PHSC 125: Race, Class, and Gender Quiz 2

The meaning of race is evolving

To understand what race means in a given time/context, examine racial projects

What is wrong with men? (Use Gender Theory to examine stereotypes)

What's going on with masculine stereotypes? Understanding concepts of gender performance, why do men practice less health than women?

Riots: Focus is on the RIOTERS not on the POLICE THEMSELVES

Who do we decide to do research on when we think about topics like violence?

Health Practices account for 50% of preventable deaths

Women do FAR MORE positive health practices than men. Women are more likely to: - Visit a doctor - Not smoke/Not drink - Eat healthy - Exercise - Take medications/vitamins - Use sunscreen/protections.. ask about sunscreen

Ex. Sick Cell Anemia

"... For example, sickle cell anemia is a meaningful biological trait. In the US it is commonly (and mistakenly) identified as a "black" disease. In fact, while it does have a high prevalence in populations of people with West and Central African ancestry, it also has a high prevalence in populations from much of the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of the Mediterranean and India. This is because the genetic variant that causes sickle cell is more prevalent in people descended from parts of the world with a high incidence of malaria. "Race" has nothing to do with it. Thus, it is simply wrong to say that the higher prevalence of sickle cell trait in West African populations means that the racial category "black" is somehow genetic."

W.E.B. DuBois

"After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, -- a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."

Racial Projects Definition

"An interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines."

SCR

"If scientists can be confident of anything, it is that whatever we currently believe about the genetic nature of differences among populations is most likely wrong. For example, my laboratory discovered in 2016, based on our sequencing of ancient human genomes, that "whites" are not derived from a population that existed from time immemorial, as some people believe." Instead, "whites" represent a mixture of four ancient populations that lived 10,000 years ago and were each as different from one another as Europeans and East Asians are today."

Omi and Winant 1994 (What is race?)

"Race is a concept which signifies and symbolizes the social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies."

67 geneticists and epidemiologists

"[Reich's work] misrepresents the many scientists and scholars who have demonstrated the scientific flaws of considering "race" a biological category. Their robust body of scholarship recognizes the existence of geographically based genetic variation in our species, but shows that such variation is not consistent with biological definitions of race. Nor does that variation map precisely onto ever changing socially defined racial groups . . ."

Criminalization of Race

- 1970's: psychosurgery and race - Dr. Alvin Poussaint, 1973 - Ebony Magazine - Head of NIH in the magazine declared to black communities that they are not buying the science

Racial Project 1: APIs are all the same

- APIs represent 50+ nationalities with different languages, cultures, religions, historical contexts etc. - Extremely wide disparities within the API category

"Violent Brain" Model Main Points

- Biological Determinism (determinist language) vs. They have a predispositions or higher risk for violence and psychopath behavior - Pseudo Scientific methods vs. Neuroimaging - Neuroscience argument: Question of Race: Greatest benefit for people who are racially marginalized (away from sociopolitical realms) and relies on barebones -Doesn't have to worry about scientific racism

The Taboo of Race: The Fear of "Race Talk"

- Dr. Smith, Neuropsychologist: talks about it with students (historically) not colleagues - Review Process in publications is when race implications is brought up (protected spaces)

Racial Project 3: APIs do not resources/support

- Erroneous perception that APIs are already successful; do not need support - Enormous pressure to conform to the model minority stereotype --Extreme stress experience by APIs -- Lack of resources for support

Contemporary Racial Projects

- Harvard U v. Asian Americans - Abigail Fisher Affirmative Action Case - Lawsuit against Yale discriminating against Asian-American and White applicants

Hidden Brain podcast: Masculinity and Health

- Loneliness is worse for health than smoking or drinking - Social connection is more important for health than diet and exercise Ex. Men are at much higher risk of heart disease than woman - Data shows that social connections may be the root of this issue - Social connections are energizing and calming - The lack of social connections or negative relationships exacerbate pain

How do racial projects play out?

- Media, the State, Research, Law, Education, Everyday interactions - Can be examined through analysis of stereotypes

Masculinity and Loneliness

- Men report feeling lonely at far higher rates than women, particularly in older age. - Emotional connections and social relationships are via spouse/partner.

