Query: lowering rate of racism

title: The aversive form of racism.

title: The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism
abstract: My recent book, Inflation Policy and Unemployment Theory, introduces what is called the statistical theory of racial (and sexual) discrimination in the labor market. The theory fell naturally out of the non Walrasian treatment there of the labor "market" as operating imperfectly because of the scarcity of information about the existence and characteristics of workers and jobs. A paradigm for the theory is the traveller in a strange town faced with choosing between dinner at the hotel and dinner somewhere in the town. If he makes it a rule to dine outside the hotel without any prior investigation, he is said to be discriminating against the hotel. Though there will be instances where the hotel cuisine would have been preferable, the rule represents rational behavior it maximizes expected utilityif the cost of acquiring evaluations of restaurants is sufficiently high and if the hotel restaurant is believed to be inferior at least half the time. In the same way, the employer who seeks to maximize expected profit will discriminate against blacks or women if he believes them to be less qualified, reliable, long term, etc. on the average than whites and men, respectively, and if the cost of gaining information about the individual applicants is excessive. Skin color or sex is taken as a proxy for relevant data not sampled. The a priori belief in the probable preferability of a white or a male over a black or female candidate who is not known to differ in other respects might stem from the employer's previous statistical experience with the two groups (members from the less favored groups might have been, and continue to be, hired at less favorable terms) or it might stem from prevailing sociological beliefs that blacks and women grow up disadvantaged due to racial hostility or at least prejudices toward them in the society (in which latter case the discrimination is self perpetuating) The theory is applicable to the class of "liberal" employers and workers who have no distaste for hiring and working alongside black or female workers. By contrast, the theory of discrimination originated by Gary Becker is based on the factor of racial taste. The pioneering work of Gunnar Myrdal et al. also appears to center on racial (and, in an appendix, sexual) antagonism. Some indications of interest in the new theory, and the independent discovery of the same statistical theoryby Kenneth Arrow, convince me that it is time for a formalization of the theory in terms of an exact statistical model. Though what follows is very simple, it may be useful to those who like exact models and it may stimulate others to develop the theory further. An employer samples from a population of job applicants. The employer is able to measure the performance of each applicant in some kind of test, yi, which, after suitable scaling, may be said to measure the applicant's promise or degree of qualification, qi, plus an error term, ps.

title: Racism as a stressor for African Americans. A biopsychosocial model.
abstract: Various authors have noted that interethnic group and intraethnic group racism are significant stressors for many African Americans. As such, intergroup and intragroup racism may play a role in the high rates of morbidity and mortality in this population. Yet, although scientific examinations of the effects of stress have proliferated, few researchers have explored the psychological, social, and physiological effects of perceived racism among African Americans. The purpose of this article was to outline a biopsychosocial model for perceived racism as a guide for future research. The first section of this article provides a brief overview of how racism has been conceptualized in the scientific literature. The second section reviews research exploring the existence of intergroup and intragroup racism. A contextual model for systematic studies of the biopsychosocial effects of perceived racism is then presented, along with recommendations for future research.

title: Levels of racism: a theoretic framework and a gardener's tale.
abstract: The author presents a theoretic framework for understanding racism on 3 levels: institutionalized, personally mediated, and internalized. This framework is useful for raising new hypotheses about the basis of race associated differences in health outcomes, as well as for designing effective interventions to eliminate those differences. She then presents an allegory about a gardener with 2 flower boxes, rich and poor soil, and red and pink flowers. This allegory illustrates the relationship between the 3 levels of racism and may guide our thinking about how to intervene to mitigate the impacts of racism on health. It may also serve as a tool for starting a national conversation on racism.

title: Sexism and racism: Old fashioned and modern prejudices.
abstract: Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Be nokraitis J. R. Feagin, 1986) Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and dis crimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form ofsexism. Support was found for a distinction between old fashioned and modern beliefs about womensimilar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988).The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment ofwomen and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modernsexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's de mands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education andwork) Research that compares factor structures of old fashioned and modern sexism and racismand that validates our modern sexism scale is presented.

