HSERV/PHI 579 A/B: Structural Racism & Public Health (1 credit)

Instructor: Clarence Spigner, MPH, DrPH, cspigner@u.washington.edu, 206-616-2948, XXXX, Health

Sciences Building, office hours by appointment.

Fall 2020:
Saturday, Oct 10th, 10am-3:50pm;
Wednesday Oct 14th, 6pm-7:50pm;
Wednesday Oct 21st, 6pm-7:50pm

Location: Online
Description: Introduces the concept of institutional racism and ways structural racism undermines
public health. Discusses history of racism and intersection between structural racism and systems of
oppression. Explores relationships to racism and ways societal and internalized racism act as a barrier to
health equity. Consider public health practitioners’ role in addressing structural racism.

Objectives:

1. Discern a common language for understanding structural racism and public health.
2. Describe the historical context of “race” in Eurocentric societies.
3. Understand how systems of oppression relate to (or is) structural racism.
4. Acquire an understanding of intersectionality.
5. Explore how common knowledge is inherent in health disciplines for reflecting structural racism.
6. Articulate students’ role in dismantling structural racism.

Readings: No assigned readings. Students are expected to know something about the topic and share
knowledge of how their academic discipline and career interests relate to the topic. The syllabus has a
Terms of Reference section and a Conceptual Model that encompasses various fields of academic study
relative to structural and systemic racism. The Topics/Cases follow a Problem Base Learning (PBL)
approach to facilitate a collaborative environment. Students are free to consult any relevant resource to
inform themselves, their peers and the instructor.

Grading:
Assignment 1: Hand-in titles of a favorite book, a movie and a TV program (15%)
Assignment 2. Participation in the “College Bowl” (15%)
Assignment 3: Group Presentation (60%)
Assignment 4: Interaction with peers (10%)

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This graduate course is not a diversity workshop. It is not an exercise in cultural awareness. It is design to help
meet school-wide MPH core learning requirements and the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH)
competencies. A range of student perspectives addresses what is assumed to be fragmentation and divide
through interactive group discussions, inter-disciplinary teamwork, sensitive and honest communication,
student leadership, and ethics.

Absence and non-participation is to risk earning no credit. Instructor does not give make-ups.

Academic Accommodations:
It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments
consistent with state law. If you experience barriers base on disability, please seek a meeting with the DRS to discuss and
address them. If you have already established accommodations with DRS (Disability Resources for Students), please
communicate your approved accommodations to your instructor at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs
in this course.

Disability Resources for Students offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with
disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and
DRS. If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary or permanent disability that requires
accommodations (this can included but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical of
health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu.

Academic Honesty & Integrity:

Students at the University of Washington are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic conduct, professional
honesty, and personal integrity.

The UW School of Public Health (SPH) is committed to upholding standards of academic integrity consistent with the
academic and professional communities of which it is a part. Plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious
violations of the University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-120). We expect you to know and to follow the
university’s policies on cheating and plagiarism, and the SPH Academic Integrity Policy. Any suspected cases of academic
misconduct will be handled according to University of Washington regulations. For more information, see the University of
Washington Community Standards and Student Conduct website.

Copyright
All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are
protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of
both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignment published here in the course environment or statements committed
to text in the discussion forum); and (2) you instructor’s (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading list, and lectures). If you
have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator’s
copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Multicultural Inclusion Commitment

The UW School of Health seeks to ensure all students are fully included in each course. We strive to overcome systemic
racism by creating an environment that reflects community and mutual caring, while we ally with others in combating all
forms of social oppression. This is the work of progress, as transformation is rarely a fully-completed project. In this course,
we will look for opportunities to improve our performance as we seek to break down institutional racism. This can include
course readings, class interactions, faculty performance, and/or the institutional environment. We encourage students to
talk to your faculty members and/or the program director if you have concerns about classroom climate. vg@uw.edu is a
resource for students with classroom climate concerns.

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HSERV / PHI 579 A/B: Structural Racism and Public Health (1 credit)

Building a Structural Racism Analysis

Saturday: Oct 10th, 10:00am – 3:50pm Online

First Module: (6 Hours, 10:00am - 3:50pm, Saturday):

10:00am-11:00am: Objective 1: Discern a common language.

Lecture/Discussion: Introduction of the Terms of Reference and the Conceptual Model: Public Health
Disciplines Relative to Structural Racism. This opening session will explore how health disciplines such
as social work, genetics, nursing, pathiobiology, global health, health services, environmental &
occupational health, nutrition, maternal & child health, epidemiology, et al, contribute to our collective
understanding of structural racism reflected in the Topics/Cases.

11:00am-12:00noon Objective 2: Describe the historical context of “race” in societies.

Lecture/Discussion: This session will show how history relate to understanding the intersectionality of
structural racism. Historical periods briefly discuss extend from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (16th –
19th centuries) to the Age of Enlightenment (18th century) and Biblical Bigotry, scientific racism and
contradictions of democracy. The Post-Emancipation period and the Jim Crow Era (1877-1950s)
encompasses the period of “legal” racism and discrimination. The Black-led Civil Rights Movement &
Black Power (1954-1968) movements generated Feminist, La Raza, Native American, and Gay Rights
movements. The War on Drugs (1980s-present), mass incarceration, and rise of “Warrior Cops” (2001 –
present) brought Black Lives Matter (2013- present) and the social determinants of health.

12:00 – 1:00pm: Break

1:00–2:00pm: Objective 3: Understand how systems of oppression relate to structural racism.

Assignment 1: Each student is to hand-in the titles a book of choice (fiction or non-fiction), movie of
choice (drama, comedy, sci-fi, thriller, action, horror, film noir, western, crime) or TV program of choice
(series, talk show, music, news, sports, reality) which they are familiar as a basis for in-class thematic
discussion. This assignment derives from The Public Sphere regarding sociologist Jurgen Habermas’
critique of western capitalism and classical Marxism in the shaping of public opinion. Since the time of
the Eurocentric Renaissance, people came together in coffee houses, clubs, churches, libraries et.al, to
form opinions which in turned influence society. The Public Sphere has been replaced by mass
communication (entertainment), hence this assignment.

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2:00pm – 3:00pm: Objective 4: Acquire an understanding of intersectionality.

Instructor engages with students and students with each other in an exchange of ideas, perspectives,
opinions, about overlapping themes that are realized within mediums of mass communication, such as
in books, movies and TV.

Objective 5: Explore how common knowledge is inherent in various health

disciplines that define and reflect structural racism.

Assignment 2: College Bowl: Students self-select into clusters to display collective knowledge about
structural racism in a power-point exam. Areas of exploration include general knowledge about human
events reflected mainly within western history, race, ethnicity, class, bigotry, racism, sexism, genetics,
roles and status, ideology and methodology, imagery, technology, anxiety, depression, body image,
diaspora, environment and ecology, food, drugs, ethics, deviancy and crime, etc.

3:00 – 3:50pm: Objective 6: Articulate students’ role in dismantling structural racism.

Assignment 3: Students are pre-assign into cohorts or teams for their 25-minute group presentation
during the second and third modules. Assigned Topics/cases are described. The instructor will not
change composition of groups or the topics.

Assignment 4: Each cohort, group or team will decide among themselves which ONE of the Topic/case to
present. Group members exchange emails and contact information.

It is noted the third module provide the cohort an extra week for preparation. Participation is what
counts.

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ASSIGNMENTS:

Assignment 1: (15%): This exercise is to engage students in a thematic analysis (the Public Sphere) of
how everyday systems of oppression and structural racism are realized through mass media.

