African Americans

It is an axiom among both researchers and the public that American perceptions of the police are racially divided. Previous studies have traditionally focused on interracial perceptions, and have found support for social variables (e.g. education) and legal variables (e.g. prior arrest). The current study seeks to determine if legal oppression or social oppression are better predictors of negative attitudes toward the police among a sample of black university students. Ordinary least squares regression seeks determine which set of factors better predict police perceptions. This intra-racial examination allows future research to parse nuances among police perceptions in the black community. The implications of these results and future directions are discussed, in particular for the continued development of a black criminology (Unnever, Gabbidon, & Chouhy, 2019).

The African American population has persistently suffered a greater disease burden from uncontrolled high blood pressure than any other ethnic/racial group. There have been many attempts to reduce the health disparity but with little changes in adverse outcomes over the years. As African Americans are very religious and incorporate spirituality into their everyday lives, this research followed a faith-based approach and was conducted in the church setting. The study was guided by the Illness Representation Model (IRM) and the Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality (TCCDU). One hundred male and female participants were recruited from five African American churches in Southeast Florida. Each participant met the inclusion criteria of being 35-80 years old, diagnosed with high blood pressure, members/attendees of a Judeo Christian church, and able to read and write English. A researcher-developed, five-day faith based health devotional which included high blood pressure education infused with Bible messages was used as the intervention. A quasi-experimental design of pre and posttesting was employed to evaluate high blood pressure knowledge and illness representation. High blood pressure knowledge was tested using the High Blood Pressure Prevention IQ Quiz (HBPP-IQ) and illness representation tested with the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R). The results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in four out of the five hypotheses tested, with a caveat for the timeline representation (presented as two separate outcomes). The findings indicated: High blood pressure knowledge (HBPP-IQ): p < .000; Illness Representation (IPQ-R); timeline acute/chronic: p = .003; timeline cyclical: p = .20; consequences: p = .024; personal control: p = .0005; treatment control: p = .002. These results support the use of the faith-based teaching method in educating African Americans about high blood pressure as an effort that might improve illness representation in this population.

Although current employment statistics paint a promising picture for women in general, they fail to address both the multitude of challenges women face in their attempt to secure leadership positions or in their ability to gain and maintain support from their female colleagues. Black women, in particular, tend to be torn between their fabled image to others in the organization and their official duties and responsibilities at work. This paper discusses definitions and conceptual uses of horizontal and vertical violence by Black female educational leaders ; problematizes the phenomenon as outlined by Freire (1970) at the theoretical level ; outlines the proposed qualitative methods, which will be used to investigate the phenomenon further ; and taking Paulo Freire's lead, explores the implications of sabotage or violence coming from members of the same minority group. In this specific case, Black female educational leaders will serve as the primary participants of the study. Once the data is collected and analyzed, the paper will include an analysis of the data and a discussion of the findings followed by recommendations based on the findings of the study.

atisfaction with diabetes care, perceived feelings of empowerment to participate in self-care management, and glycemic control in a sample of older African American men and women with diabetes. A descriptive correlational quantitative design was used. The participants in this study were 73 men and women of African descent who were at least 50 years, English speaking, and diagnosed with diabetes for at least one year. The participants were asked to complete three survey instruments: the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18 (PSQ-18), which measured how satisfied the participants were with their medical care; the Diabetes Empowerment Scale-Short Form (DES-SF), which measured attitudes towards diabetes and self-management of diabetes; and a demographic form, which collected data on the demographics of each participant. The most recent hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of each participant was obtained from the medical records. The correlations between HbA1c, DES, and the PSQ-18 subscales were exam ined. The study data indicated all correlations were statistically significant and negative with one exception. There was no correlation between HbA1c and time spent, a satisfaction subscale. Approximately half the participants were high school graduates, married, and reported being born in the Caribbean. Most had primary care physicians, but less than half reported attending a diabetes education program. The average BMI was 33.0. The findings of this study indicated older African adults who reported higher satisfaction with the care provided by their health care provider reported feeling more empowered to participate in diabetes self-care and reported lower HbA1c levels, suggesting better glycemic control (R2 = .39; P=<.001).