title: Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination
abstract: Higher disease rates for blacks (or African Americans) compared to whites are pervasive and persistent over time, with the racial gap in mortality widening in recent years for multiple causes of death. Other racial/ethnic minority populations also have elevated disease risk for some health conditions. This paper considers the complex ways in which race and socioeconomic status (SES) combine to affect health. SES accounts for much of the observed racial disparities in health. Nonetheless, racial differences often persist even at "equivalent" levels of SES. Racism is an added burden for nondominant populations. Individual and institutional discrimination, along with the stigma of inferiority, can adversely affect health by restricting socioeconomic opportunities and mobility. Racism can also directly affect health in multiple ways. Residence in poor neighborhoods, racial bias in medical care, the stress of experiences of discrimination and the acceptance of the societal stigma of inferiority can have deleterious consequences for health.

title: A systematic review of empirical research on self reported racism and health.
abstract: This paper reviews 138 empirical quantitative population based studies of self reported racism and health. These studies show an association between self reported racism and ill health for oppressed racial groups after adjustment for a range of confounders. The strongest and most consistent findings are for negative mental health outcomes and health related behaviours, with weaker associations existing for positive mental health outcomes, self assessed health status, and physical health outcomes. Most studies in this emerging field have been published in the past 5 years and have been limited by a dearth of cohort studies, a lack of psychometrically validated exposure instruments, poor conceptualization and definition of racism, conflation of racism with stress, and debate about the aetiologically relevant period for self reported racism. Future research should examine the psychometric validity of racism instruments and include these instruments, along with objectively measured health outcomes, in existing large scale survey vehicles as well as longitudinal studies and studies involving children. There is also a need to gain a better understanding of the perception, attribution, and reporting of racism, to investigate the pathways via which self reported racism affects health, the interplay between mental and physical health outcomes, and exposure to intra racial, internalized, and systemic racism. Ensuring the quality of studies in this field will allow future research to reveal the complex role that racism plays as a determinant of population health.

title: Rac Activation and Inactivation Control Plasticity of Tumor Cell Movement
abstract: Tumor cells exhibit two different modes of individual cell movement. Mesenchymal type movement is characterized by an elongated cellular morphology and requires extracellular proteolysis. In amoeboid movement, cells have a rounded morphology, are less dependent on proteases, and require high Rho kinase signaling to drive elevated levels of actomyosin contractility. These two modes of cell movement are interconvertible. We show that mesenchymal type movement in melanoma cells is driven by activation of the GTPase Rac through a complex containing NEDD9, a recently identified melanoma metastasis gene, and DOCK3, a Rac guanine nucleotide exchange factor. Rac signals through WAVE2 to direct mesenchymal movement and suppress amoeboid movement through decreasing actomyosin contractility. Conversely, in amoeboid movement, Rho kinase signaling activates a Rac GAP, ARHGAP22, that suppresses mesenchymal movement by inactivating Rac. We demonstrate tight interplay between Rho and Rac in determining different modes of tumor cell movement, revealing how tumor cells switch between different modes of movement.

title: RETHINKING RACISM: TOWARD A STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION
abstract: The study of race and ethnic conflict historically has been hampered by inadequate and simplistic theories. I contend that the central problem of the various approaches to the study of racial phenomena is their lack of a structural theory of racism. I review traditional approaches and alternative approaches to the study of racism, and discuss their limitations. Following the leads suggested by some of the alternative frameworks, I advance a structural theory of racism based on the notion of racialized social systems. "The habit of considering racism as a mental quirk, as a psychological flaw, must be abandoned." Frantz Fanon (1967:77) he area of race and ethnic studies lacks a _ sound theoretical apparatus. To complicate matters, many analysts of racial matters have abandoned the serious theorization and reconceptualization of their central topic: racism. Too many social analysts researching racism assume that the phenomenon is selfevident, and therefore either do not provide a definition or provide an elementary definition (Schuman, Steeh, and Bobo 1985; Sniderman and Piazza 1993) Nevertheless, whether implicitly or explicitly, most analysts regard racism as a purely ideological phenomenon.

title: Rho and Rac Take Center Stage
abstract: Many features of cell behavior are regulated by Rho family GTPases, but the most profound effects of these proteins are on the actin cytoskeleton and it was these that first drew attention to this family of signaling proteins. Focusing on Rho and Rac, we will discuss how their effectors regulate the actin cytoskeleton. We will describe how the activity of Rho proteins is regulated downstream from growth factor receptors and cell adhesion molecules by guanine nucleotide exchange factors and GTPase activating proteins. Additionally, we will discuss how there is signaling crosstalk between family members and how various bacterial pathogens have developed strategies to manipulate Rho protein activity so as to enhance their own survival.