Please hand-in or email this assignment to the instructor any time Before Saturday, Oct 10th, 2020:

Name: ___________________________________________________________

Discipline, Program or Department: ___________________________________

Title of favorite or recently read book: ______________________________

Title of favorite or recently viewed movie: ____________________________

Title of favorite or recently viewed TV program: _______________________

Please do not list something you believe the instructor has read or watched. List whatever book, movie
and TV program YOU have read or watched. Whatever comes to mind. This is not meant to be work.

Choice of book can be fiction or non-fiction, novel, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, anthology,
romance, thriller, memoir, biography, autobiography, graphic novel, comic book, fairy tale, crime, true
crime, gothic, erotic, history, but please avoid textbooks, picture book, encyclopedia, dictionary, or book
reviews.

Choice of movie can be a foreign or domestic, old or new, classic or contemporary, drama, western,
sports, anime, noir, apocalyptic, gangster, martial arts, musical, thriller, animation, comedy, mystery,
biography, slasher, fantasy, superhero, war, science fiction, action or adventure. Please avoid listing
pornographic, gamer or those straight-to-video features starring Steven Seagal.

Choice of TV program can be a sit-com, drama, soap-opera, documentary, reality show, mini-series,
cooking, cartoon, game show, music, news, religious, sports, telenovela, talk or variety show. But please
avoid listing shows on public access, infomercials, or home shopping network.

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Assignment 2: The College Bowl: (15%): This late afternoon Saturday exercise is design to engage
students and draw out basic understandings of how structural racism is inherent across academic
disciplines and in areas of general knowledge. The exercise addresses the fragmentation across
departments and programs and hopefully will help facilitates group interaction when done in-person.
However, now that we are online, responses will come from the individual student.

Instructions:

1. Instead of small groups, it is the individual student who responds.

2. Question are projected (or shared) on screen by Power point.
3. Only 5 seconds are given for a response.
4. This is not a test. Simply unmute and respond.
5. Responses can serve as a basis for discussing the intersectionality of structural racism and
well-being.

Please Note: This “College Bowl” derives from TV program of 1950s which gave rise to other present-day
intellectual quiz shows such as Jeopardy and University Challenge. The questions are not arcane or
esoteric, or they are not supposed to be. Some are very elementary and all represent what the
instructor believes should be common knowledge to most graduate students. It is not meant to be work,
but a way of unearthing critical thinking.

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Assignment 3: (60%): Student-led Group Presentations: Second & Third Modules.

Students are randomly assigned into cohorts vis-a-vis topics/cases where structural racism is embedded
(see Topics/Cases for Presentation, pages 23-39). Each student cohort presentation, approximately 4
each of the two nights (8 total) have approximately 25 minutes to make their collective presentation
within the 2-hour session of the second module and third module. Cohorts choose, as a collaboration,
only ONE of the assigned Topic/Case.

Steps in the collaborative cohort assignment process:

1. 40 Topics/Cases are described and listed.

2. Calculation of number of students per Topic/Cases.
3. Each enrolled student’s name consign to a container.
4. Each name randomly drawn (without replacement).
5. Student cohort assigned to Topics/Cases function as a team.
6. Cohorts made without any consideration to academic discipline.
7. Cohorts made without consideration to demographics.
8. Assignment of cohorts vis-à-vis topics/cases made available Saturday afternoon.
9. No reassignments of cohorts or teams or of topics/cases.

Each cohort or team have 25-minutes per presentation and be in any manner they choose as a student
team.

Assignment 4: (10%) Interaction, communication, collaboration with peers.

Be Advised: Completing all of the assignments constitute course attendance. Absenteeism is to risk
earning an immediate “no credit.”

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HSERV / PHI 579: Structural Racism and Public Health (1 credit) Continued….

Intersection of Dominant Culture and Internalized Oppression

Student-led Group Presentations

Wednesday Night: Oct 14th, 2020, 6:00 – 7:50pm, Online

A student cohort is randomly assigned as a team to the number of topics/cases. The cohort or team is
responsible for presenting only one topic/case. The student cohort or team makes the choice and
notifies the instructor. Instructor will not change topics/cases or randomly assigned combination of
student teams or groups. If a student does not like their topic/case or the group, it is up to the student
to find another and notify immediately the instructor.

Each group/team must decide WHICH cases/topics they will present in the 25-minute allotment during
the second and third modules in the weeks. Use of Electronics allowed for presentations.

Second Module: (2 Hours):

6:00pm7:50pm: Objective 6: Students articulate their role in dismantling structural racism.

TIME Topic/Case (choose only one) Presenters

6:00-6:25pm -Gangs & Gangsters:
-“White Saviors” with a Heart of Darkness:
-Maternal & Child:
-Image & Globalization:
-Black Cubans & Castro’s Revolution:
6:30-6:55pm -“Tell Them We Are Here! “Asians in
Predominately White Societies:
-Haitians, AIDS, & the Politics of Labelling:
-Guns, Guns & More Guns:
-Black is a Color: Colorism:
-“Uncle Ike ain’t no kin to me:”
7:00-7:25pm -Mercy, Mercy Me… The Ecology:
-Racially Mixed: Acceptance & Rejection:
-Importation of a Middle-Class Minority into
Canada:
-Myth of the Model Minority: Asians & Nigerians
in America & Britain.
-Somebody… Call the Police!
7:30-7:50pm -Any Place is Better Than Here.
-“They Don’t Look Like Indians to Me:”
-Internalized Racism: “They’re Coming For You,
Girl.”
-Homogeneity & Health:
-Black Lives Matter & Globalization:

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Student-led Group Presentations (continued)…

Wednesday Night: Oct 21st, 2020, 6:00 – 7:50pm, Online

Third Module: (2 Hours):

6:00pm – 7:50pm: Objective 6: Students articulate their role in dismantling structural racism.

TIME Topic/Case (choose only one) Presenters

6:00-6:25pm -Acculturation, Assimilation & Health:
-Get Out!:
-Ebola Doesn’t Live Here:
-Blessed with “God-given” Athletic Abilities:
-Stop, Look, Listen to your Heart.
6:30-6:55pm -Sex Worker “Rights”:
-Let Only the Right Ones In:
-Homogenizing Asian Americans:
-Campus Racism:
-“Ain’t I a Woman?:”Westernized Concepts of
Beauty:
7:00-7:25pm -Rape:
-Hearts & Minds:
-Out of the Melting Pot & Into the Fire: Racism &
the Contradictions of Democracy:
-In the Neighborhood: Temples, Mosque,
Synagogue and Churches:
-Family Life
7:30-7:50pm -There Goes the Neighborhood!:
-Looking for Justice & Finding Just Us:
-“Lean-in,” “Me-Too” or “Missing White Women
Syndrome:
-LGBTQ: Accept, Hide & Rejection:
-Female Circumcision or Mutilation?:

Goal: Students evaluate structural racism through an anti-racist lens.

Systems overlap and interconnect in themes. For examples: “Image & Globalization” share
commonalities of acceptance and marginality as in “Colorism: Black is a Color” and “Ain’t I a Woman.”
Disparities in law enforcement makeup “Somebody Call the Police,” “There Goes the Neighborhood”
and “Uncle Ike Ain’t No Kin to Me.” “Let Only the Right One’s In,” “Get Out” and “Importation of a
Middle-Class” share commonalities marginality and gentrification along with “Anyplace is Better Than
Here.” Issues of “Acculturation and Assimilation” reflect in “Out of the Melting Pot…”and “Myth of the
Model Minority.” “Racially Mixed…” and “Stop, Look, Listen” reveal systems of structural racism at the
micro (love) and macro (anti-miscegenation laws) level. Combinations and permutations of structural
racism are uncovered in themes that emerge at the social, physical and emotional health.

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HSERV / PHI 579 A/B: Structural Racism and Public Health (1 credit)

Terms of Reference:
Listed below are some terms, words, expressions, concepts, phrases, definitions, constructions resulting in
themes which help discern a common language (Objective 1) and assist in understanding the historical context
(Objective 2) of structural racism (Objectives 3 & 4) and thematic links to health (Objective 5). This list is not
exhaustive nor are the definitions definitive. The terms stem from the instructor’s use of them in this course.