The purpose of this study was to examine the expectations of African American and Hispanic males in a for-profit university (TTU). This study specifically explored student perception of the retention efforts of faculty, staff, policies, procedures and services within the institutional environment. It further examined how these experiences promoted or impeded the African American or Hispanic male's persistence to graduation. The higher education institution is identified as TTU throughout this study. It is a commuter university established in the early 1900s. A qualitative case study approach was used and two campus sites were selected. Data collection included interviews of 19 students, along with 2 faculty (identified by students), as well as document analysis, and various on site observations at each campus. The data were then transcribed, coded, and analyzed to ascertain the overall views and perceptions of the participants.

This Project involves looking at African American culture as it relates to swimming, water safety awareness, and water skills. The paper explores the myths and cultural norms associated with drowning phobias in African Americans to discover the root causes. Through historic accounts of African American culture one begins to uncover reasons why this culture became, in a sense aqua phobic. The paper will show what water sport professionals are up against, when working with a culture that is several generations removed from the water and their water skills. The ultimate goal is to draw attention to the importance of water safety and the ability to swim as a life skill.

Scholars of the literary depictions of lynching have given the majority of their attention to the emasculation of the black male, but the representation of the black female lynch victim has been overlooked. My thesis examines the deaths of black women that had the same effect as lynching practices used against men. This specific literary form of lynching will concentrate on two plays: Mary P. Burrill's They That Sit in Darkness (1919) and Marita Bonner's Exit: An Illusion (1929) and two novels by Toni Morrison, Beloved and Sula. Considering the contours of these black female deaths we can expand the traditional definition of lynching to include the black female lynch victim. The aspects that make her death a lynching are encased in more subtleties than a traditional definition of lynching allows for, and less visible.

It was estimated that 35 million people age 65 or older lived in the United States in 2000. Of that number 2.8 million were Black/African American. The U.S. Census Bureau's (2000) population projections show that there will be 70 million older adults age 65 or older by 2030 and African Americans are expected to comprise over 12% of that population. In 1993 older adults had made less elective use of computers than younger adults, accounting for 24.2% of those age 55 to 64 and 4.9% of adults over age 65. By 2003 adults over age 65 recorded a 20.1% increase in computer usage becoming the fastest growing segment of computer users who are engaging in learning computer skills as a way of coping with the technological changes. Studies have found that greater experience with computers is associated with more positive attitudes; however, it has never been determined whether this is true of the older African American population since there is a paucity of research documenting their computer attitudes. This study utilized a mixed methods research design that included an experimental design and an inductive approach with interviews. The following findings emerged: (a) attitudes differed for older African Americans who received computer training and those who did not; (b) there was no distinction in computer attitudes between older adult male and older adult females in the African American population; (c) there was no interaction effect on computer attitudes as moderated by training and gender; (d) older African Americans exhibited a positive disposition towards computers which elicited positive attitudes towards the technology; (e) older African Americans had a nascent need for computer self-efficacy; and (f) older African Americans constructed new meaning regarding computers as a result of their reflection on their computer interaction experience.

The presence of music, especially in the form of freedom songs, is a notable constant in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Participants sang spirituals and freedom songs everywhere in the South - at mass meetings, demonstrations, and in jails. An engaging and participatory activity, singing unified, empowered, and historicized activists, allowing everyone an opportunity to be included in the action. Without these songs, the African-American communities across the South may not have been able to band together to become such a force for change; while the activists were the facilitators for progress, the songs were the inspiration. Freedom songs democratized the Civil Rights Movement, enabling the participation of ordinary people at a grassroots level, therefore creating a strong mass movement.

The Black Panther Party was the most famous group born out of the Black Power Movement. Because of the group's inherent link to the Black Power Movement, and the group's slogan of "Black Power," many people, both black and white, believed, and continue to believe, that the Black Panther Party was a group with racial motives. However, this conceptualization of the Party was, and is, incorrect. While the Black Panther Party began as an outgrowth of the black civil rights movement, the Panthers quickly evolved into a revolutionary vanguard with a non-racial, class-oriented agenda.