Limits of Conviction

- Normativity and the Violent Brain Model - Race as a variable is "too politically volatile" - Criminal Justice System/Public Health System/ Prison System that is already racialized and then we can't have risk models that do not take into account risk

Consequences of API racial projects:

- Perpetuates notion that there is something fundamentally (biologically) different about APIs - Lack of research means stereotypes can be upheld - Less services/resources directed to API communities - APIs under pressure to conform- less likely to ask for support - APIs are pitted against racial groups - Acceptable to discriminate against APIs -many, many negative health outcomes

Race is a classification system for human bodies

- Race signifies social conflicts and interests - Race has no biological basis - Race is socially and historically constituted - Race is a constantly evolving concept

"Race-Neutrality" and Colorblind Racism

- Relationship between being race-neutral and scientific racism - Mark 1973: Color-Blind Logic

The Complexities of Racism

- Risk Model: Model is made to predict (factors: biosocial thing) - Race impacts the lived consequences in society - Study Population: DSM - Control Population - Can you actually not put race in a model and then predict a person of color will be at risk - Color-Blind Technology

Census Categories for Black people over the years:

- Slave - Colored - Mulatto (free or slave) - Quadroon - Octoroon - Negro Descent - African American - Black Today: Black/African American

Racial Project 2 & 3: APIs are not "real" minorities

- Widespread perception that APIs do not face racial or social barriers --- APIs have language barriers, social barriers -Often considered "new whites" or "almost white" (even co-categorized)

Characteristics of "Race": A Social Construct

-Always already political -More than phenotype -Changes across time and space (CENSUS) -Based on (& works through) social power -Structures society into a hierarchical arrangement -Produces real social, economic, psychological implication -Made through social relationships and experiences -Social (or socio-political) Process

The Taboo of Race: The Haunting "Absent Presence" of Race

-Black and White racial categories (Research) -No implications of race -Dr. Peterson, Neuropsychologist : wouldn't report racial differences if he did found them -Legitimate fear: people will see my lab as racist and therefore, I don't want to report it

Medicalization of Crime and Race

-Midst of Civil Rights Movement -Psychosurgery (lobotomies can cure violence) -Mark, Sweet, Ervin: What is about these individuals that make them want to riot? - Media Pushback: the idea that rioting is caused by brain disorders is problematic

After WWII, the reorganization of science

-Nazi: Racialized Science -UNESCO conferences: what do we do with this question of race? -Lombroso= Biological markers (ear shape, eye color) for criminality -In 1960s, racialized science is reframed through psychology

Race, History, and the "unmaking" of the violent brain

-The American Criminal, Hooton, 1939 -Cesare Lombroso: Father of Criminology -Started off as a racial project -Incarceration: racial, gender, and class project

Think of Racial Projects on SCU CAMPUS & Contemporary Racial Projects

...

How do racial projects define race?

1) determining laws that govern racial bodies 2) defining what it means/feels to be a specific race

Structural Events of Asian Racism

1882: Chinese exclusion act 1924: Immigration Act (Asian Exclusion Act) 1942: Japanese Internment 1965: Immigration and Nationality Act

"Violent Brain" Model

A new brain-type thought to capture and predict new kinds of violent subjects, potential criminals

In contrast to gender (often linked to biological sex), there is no genetic/biological basis for racial categories

According to the human genome project: - Human beings are 99.9% genetically similar - There is more genetic/phenotypic variability within racial groups than between racial groups

Gender (Terms) Sex

Anatomy of reproductive organs + secondary sexual characteristics Male/Female/Intersex

Courtenay 2000 What is major risk factor for early death and illness

Being a man: Men have far worse health than women: - Men die 7 years younger on average - 2x higher rates of heart disease - 1.5x the rate of death from cancer (and getting worse) - High rates of most infectious diseases - Higher rates of chronic disease - 3 of 4 hearts attacks pre-65 ar men

Ethnicity

Belonging to a group with a common national or cultural tradition

Extraction of Labor/Division of Labor (Gender)

Bouregeois extract labor from the proletarian class= Men extract power/money/control from women for men's benefit. Women's labor is subordinate.

Superstructure (Gender)

Bourgeois who control money also control politics and ideas= Men control the dialogue around gender dynamics

False Consciousness (gender)

Buy into and uphold the system Men and Women buy into this

According to Courtney, Men have health-related beliefs shaped by masculinity

Constructs of Masculinity: - Men are tough - Men are self-reliant - Men are robust - Men are independent Operationalized: - Refuse to admit or acknowledge pain - Denial of weakness - Present emotional control - Present Physical control - Dismissal of need for help - Performing constant interest in sex - Displays of Aggressive behavior RESULT= rejecting healthy beliefs/behaviors + reinforce stereotypes

Museus et al

Despite APIs representation in college, Asians and Pacific Islanders are frequently excluded from research (including Higher Education research) - APIs are NOT considered an underrepresented minority - Almost always excluded from research - Sometimes even lumped together with Whites - Absence of empirical knowledge about APIs

Courtney CONCLUSION

Due to socially constructed gender expectations, men are more likely than women to engage in risky health behaviors & practices, and less likely to engage in health protective behaviors & practices

Class Consciousness (Gender)

Gender Consciousness

What is the relationship between gender performance and gender construction?

Gender Performance -><- Gender Role Construction: - Embodied -Policed - False Consciousness - Consolidated

Effect of Gender Construction

Gender is a strong and consistent hierarchical structure, though while constructed, has real, everyday impacts

Judith Butler (Gender Construction) Performance

Gender is an identity comprised of a "stylized repetition of acts" that have social temporality

What can explain gender differences in health outcomes?