Abolition: The ending or termination a system or institution. Use in reference to ending the Trans-
Atlantic Slave Trade in human cargo during the 17th-19th centuries that occurred between Europe, Africa
(west coast) and the Americas (southern United States, Caribbean regions, Mexico, South America) (see
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Affirmative Action: Policy and programs, public and or private, implemented during the 1960s in order
to help ensure hiring in institutions where, intentional or not, discrimination against protected classes of
people (woman and minorities) had taken place (see Institutionalized Racism, Systems).

African-Latinos: People of Latin America heritage who phenotypically represent as descendants of

African Slaves (see Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Allostatic Load: Bio-medical research seeking to measure neural responses to repeated stressors (see
Hypertension, Stress, Weathering).

Antifa: Anti-fascist movement comprised of various organization opposed to fascism and right-wing
ideology (see Patriot Prayer, Racism).

Anti-Miscegenation: Against interracial marriage or “race-mixing” (see Miscegenation, Race, Racism)

Anti-racism: Policies and practices that oppose racism.

Anti-Semitism: Hatred, hostility or prejudice toward Jews. Anti-Semitism is considered a form of racism
and at the core of Jewish history world-wide, from the times surrounding the massacre of Spanish Jews
in 1391 (and earlier persecutions) in Europe to the more than 6 million Jews exterminated by German
Nazis during World War II (1939-1945). Anti-Jewish attitudes are frames within notions of Jews being
obsessed with money, being loud and pushy, and representing an overall inferior race, and also being
revolutionary. Anti-Semitism are in the works of Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker in their descriptive
characterizations of “Hebrews” in A Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula, respectively. During the Jim
Crow Era of legal discrimination against African Americans, Jews and Catholics were also in the sights of
domestic terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis. Christian groups traditionally
saw Jews as “Christ-Killers.” This makes for a curious present relationship between evangelical
Christians and Jews as strange bed-fellows. American evangelicals now see people of the Jewish faith
having the Biblical right to the Holy land and pushing out the Palestinians, while at the same time,
recognizing that that the only Messiah is Jesus Christ.

Appropriation (Cultural): The dominance culture adopting, or ripping off, cultural elements from the
cultures of minorities without due credit and calling it their own. Rip-off examples from African

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American culture are: BBQ, sweet potato pie, collard greens and rice, jerk chicken, peppered scrimp,
Jazz, tap, the blues, rap, funk, Reggae, hip-hop, the numbers (lottery), beatniks, braids and Elvis.

Biblical Bigotry: Term used mainly by anthropologist Marvin Harris in The Rise of Anthropological Theory
(1968) to describe the linking of Biblical dogma to explanation of “race” or the superficial phenotypic
variations in people. Notions such as monogenism (theory that all humans descended from a common
source, Adam and Eve, to polygenism (that anyone other than white must have descended from another
origin) were prominent in conjunction with the concept by scientists and clergy (see Institutionalize
Racism)

Biological Determinism: A product from the Age of Enlightenment and reductionist thinking that human
behavior is determine by genes and brain-size. Rules out nurture or social factors in favor of nature or
biology (see Eugenics, Scientific Racism).

BIPOC: Black and Indigenous and People of Color. Similar to BAME, the term used in reference to Black
and Ethnic Minorites in the United Kingdome, with emphasis is given to “Black” because the descriptor
evokes a greater amount of racism. Indigenous recognizes incredible history of white or European
colonization and genocide to indigenous populations over the world. (see Colored, POC or People of
Color, Race.

Bi-racial: A person who identifies as being racially-mixed. For African Americans, the term comes with
inclusiveness or exclusiveness of a Black heritage. It is perhaps the difference between Colin Kaepernick,
Trevor Noah, Hallie Berry and Barak Obama vis-à-vis Vin Diesel and Meghan Markel (see Black, “Paper-
bag Test,” Race).

Birth of a Nation: The 1915 silent film classic so powerful and influential it had a special screening in the
White House under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) whose family were slave-holders.
The groundbreaking motion picture was instrumental in resurrecting the white terrorist organization,
the Ku Klux Klan, depicted as heroes (see Mass Media or Mass Communication, Neo-Nazi, White
Supremacy).

Black: A population descend from the original people of Africa defined by phenotypic skin color (see Bi-
racial, “Paper-bag Test”).

Black Codes: Laws passed in the Southern states immediately following the Civil War and Emancipation,
designed to restrict the freedom of African Americans. Black continued to be held in economic slavery
due to low wages, debt peonage, Jim Crow Laws, domestic terrorism, and unequal law enforcement (see
Capitalism, Institutionalized Racism).

Blackface: Facial make-up used be white entertainers to mock what whites constructed as African
American behavior. This theatrical practice can be traced back to the 18 th century in America and in
Europe and continued to flourished into the 19th century in the age Minstrelsy where white people
gleefully engaged in stage shows and later in movies with faces painted black with shoe-polish or burnt
cork, featuring enlarged (red) lips and curly wigs, speaking and dancing to denigrate Black people.

Black Lives Matter: A global organization originated in the United States in 2013 and organized to
prevent, intervene, and protest violence and racism perpetrated against Black people. Founded by

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group self-identified queer Black women Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tomeli (see Black Power,
Civil Rights Movement, Hip Hop, Pan-Africanism).

Black Muslims (The): An African American religious organization normally known as the Nation of Islam
founded in the 1930s. The Nation of Islam became much more of a political under the leadership of
Muslim minister Malcolm X (1925-1965) who vehemently charged America with white racism (see Black
Lives Matter, Black Power, Civil Rights Movement).

Black Panther Party: African American Political organization founded in 1966 to challenge police
brutality against African Americans (see Black Power, Civil Rights Movement, Command Presence, Cop,
Institutionalized Racism, Police).

Black Power: Term first used by United States civil rights activist turned militant, Stokely Carmichael
(1941-1998), aka Kwame Ture, as a source of Black pride and empowerment (see Civil Rights
Movement).

Blues (The): American music and song derived from gospels and slave work songs rooted in the African
American experience of oppression and racism. Some prominent artists are B.B. King (1925-2015),
Muddy Waters (1913-1983), John Lee Hooker (1917-2001), Bessie Smith (1894-1937), Ray Charles (1930-
2004), Lead Belly (1888-1949), Etta James (1938-2012). Ma Rainey (1886-19390 Billie Holiday (1915-
1959) and others (See Jazz, Appropriation, Cooptation, Multiculturalism).

Brother or Bro’: Term of endearment employed by African Americans toward African American males.
The term could be rooted in the Slave Era when Black families were ripped apart and during the post
Emancipation period, ex-slaves literally went searching for relatives (see Sister).

Capitalism: A political economic system based on private ownerships of goods and resources. Profit is
made the owners from workers who have only their labor to sell. Workers can never be paid (in wages)
what they are truly worth since there would less profit. Slavery is the economic ideal in a capitalist
society since there is no wage to pay and labor is “free” or coerced.

Charlottesville: A city in the state of Virginia and the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), main
author of the Declaration of Independence and the 3rd President of the United States, slave-owner and
rapist. Charlottesville today has become more infamous as the place of the August 2017 white
supremacist rally protesting the removal of a bronze equestrian statue of southern civil war hero and
confederate general, Robert E. Lee (1807-1870). Arguably, the name might be as synonymous with
racism to millennials as Selma (in Alabama) was (or is) to baby boomers for the same thing (see Civil
Rights Movement, Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi).

Civil Rights Movement: Period in American history from early 1950s to late 1960s encompassing the
African American or Black-led fight for social justice (see Jim Crow.

