black-White health gaps.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32648484

#NICHDImpact #Incarceration #MentalHealth #Depression #RacialDisparities #Health #HealthDisparities

Among U.S. Black men, how much life is lost due to police use of force? 3,772 years per 100,000, the highest among any group — roughly 16,000 years of life lost for today’s Black men.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33134523

@wrigleyfield #NICHDImpact #Mortality #Police #Racism #SystemicRacism #RacialDisparities

Extreme racial disparity found: More than 1 in 10 children born 1998-2000 in large US cities were suspended or expelled by age nine; 40% of Black boys v. 8% of other boys.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31258199

#NICHDImpact #RacialDisparities #School #Discipline #Punishment

Health benefits of HBCUs: Attending Historically Black College or Universities linked to 35% lower risk of metabolic syndrome compared with African Americans who attended predominantly white institutions.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33150382/

#NICHDImpact #Education #College #University #HBCU #HealthDisparities #RacialDisparities

U.S. Hispanic and Black adults faced more job-related exposure to COVID-19 and greater barriers to healthcare, which may explain their disproportionate share of infections and hospitalizations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35043126

@uncpopcenter #NICHDImpact #COVID19 #Occupation #Healthcare #RacialDisparities #Infection #HealthDisparities

Stanford University - Measuring and Mitigating #RacialDisparities in #TaxAudits "Government agencies around the world use data-driven algorithms to allocate #enforcement resources. Even when such #algorithms are formally neutral with respect to protected characteristics like race, there is widespread concern that they can disproportionately burden #vulnerable groups. We study differences in #InternalRevenueService (#IRS) audit rates between #Black and non-Black taxpayers" https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/measuring-and-mitigating-racial-disparities-tax-audits

Local social networks are a hidden source of COVID19 infection risk – Black and Hispanic communities are more at risk than their non-Hispanic white peers because of their larger and more interconnected social ties.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35286198

#NICHDImpact #COVID19 #Social #Community #Infection #RacialDisparities

From 2018-20, life expectancy in the US decreased by 1.87 years (to 76.87 years), 8.5 times the average decrease in peer countries (0.22 years), widening the gap to 4.69 years. Life expectancy in the US decreased disproportionately among racial/ethnic minority groups from 2018-20, declining by 3.88, 3.25, & 1.36 years in Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, & non-Hispanic white populations, respectively.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34162598

#NICHDImpact #COVID19 #RacialDisparities #LifeExpectancy

A Pittsburgh-based child protective services agency is facing criticism for using an #AI tool that was found to increase #RacialDisparities. https://gizmodo.com/ai-child-protective-services-racial-bias-1850059454 #technology-emerging-trends #feedly

Irregular menstrual cycles – more common among young women, Hispanic women, and those with diabetes—make it difficult to detect pregnancy before the 6-week state abortion prohibitions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34969843

#NICHDimpact #Abortion #WomensHealth #RacialDisparities #HealthDisparities

Women with limited control over their job schedules are less likely to breastfeed for 6 months, contributing to racial disparities in breastfeeding.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35688422

#HealthDisparities #NICHDImpact #Breastfeeding #RacialDisparities

Crises like pandemics make inequalities worse -- right?

Let Martin Eiermann and I tell you about a surprising exception -- and a puzzle that might turn on an unusual collision of viral and social histories.

In @TheConversationUS

#1918 #1918flu #RacialDisparities #ImmunologicalImprinting #SocialHistory #pandemics #demography #sociology #influenza #migration

https://theconversation.com/1918-flu-pandemic-upended-long-standing-social-inequalities-at-least-for-a-time-new-study-finds-195718

Breaking down barriers to healthcare for every child

As patient advocates, it's our responsibility to speak up and demand change in a healthcare system that often fails to serve kids from marginalized communities.

Jeffrey Shahidullah is a pediatric psychologist.

https://youtube.com/shorts/6VfkfW6bBgU

Listen here:
https://kevinmd.com/podcast

#patientadvocates #healthcarejustice #equityinhealth #demandchange #marginalizedcommunities #racialdisparities #economicdisparities #primarycare #justhealthcare

Latest topics in the #index I'm working on:

#bioethics #medical #medicine #medicalracism #sleephygiene #painmanagement #stroke #cardiovasculardisease #diabetes #racialdisparities #socialfactors #healthcare