Gender or biological factors cannot explain these gender differences in health outcomes Even some structural factors, like access to health, cannot explain these health outcomes

Why is this happening to men's health? (Masculine Stereotypes & Currency)

Gender performance is a form of currency in our society. Performing gender the socially desirable way gets one things they want, including status, power, even potentially real currency!

Butler Policing

Going outside the gender line is punished

"To carry out any one positive health behavior, a man may need to reject multiple constructions of masculinity."

Health-related beliefs and behaviors are way to perform gender (and reinforce gender stereotypes)

The way gender is constructed has profound impacts on health

MH issues and Health Behaviors

Landstedt et al article (Gender Performance and Health)

MH issues like depression and anxiety symptoms are 2x higher for girls than boys Cannot be explained by genetic or biological differences "Both girls and boys strived for respect and appreciation through various forms of performance, but this appeared to be particularly important for girls ... [gender] performance comprises achievements related to school and leisure time activities, as well as expectations about appearance and behavior."

Courtenay 2000

Masculinity left out of the picture for a long time: - In the development on the US healthcare system, there was a historic absence of attention to women's health - Reproductive Health - Sexual Health - Research Studies - Gender + Health = Women's Health

What is the Violent Brain?

Neuroscience of Violence

Asian American Stereotypes

On the one hand, Asian Americans are a model minority myth, a success story in the United States On the other hand, Asian Americans are unamerican, a threat to reckoned against

Sexuality

Pattern of romantic or sexual attraction Heterosexual/Homosexual/Bisexual/Asexual/Demisexual/Pansexual

How are health outcomes for progressing over time?

Poor health outcomes are getting worse for men

To say race is socially constructed= birds eye view

Race IS A CONCEPT THAT IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED, IT IS REAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL IN FUNCTION

Omi and Winant (If race is not biological, how do we get racial categories?)

Racial Formation: "The socio-historical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed and destroyed." - Social Structures (laws, policies, institutions that define and form racial meanings, e.g. housing, labor) - Cultural Representations (ways race is represented in everyday society)

What are Racial Projects?

Racial formations occur through RACIAL PROJECTS Racial projects are historically situated ways human bodies and social structures are represented and organized In other words, different types of actions or "projects" that serve to give meaning to race, and thereby organize people by race. These racial projects can reinforce or subvert existing meanings.

What is the function of a racial project?

Racialized propaganda (racial project) of drug use fueled the prohibition & criminalization of drugs (cocaine, opioids, cannabis) in the 1910s Racial project serve to: - Create rationale for "differences" between people of color and whites - POC are inextricably linked to substance use (and can be criminalized) - "Protect" whites from "bad people of color"- prohibition codified into law in the 1910s-1930s

Conclusion (Rollins Lecture)

Research centered around race is about showing the gap and disparities and not about drawing implications of what those identities do in health, etc. (or finding solutions)

Scientific Debate on Biological vs. Social construction of race

Since the vast majority of genetic variation exists within racial groups and not between racial groups, race is an ideology and so many scientists believe that race should be more accurately described as a social construct and not a biological one.

How do racial projects play out? (PT 2)

Social Structures (Formal): Institutions such as Media, The State, Research, Law, Education, Housing - Can be examined through policies, laws that separate/divide human bodies Susan Phipps story Cultural representations (Informal): Everyday interactions, - Can be examined through analysis of stereotypes

Racial Formation

Social Structures -><- Racial Projects -><- Cultural Representation

Butler Consolidation

Social ideas of gender become highly consolidated

Gender

Social role based on assigned sex Masculine (Man)/Feminine (woman)/Transgender/Androgynous

Marx's influence on Feminist Theories (Social Categories)

Society is divided into two distinct, oppositional classes = Men and Women

Racial Projects + Cultural Representations=?

Stereotyping

API Suicide Rates

Suicide Rates are higher for Asian American high school students than their white counterparts

We cannot understand race based on skin color

Susan Phipps

How and why does race matter? (racialized history of neuroscience)

The "Taboo of Race" The Limits of Conviction

Butler Embodiment

These stylized acts become embodied and mundane (everyday)

Racial Formation (Omi & Winant)

Throughout history, there is a temptation to view race as either: - "Essential" v "Illusion" - Biological v Social

Butler False Consciousness

We buy into the constructs of gender

What are institutions known for defining racial categories?

U.S. Census

The social structure of gender

Very real in that gender structures our behaviors and interactions Norms about gender teach us how to act and how not to act We are not passive agents of structure Structures CHANGE We construct, deconstruct, reinforce

Race

classification system used to organize and categorize human bodies

Nationality

status of belonging to a particular nation