Code-Switching: “But you don’t sound black?” Alternating between two or more languages in terms of
dialect and enunciation. Reflective of the concept of “double consciousness” W.E.B. Du Bois raised in
The Souls of Black Folks (1903) in the manifestation of a person adapting multiple identities in order to
survive in a racist (dominant) society. The concept of code-switching is literally played out in the 2018
film, Sorry to Bother You.

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Colored: Outdated term to refer to people-of-color. The racism in this adjective presumes everyone had
to be white and in the march of history people changed from their original complexion of white and
became… colored. The term is still used by a civil rights organization, the National Associate for Colored
People (NAACP) founded in 1910 during the Jim Crow Era to combat the domestic terrorist organization,
the Ku Klux Klan (see Bi-racial, Black, “Paper-bag Test”).

Colorism: Discrimination based on skin color. Also known as shadeism. This is internalized racism
practiced within groups. Source material can be found in Lawrence Otis Graham’s 1999 book, Our Kind
of People, which details the history and the obscene snobbery of the African American upper class
seeming on the same side of the coin as white racism.

Command Presence: Take control. Take charge. Be the alpha male. Be the one in authority (see Cop,
Law and Order, Police).

Confederate Flag: The battle flag of the Confederate States of American during the American Civil War
(1981-1865). Seen as a racist symbol of slavery by most African Americans (see Civil Rights Movement,
Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Racism, White Supremacy).

Concept: An idea.

Conservative: Wanting to keep things as they are. To maintain the status-quo (See G.O.P., Republican
Party).

Conspiracy Theory: An explanation, without proof, evidence or logic, of motivations or accomplishments

for an event or activity that is attributed to a powerful, usually political, organization or group (see Deep
State; Q Anon).

Cooptation (Cultural): To take over (see Appropriation).

Cop: A law enforcement officer (see Command Presence, Law and Order, Police).

Coping: Struggling. Dealing with problems. Surviving.

Criminal: Law-breaker. Delinquent. The term is significance to race and health given the
disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos incarcerated. The concept dates back to
Eugenics and 19th century Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) and his notion of the “born
criminal.” Lombroso believed criminal behavior was innate and deviance could be distinguish in the
individual by the person’s physical features (see Cop, Command Presence, Phenotype, Police, Prejudice,
Profiling, Pseudo-science, Race, Racism).

Deadly Force: Law enforcement taken to the point of no return (see Black Lives Matter, Cop, Police).

Deep State: A government within a government (see Conspiracy Theory; Q Anon).

Democratic Party: One of the two major political parties in the United States. Members tend to be
progressives or liberal and believe in government having more of a role in people’s lives (see Republican
Party).

Democracy: Rule of government by the people. Representation through voting. Rule by the majority.

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Diaspora: A dispersion of a people by force or voluntary from their original land. The scattering of
people and usually to the history of Jewish people. The Africa diaspora has come into use to reference
the scattering from the Atlantic slave trade of 1600-1800s to modern day presence of Black people over
the globe (see Pan-African, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Diversity: Range of differences. Blatantly overused definition and concept within predominantly white
environments to the point of being meaningless. To put forth the appearance of being multicultural and
non-racist when in reality it is the opposite (see Institutionalized Racism, Multiculturalism, Orwellian,
Policy).

Dominant Culture: The most powerful. Does not necessarily equate to superior numbers, but to power
and privilege to create, develop, enforce and sustain values, language, rules, laws, polices, and
institutions. Who in society control institutions (media, education, military, law) that shape the social
and political will in the name of the collective (see Institutionalize Racism).

Drapetomania: A mental illness conjured up by slave-era physician Samuel Cartwright (1763-1863)

published in a medical journal. Drapetomania was the irrational desire of plantation slaves to flee
captivity (see Pseudo-science).

Education: Teaching. Learning. Acquisition of skills, knowledge, values and experience (see Systems).

Enlightenment (Age of): The period in Europe during the 18th century referred to as the Age of Reason
as characterized be a breaking away from the rule of the church and superstition toward philosophy,
reason, science and revolution. The irony is that this same period spawned the American Revolutionary
War and democracy while the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade flourished (see Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Entitlement: Having the right to a privilege or special treatment (see Equity).

Equity: Fair. Impartial.

Ethics: Right and wrong. Justice. Morality.

Ethnicity: Folkways or cultural proclivities that distinguish on group of people from another.

Eugenics: The breeding of only desirable traits in people (see Biological Determinism).

Evangelicals: Worldwide movement of Protestant Christianity stressing the authority of the Bible.

Favelas: The urban slums or shanty-towns in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro, inhabited mostly by
impoverished Black Latinos (see African-Latinos, Pan-African, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Fight or Flight: The mental and physical manifestation of the stress responses in the human body (see
Allostatic Load, Hypertension, Oppression, Racism, Stress, Vulnerable, Weathering Effect).

Fourteenth Amendment: Of the United States Constitution and addresses equal protection of the laws
and was originally design to protect the rights of newly freed slaves. However, white people have used

14
the 14th amendment to protect their rights regarding their striking down of policies such as Affirmative
Action. Important to point out that the 14th Amendment was in place yet the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
“separate but equal” (racial segregation) with Plessy V Ferguson in 1869, which was not struck down
until Brown V. Board of Education in 1954 (see Affirmative Action, Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow).

Gentrification: To make more refined, cultivated, cultured, urbane or less uncouth. The influx of higher
income residents into a poor neighborhood.

Genotype: Genes in an organism that are not visible but they determine visible or superficial traits (see
Phenotype).

G.O.P.: Grand Old Party. Refers to the Republican Party (see Conservative).

Hate Crime: A usually violent act based on race, gender, religion.

Health: “Not Just the absence of disease, but a complete state of social, physical and emotional well-
being,” the World Health Organization’s definition.

Health Equity: Quality of health and distribution of healthcare across different populations.

Hip Hop: Musical style developed by urban Africa Americans and Latinos in the 1970s that involve
rhythmic talking (or rapping) and syncopating music and drums (see, Appropriation, Blues, Diaspora,
Jazz).

History: A study of past events (see Biblical Bigotry, Civil Rights Movement, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

Homeless: Living in substandard shelter or without housing. Sleeping in a place not normally design for
sleeping. Majority of the homeless are men and minorities.

Homophobia: Irrational fear of gay people.

Hypertension: Elevated blood pressure which puts the person as risk for heart attack, stroke, chronic
kidney disease and early death (see Slave Hypothesis).

Imagery: Visual symbol. Language that represents an object or idea. Mental picture.

Immigrants: Persons from a foreign country who (wants to) live in a land not of their birth. People
seeking permanent residence in a country in which they are not native. Canada has 4 types of
immigrants: family (related to citizens), economic (skilled workers and business persons), refugees
(escaping persecution) and humanitarian. In the United States, the categories of immigrants are U.S.
citizens born or naturalized. Permanent or conditional immigrants are usually green card holders. Non-
immigrants in the county legally are students with F-1 visas, business people or tourists with B1/B2
visas, those engaged to be married with K-1 visas, and people given temporary protected status.
Undocumented are in the country without permission.

Immigration: Global movement of people from one country to another seeking citizenship.

15
Implicit Bias: Assumptions made about other people (see Prejudice, Racism).

Internalized Racism: Racist thoughts and practices directed toward members of one’s own ethnic or
racial group.

Intersectionality: The interconnection of race, ethnicity, gender orientation, class, culture, age,
education, occupation, residence, and gender that create overlapping systems of discrimination. Such
social categories are embedded and can be explored in mediums of mass communication (see
Education, Institutionalized Racism, Mass Communication, Systems).

Institutionalized Racism: Policies and practices that are in institutions such as mass communication,
government, law enforcement, academia, medicine, family, religion, military, etc, in place and whether
intentional or not, produce racist outcomes (see Structural Racism, Systems, Systemic Racism).

Institution: A system of socio-human relationships design to maintain and reinforce social order (see
Education).

Islamophobia: Irrational fear of Muslims (Black Power).

Jazz: Pure African American musical art form rooted in the early 20th century. The 1920s often called
“The Jazz Age.” Music and singing characterized by some if not all improvisation. Among many
prominent American musical jazz artists are: Miles Davis (1926-1991), Billie Holiday (1915-1959), Louis
Armstrong (1901-1971), Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990), Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993), Ella Fitzgerald (1917-
1996), John Coltrane (1926-1967), Duke Ellington (1899-1974), Charlie Parker (1925-1955), Billy Eckstine
(1914-1993), Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and others (see Appropriation, Blues, Cooptation).

Jim Crow: The stage name for Thomas Dartmouth Rice (1808-1860), a 19th century white entertainer
who used blackface make-up to acted in racist caricature of what white people saw in African Americans
as being lazy, unintelligent and happy-go-lucky. The Jim Crow character remain a prominent source of
income for Rice and other white performers. The name, “Jim Crow,” though highly offensive to African
Americans, was adopted by Blacks in their fight against those “Jim Crow laws” that supported
segregation s legal (see Anti-Miscegenation, Black Codes, Civil Rights Movement).

Ku Klux Klan: White domestic terrorist organization in the United States founded in 1866 in reaction to
the Emancipation of African American slaves following the American Civil War (1861-1865). The white
supremacist organization still active today. The KKK is known for wearing white sheets and cross-burning
while perpetrating lethal violence against African Americans but also express a hatred of Jews, Catholics,
Gays, immigrants, and anyone not considered “American” (See Birth of a Nation, Charlottesville, Civil
Rights Movement, Lynching, Neo-Nazi, Race, Racism, White Supremacy).

Latinx (or Hispanic) Paradox: Within the context of epidemiology with reference to health outcomes
among some low-income Hispanics and better health outcome than low-income whites and other non-
Hispanics. Adult and infant mortality in particular regarding the “self-contradictions” consider the effect
of social support, kin-ship structures, healthy migrant, nutrition, and slower aging or “epigenetic clock”
(see Ethnicity, Race, Social Support)

16
“Law and Order:” Not the name of the incredibly over-rated TV series from 1990-2010, but a term or
phases thrown around by B-movie actor Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th President of the United States
from 1981-1989, as code for needing more police power to suppress low-income minorities. Reagan
popularized the term as governor of California from 1967 – 1975. It was the 1953 western where Reagan
portrayed a no nonsense lawman. Richard Nixon (1913-1994), 37th President of the United States, use
the same rhetoric to great effect as he waged a War on Drugs leading to the mass incarceration of low-
income Black and Brown people.

Lynching: Execution by a mob (see Black Codes, Ku Klux Klan).

Mandatory Sentencing: The requirement that the offender serve specified time in prison when
convicted of certain crimes (see Law and Order, War of Drugs).

Marginality: Those pushed out of the mainstream of society. Prevented from sharing in the
opportunities and resources available to others (see Affirmative Action, Institutionalized Racism).

Marxist: An economic analysis of society that considers class dynamics. From the world view or
philosophy or ideology of 19th century political economist and sociologist Karl Marx (1818-1883) (see
Capitalism).

Mass Media or Mass Communication: Technology design to reach a wide audience or general public.
Methods include television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, comic books, graphic novels,
bill-boards, internet, advertisements, speaking tours, video games, blogs, propaganda, and stereotypes
(see Capitalism, Dominant Culture, #OscarSoWhite)

Medical Model: Treatment of disease from a purely biological perspective.

Medical Racism: Prejudice and discrimination carried out under cover of delivering medical treatment
and conducting bio-medical research (see Pseudo-science, Race, Racism, Scientific Racism, Tuskegee
Medical Experiment).

Meme: An idea transferred or transmitted from person to person usually through the internet, though
“memes” pre-date the World Wide Web. A meme can start out as an absolute and total lie yet through
cultural transmission, take on a “life of its own” due to repetition.

Micro-aggression: The “casual” putting down or denigration, whether intentional or not, of any
marginalized group by words or gestures (see Dominant Culture).

Militant: Term usually reserved for disenfranchised members of a minority as defined by numbers
and/or by power (as in the case of women) who is willing to confront and engage the racial or gender
status-quo for equality by any means necessary (see Black Lives Matter, Black Muslims, Black Panthers).

Militarized: Organized for military conflict or war (see Cop, Police, War on Drugs).

Miscegenation: Marriage between two people of different “racial” groups (see Civil Rights Movement,
Jim Crow, Race).

17
“Missing White Women Syndrome:” Mass media’s fascination and attention to white women who go
missing (see Dominant Culture, Mass Media, White Privilege).

Monogenism: Biological theory popular during the 18th-19th centuries, that all human being descended
from a common origin and the existence of people-of-color, especially Black people, was either a
mistake or they came from a different species (see Biblical Bigotry, Race).

Multiculturalism: The appreciation and celebration of different cultures within the same society (see
Diaspora, Ethnicity, Pan-Africanism, Race).

Nature vs Nurture: A concept regurgitated by 19th century scientists and politicians as to whether
human behavior is a product of heredity or the environment (see Biological Determinism, Eugenics,
Social Darwinism, “Survival of the Fittest”).

Negro: Out-dated term used to describe people with dark skin and originally from the African Continent.
Probably derived from the era of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1600-1850) by the Spanish and
Portuguese in their description of Africans and African Slaves. The bases for the “n” word (see Black,
Civil Rights Movement, Colored. “Paper-bag Test”).

Neo-Nazi: Post WWII white supremacy organization of the German Nazi Party which was led by Adolf
Hitler (1889-1945). They deny the Holocaust. Neo-Nazis incorporate the swastika and the SS bolts as
their symbol and have a global presence.

Obesity: The accumulation of excess body fat that can put the individual at-risk for negative health,
such as breathing problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. Obesity is defined by
Body Mass Index (BMI) which is a height to weight ratio. The BMI can be an over-estimation of weight
with people with more muscle and under-estimation of people with less muscle mass, such with older
adults.

Oppression: Continued cruel and harsh treatment (see Racism).

“Origin of the Species:” Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) monumental work published in 1859 and basis for
evolutionary biology. Darwin’s treatise is seminal in that it set religion on its head by undermining the
prevailing Biblical bigotry of monogenism and polygenism of human development but also framed the
“organismic analogy” used by scholars such as political economist Karl Marx (1818-1883) and sociologist
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) to see society as evolving life force (see “Survival of the Fittest”).

Orwellian: Reference to political conditions reflected in George Orwell’s (1903-1950) classic dystopian
novel, Nineteen Eighty Four (1949), where critical thought is suppressed and the government is
totalitarian. Not a stretch given the themes of “fake news,” militarized and trigger-happy police, the
anti-immigration policies and the oppression of minorities (see Dominant Culture, Institutionalized
Racism, Systems, White Privilege).

18
#OscarSoWhite: A hashtag invented by African American activist April Reign after she viewed the 2015
Academy Awards for motion pictures nominations reflecting, literally, the industry’s continuing lack of
diversity (see Dominant Culture, Mass Media).

Other (The): That which is different (see Black, Colored).

Over-representation: A disproportionate larger number (see Affirmative Action, Dominant Culture,

White Privilege).

Pan-Africanism: Encompassing the African diaspora of Black people from the African Continent
shattered across the globe (see Diaspora, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade).

“Paper Bag Test:” Historically, a test of “accepted” skin-tone conducted by economically elitist African
Americans as a basis for inclusion and exclusion (see Internalized Racism).

Patriot Prayer: A far-right group based in Vancouver, Washington State, and opposed to liberalism (see
antifa, Racism).

People-Of-Color: Often referred to as POC. Term used to include all non-white people.

Phenotype: The genetic make-up of the organism that are visible (see Black, Colored, Genotype, Implicit
Bias).

Police: An armed guard of the social order (see Command Presence, Cop, Law and Order).

Policy: Course of action. Rules. Regulations. Strategy. Guidelines (see Institutionalized Racism, System).

Polygenism: Biological theory very popular during the 18th -19th centuries that all humans must have
descended from difference species order to explain the existence of people-of-color, especially Black
people (see Biblical Bigotry).

Poverty: Destitution. An inability to provide for the individual or social welfare.

Prejudice: Assumption made by people based upon stereotypes (see Implicit Bias).

Profiling: Making generalizations about a person’s behavior based mainly upon physical or phenotypic
features or characteristics (Criminal, Institutionalized Racism, Other, Prejudice, Racism)

Progressive: Social and political change (see Black Panther Party, Civil Rights Movement, Democratic
Party).

Pseudo-science: Erroneous knowledge and practice about the human condition believed based in value-
free objectivity (See Biological Racism, Eugenics, Scientific Racism).

Public Health Practitioners: The public health workforce. Ongoing issue of the extent workforce
represent the populations being served (see Affirmative Action).

19
Q Anon: Crack-pot right-wing internet group who push the conspiracy theory of a deep state where the
democratic party is ruled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles (see Conspiracy Theory, Deep State).

Qualified: An adjective used always to describe the competence of minorities and women but never
white males (see Affirmative Action).

Race: Superficial phenotypic characteristics between variations of people. The term itself, far from being
“scientific,” was probably first used by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) a Swedish botanist and physician,
famous for his categorization of plants. Linnaeus felt the same accounting and grouping could be done
with humans: Americanus people were red, stubborn and free; Europeanus were white, gentle,
inventive, and govern by laws; Asiastus were yellow, melancholic, haughty and greedy; and Africanus
relaxed, crafty, cunning, lustful, and careless (see Scientific Racism).

Racism: Belief and practice in and of racial superiority by those with the power to enforce it.

Red-lining: The systematic denial of loans be banks working in collaboration with real-estate companies
to keep neighborhoods poor and racially segregated. UW History professor James Gregory and others
uncovered racist covenants in deeds such as: “No person or persons of Asiatic, African or Negro blood
linage or extraction shall be permitted to occupy a portion of said property or any building thereon
except as domestic servants who may actually and in good faith be employed by white occupants of
such premise.” Such language is in deeds encompassing neighborhoods in Broadmoor, Greenlake, Lake
City, Queen Ann, Ballard/Sunset Hills, Magnolia, Bellevue, Clyde Hills, Kenmore, White Center and other
neighborhood (see Civil Rights Movement, Institutionalize Racism, Other, Policy, Race, Racism,
Structural Racism, White Flight)

“Regression to the Mean:” A statistical calculation of a variable’s measurement tending toward the
average. Francis Galton (1822-1911), a 19th century mathematician and cousin of Charles Darwin,
observed the phenomenon with data points, and surmise it could occur regarding the intellectual
endowment of people with too many births among the lower class. Hench, the birth of Eugenics (see
Biological Determinism, Scientific Racism).

Reparations: Payback for a wrong that was done. Making compensation.

Republican Party: One of the two major political parties in the United States. Members define
themselves as conservative and believe in gun rights less government in the lives of the people (see
Democratic Party, GOP).

Rhythm and Blues: Normally described as R&B which is of African American origin and like Jazz, the
Blues, and Soul, has been ripped off by the white mainstream without acknowledgement by far too
many. Important to our understanding of race, gender and diaspora in that R&B, and its off-shoots of
pop and Hip-Hop is a world-wild phenomena. American R&B is represented in the music of white artists
such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and Adele in Britain, to Afro Latin sounds in Cuba
which is seldom acknowledged as based in the roots of slavery, except perhaps by Reggae (see Blues,
Jazz).

20
Reverse Racism: The very definition of “false equivalence” as when white people claim that it is they
who are being discriminated upon because of their race. The illogic, or logical fallacy, is based on the
notion that because two elements share the same outcome, they must be the same. For example,
African Americans can indeed be just as prejudice, anti-Semitic, and discriminating as white people, but
Blacks lack the resources or power to back up their bigotry while not being an excuse for such vile
behavior. This is where the concepts of institutionalized racism and structural racism become relevant
and white privilege is dominant (see Anti-Semitism, Discrimination, Prejudice, Racism).

Scientific Racism: Research used to support the belief of racial superiority. Popular in the 19th and 20th
century employed body measurements, particularly skulls, with the belief that “numbers cannot lie.”
Scientific racism has remain popular today in human evolutionary genetics with alleged connections still
being made between “race” and intelligence, as in the 1994 best seller, The Bell Curve (see Eugenics,
Miscegenation, Nature v Nurture, “Regression to the Mean,” Social Darwinism, Race, Racism, White
Privilege, White Supremacy).

Sister: Term of endearment employed by African Americans toward African American females. The term
could be rooted in the Slave Era when Black families were ripped apart and during the post
Emancipation period ex-slaves literally went searching for relatives (see Brother).

Slave Hypothesis: The theory or hypothesis proposed in 1983 and published in 1991 that the prevalence
and incidence of high blood pressure found in African Americans is link to their ancestors from the salt
deficient regions of Africa and who survived the Middle Passage in the suffocating bowels of slave ships
in sweat, urine, vomiting and defecation. Those who survived the horrendous sea voyage from the coast
of West Africa to the Americas did so because of “natural selection.” Present-day African Americans are
therefore at risk for hypertension due to consuming too much (unneeded) salt. In 2007, Oprah Winfrey
and her quack, Dr. Oz, irresponsibly broadcast this medical myth to the masses. The over-rated Winfrey
ignored all attempts by public health professionals for equal time. Researchers have shown that West
Africans would now exhibit similar rates of hypertension given their own salt intake. They do not.
Richard Cooper, another epidemiologist, found hypertension among Nigerians lower than among white
Americans. Germans and Finns had higher rates of hypertension than African Americans (see Eugenics,
Hypertension, Internalized Racism, Mass media, “Survival of the Fittest”).

Social Darwinism: The theory that human behavior is determined by evolutionary laws of “natural
selection.” During the 19th century, this concept was use to explain colonization, racism, capitalism,
hierarchy (see Eugenics, “Survival of the Fittest”).

Social Justice: Fairness. Morality. Ethics. Doing the right thing. Leveling the field (see Racism).

Social Media: Sharing of information through the electronic medium of digital photographs and videos.
Social media has enhanced police accountability. Before there was no verification of racist policing
toward low-income, vulnerable, and marginalized people, especially African Americans. Interestingly,
dismissed FBI director James Comey played a pivotal (if unintended) role in the 2016 election of Donald
Trump. Comey openly bashed social media in a speech delivered in October 2015 by hypothesizing the
scrutiny of law enforcement by the public with cell phones might have led to an increase in violent
crime. Go figure! (See Command Presence, Institutionalized Racism, Mass Media).

Social Support: Family, friends, and people who care (see Latinx Paradox, Marginalization).

21
Stress: As in “stressors,” “constant stress” or “hyper-vigilance.” Confronting and enduring
circumstances that can not be avoided (see Fight or Flight, Racism).

“Survival of the Fittest:” Coined not by evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) but by the so-
called Father of Sociology, Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), to describe those in society with abilities to
successfully compete in the Industrial Revolution of the 18th -19th centuries to meet the demands of
rising Capitalism (see Capitalism, Social Darwinism).

Structural Racism: Social forces and institutions that reinforce and sustain systems of racial oppression
(see Institutional Racism).

Systemic Racism: Policies and practices spread throughout institutions that produce racial inequality
and racist outcomes (see Institutional Racism, Structural Racism).

Systems: Interconnected parts working together to form a complex whole.

Tap Dancing: Unlike Jazz, tap dancing is a “musical” art form with roots in other international cultures.
Tap dancing resonates with African Americans from not allowed as slaves to keep their own dance
customs, unlike the Irish and Greeks in America. Due to popularity of minstrel shows during the “Jim
Crow” era, shoes with metal attached to the heel and toe produced sounds in the form of a rhythmic
percussion. African Americans, as they do in Basketball, added their own flourishes of footwork with or
without musical accomplishment. White entertainers such as Shirley Temple (1928-2014), Ginger Rogers
(1911-1995), Eleanor Powell (1912-1982), Fred Astaire (1899-1987) and Gene Kelly (1912-1996) were
outstanding, but had a much easier time in their careers than Black tappers or “hoofers ” such as Bill
Bojangles Robinson (1878-1949) and the Nicholas Brothers Fayard (1914-2006) and Harold (1921-2000)
(see Cooptation, Institutional Racism, Mass Media, White Privilege).

“Three Strikes:” Statue or policy that mandates a person with two previous convictions of serious crimes
be given a life sentence for the third conviction (see Institutionalized Racism, Mandatory Sentencing,
System, War on Drugs).

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: The business of human cargo from the 1600s to the mid-1800s where 10-12
million African slaves were transported from the West Coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to
function as free-labor in the Americas (see Diaspora, Pan-African).

Transgender: When the gender identity is different from the one assigned at birth.

Trap Music: Southern hip-hop (rapper) music implemented in the 1990s emphasizing the dismal world
of being “tapped” by poverty, violence and drugs (see Hip-Hop, Vulnerable, War on Drugs).

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: A 40-year (1932-1972) prospective study of untreated syphilis in a

cohort of more than 400 impoverish African American sharecroppers conducted without informed
consent by the U.S. Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama (see Medical Racism).

Under-representation: Insufficient numbers or presence (see Affirmative Action).

22
Underclass: From a Marxist theoretical analysis (from 19th century political economist Karl Marx, 1818-
1883) of how the social hierarchy is comprised of the capitalists or bourgeoisie as the owners of the
means of production (the haves) and the proletariat or workers who must sell their labor (the have-
nots). In this class hierarchy, the underclass are the lumpen-proletariat and comprised of the homeless,
criminals, unemployed, beggars, wanderers, destitute and indigents who do have not a collective
conscience to contribute to the eventual over-throw of the ruling classes (see Capitalism, Marxist).

Vulnerable: Populations more at risk for inadequate health care and delivery (see Marginality, Race,
Racism).

Weathering Effect: The medical condition that racism is bad for the person’s health. Middle income
African Americans have worse health outcome than low-income whites. Health scholars such as Arline
T. Geronimus test the allostatic load scores (the cost of chronic exposure to stress in the endocrine
system) between Blacks and whites and found African Americans had higher scores regardless of
income, putting them always at higher risk for disease and early death (see Institutionalized Racism,
Latinx [or Hispanic] Paradox, Race, Racism).

Warrior Cops: Term used to describe the mentality of law enforcement especially since the 9/11
terrorist attacks in 2001 in combination with the Nixon/Reagan inspired War of Drugs. The increased
militarization of local and state police have come with weaponry, hardware, machine guns, artillery,
courtesy of the United States Arm Forces. Coupled with the attitudes of “command presence,” racism,
and a continuing lack of accountability, put low-income minorities more at risk death and incarceration
(see Cops, Command Presence, “Law and Order,” Institutionalized Racism).

War on Drugs: The “war” might have been around since Prohibition of alcohol during the “Roaring
Twenties,” but 37th United States president Richard Nixon (1913-1994) used it to target mainly African
Americans, Latinos and “Hippies” starting in the 1970s. Subsequent presidents in both political parties
continued the “war” on illegal heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Mandatory
sentencing, “three strikes policies,” the rise of the militarized police force, and massive incarceration
rates disproportionately impacted Blacks and Latinos and gave rise to a for-profit prison industry (See
Institutionalized Racism, “Three Strikes”).

“Welfare Queen:” Crude label publically stated by 40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) to
describe people on welfare. This was coded language for African Americans on public assistance (see
Capitalism, Institutionalized Racism, Race, Racism, System).

White Flight: White people who make it a point to move out of neighborhoods where Black people live
or want to live.

White Fragility: The inability of some white people to deal with the stress of racism. Discomfort among
some when information about racism, inequality, and social injustice is discuss. The concept might be
better understood when men accused of sexual harassment feel women are being overly sensitive (see

23
Black, Colored, Institutionalized Racism, Miscegenation, Pan-Africanism, Race, Racism, Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade, Weathering Effect).

White Guilt: White people who feel personally responsible for racism (see Race).

White Privilege: Social, political, economic and cultural advantages accorded to people solely for having
white skin (see Affirmative Action, Institutionalize Racism, Race).

White Savior: White people who assist non-white people. A complex phenomenon made distinct when
the offered help comes across as self-serving. The “white savior” can be patronizing, offensive, and
racist. English writer Rudyard Kipling’s (1865-1936) poem, The White Man’s Burden published in 1899,
best capture the concept.

White Supremacy: The belief that white people are superior to all others, and especially to Blacks or
African Americans (see Eugenics, Ku Klux Klan, Miscegenation, Nature v Nurture, Neo-Nazi, Racism).

Xenophobia: An irrational fear of strangers (see Immigrants, Other).

Zionism: The religious and political movement to re-establish a Jewish state in the Middle East which
encompasses the West Bank and Gaza. In the Hebrew Bible, Zion refers to Jerusalem, a city considered
holy to the religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Zion means the establishment of a Jewish
homeland which is the nation of Israel, founded in 1949. The Palestinian Arabs have long been establish
in the region, and they treat the Israeli settlements as an occupation. Protesters have had their homes
bull dozed similar to what also happened to African Blacks protesting Apartheid in South Africa. Hamas,
the Palestinian Sunni-Islamist organization, founded in 1987, has avowed to fight for a non-Israel, which
is construed as anti-Semitic my many who see the nation of Israel as an occupation. The land that should
be shared equality in what some advocate as the two-state solution. It has not help this incredibly
sensitive situation that Hamas denies the WWII Holocaust.

24
HSERV / PHI 579 A/B: Structural Racism and Public Health (1 credit)

Conceptual Model: Public Health Disciplines Relative to Structural Racism:

Attributes under each discipline come directly from the department and program descriptions.
Addresses Objective 5.

Social Work
-Empowerment
Nutrition -Humanities
-Foods -Qualitative
-Polices -Technology Pathobiology
-Systems -Foster care -Genetics
-Methodologies -Trans-racial adoptions -Molecular biology
-Food Safety -Youth gangs -Epidemiology
Nursing
-Education -Single parents -Workforce
-Antigenic analysis
-Obesity -Lifestyle -Qualitative
-Bacteriology
-Food Deserts -Aging -Bio-medical -Humanities / Ethics
-Lifestyle -Mental Health -Power dynamics
-Technology
-Communities -Gender factors
-Global Health
-Gerontology
Health Services -Informatics
-Humanities
-Access
-Quality Structural Racism & Global Health
-Cost -Diaspora
-Qualitative / Quantitative Public Health -Policies
-Evaluation -Systems of oppression -Metrics
-Gerontology -Social, physical, emotional -Implementation Science
-Policies well-being -Technology
-Education -Evaluation
-Media -Qualitative / Quantitative
-Technology
-Workforce
-Community Based Genetics
-Quantitative Biostatistics
Environmental -Scientific racism -Theory
-Biological determinism -Methodology
& Occupational -Metrics
-Eugenics
Health -Ethics -Quantitative
-Air, land, water -Human Genome -Technology
-Sanitation -Behavior -Reductionism
-Ecology -Humanities -Clinics
-Epidemiology -Technology
-Agriculture
-Fisheries
-Forestry
-Built environment
-Housing
-Jobs
-Robotics

25
HSERV / PHI 579 A/B: Structural Racism and Public Health (1 credit)

Topics/Cases for Presentations: Second & Third Modules.

Addresses Objectives 4, 5, and especially 6.

Student randomly assigned in a cohort address ONE of the five topic/cases in which structural racism is
embedded. See First and Second Modules for assignments and schedule. Students can present in any
manner they choose. Percentage points for participation are shared by the group.

1
Acculturation, Assimilation & Health:
What are some social, physical and/or emotional
consequences of assimilation and acculturation? Consider
when events are either a cultural celebration and
appreciation or an appropriation, manipulation, or rip-off the
status-quo. African American jazz, blues and Hip Hop, and
Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day are examples. In light of
Black Lives Matter, professional sports teams such as the
Washington Redskins or Cleveland Indians have finally
gotten around to changing their racist names? Why did it
take so long? Motion pictures such as the 2002 British-
German comedy-drama and later West End show, Bend It
Like Beckham, featured the blending in of an Asian-Indian
family into the dominant British culture. Similarly, the 2005
British comedy, Kinky Boots, was about white businessman
in partnership with a Black drag queen. Do such mediums
and plots promote acculturation toward a multicultural
society or do they assimilate minority cultures into the
dominant culture? What about pop singers who adopt a
Black singing style such as Michael McDonald, Amy
Winehouse, Adele, Lisa Stansfield? Do these examples serve
to promote anti-racism or are they part of the problem of
systemic structures of racism?

2
“Ain’t I a Woman?:”Westernized Concepts of Beauty:
“Ain’t I a Woman” is the name of the impromptu speech
given in 1827 by African American Sojourner Truth (died
1883) after gaining her freedom from slavery. Her message
in that white environment still resonates across time, race,
ethnicity and geography, and it transcends women’s rights,
world history, and mass media. South Korea does a
booming business in cosmetic surgery. Nip and tuck
operations often diminish ethnic phenotypic features in favor
of a more westernized look. Blonds (once) dominated
Mexican television and are the preferred escorts of Japanese
business men. The sale of skin-lightening creams and hair
straightening products follow the diaspora of Black Africans
into England, France and in America and within the African
continent itself. Black comedian Chris Rock’s movie, Good
Hair (2009), explored African-American “obsession” with
straight hair. Hairstyles are reflected in Zadie Smith’s White
Teeth, in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and in
Phoebe Robinson’s You Can’t Touch My Hair. Students
address physical, emotional and social dimensions of health

26
 or well-being regarding these issues as framed within the
intersectionality of structural racism.

3
Any Place is Better Than Here!:
Such was the declaration made by militant Muslim and civil
rights activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) in one of his most
masterful speeches. Malcolm advocated Black Americans
return to their homeland in Africa. “They don’t want us here”
was the point, with “they” being white people. During the
1950s, novelist and social critic James Baldwin (1924-1987)
moved to Paris, France, and spent time in Switzerland and
Turkey, to escape American racism. France was the respite
for African America artist, singer, songwriter and civil rights
activist Nina Simone (1933-2003). She also spent time in
Liberia, Africa. Singer/actor and civil rights activist Paul
Robeson (1898-1976) and Harlem Renaissance (1920s)
writer Richard Wright (1908-1960) were among the many
African Americans who sought solace away from the
systems of structural racism within the United States. What
about other people-of-color? Long before Lucy Liu, Maggie
Q, and Sandra Oh, was Chinese-American actress Anna May
Wong (1905-1961) who was forced to seek acting roles in
England to escape always being cast as an Asian stereotype.
Can Latinx get beyond a similar discrimination? Israel
became a homeland for Jews escaping anti-Semitism. But
what of the Zionism upon the Palestinians there? How can a
framework of structural racism explain how and why people
try to escape from racism and what they encounter if they
do?

4
Black Cubans & Castro’s Revolution:
Is the prominence of political conservatism among some
Cuban American politicians, such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz,
Mel Martinez and John Sununu related to white privilege?
Bob Martinez, the first person of Spanish ancestry to serve
as governor of Florida (1987-1991), is phenotypically darker
which is not usual. White House CNN correspondent Jim
Acosta is the offspring of Cuban parents, is phenotypically
white, and is a constant thorn in the side of the Trump
administration. Is Acosta’s dogged persistence of social
justice due in some part to Trump’s blatant anti-immigration
and open bigotry against Latinx and Latinx-Americans?
When does “race” and/or ethnicity play a role. Actress
Cameron Diaz’s father is a Cuban refugee. Yet Diaz has
never or has rarely portrayed a Latina. But Natalie Wood
(1938-1981), a Russian-American, starred in West Side
Story (1961) as a Puerto Rican-American. Compare Diaz’s
phenotypic features to Cuban American actress Eva Mendez.
Most Black Cubans did not flee Castro’s 1953-59 Communist
Revolution and were left whether they wanted to be or not.
Was this social-political dynamic what Joe Biden either did
not understand in this statement about the Latinx
community being more diverse that African Americans, or
was Biden, once again, prone to making gaffs? How do the
origins of “race” overlap with racism to explain social,
political and economic determinants?

27
5
Black is a Color: Colorism:
Afro-Latinos, dark skin Asian-Indians, and particularly dark-
skin actresses of African ancestry reflect the phenomenon of
colorism in media. Is colorism also racism and/or a form of
internalized racism? Is colorism realized across the globe? If
so, how, why and where? If not, why not? Colorism is in
Lawrence Otis Graham’s exposure of African American class
snobbishness in Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black
Upper Class (1999). Mexican television programs use to
feature mostly white and blond Mexicans in prominent roles,
with dark Mexicans in subservient roles. Black British
actresses such as Naomie Harris (Skyfall, Moonlight, Black
and Blue) and Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2,
Westworld), as well African American actress Hallie Berry
(X-men, John Wick 3) and Tessa Thomson (Dear White
People, Creed) are all fair-skinned actresses through no fault
of their own and the face far less barriers finding work in
Hollywood. Why is this? Does dark-skinned Kenyan-Mexican
actresses Lupita Nyong’o and Viola Davis represent a change
to this seemingly global phenomenon of structural racism
based solely upon phenotypic features? What are the effects
on health from a social, physical and emotional perspective?

6
Black Lives Matter & Globalization:
In this presentation, consider the member-led civil
rights/human rights organization founded in 2013 by Black
queer women Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opel
Tometi. Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an active organization
against systemic racism with regards to rampant police
killings of unarmed African Americans. What does BLM have
to do with health? Define or describe BLM’s links to and
growth from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement as recognized
under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
and human rights and Pan-Africanism under Malcolm X
(1925-1965). Include the relationships to Feminism, Hip-
Hop and LGBTQ movements. BLM’s global outreach has
occurred Australia, United Kingdom, Ghana, and Canada
before and with the present wave of non-violent protests
against police violence. Explain how populations within
different nations became a global coalition in addressing
structural racism and inequalities in health even in the
COVID-19 pandemic.

28
7
Blessed with “God-given” Athletic Abilities:
Asked almost anyone, no matter what academic discipline,
and reasons for a seemingly accepted over-representation
Africa/African Americans in big money sports programs and
the response might be: --“It’s due to their natural abilities.”
In Europe, Latin America and in the United States, Blacks
are celebrated for their physical prowess (similar to the
stereotype of Asians and math). John Hoberman’s Darwin’s
Athletes: How Sports Has Damage Black America and
Preserved the Myth of Race (1997) trace a Eurocentric
history that sustains this institutionalized racism. Michael
Bennet’s Things That Make White People Uncomfortable
(2018) provide a behind the scenes look at the hypocrisy of
intercollegiate and professional sports. Some Blacks
internalize the belief that the organized violence in big-
money commercial sports is their own calling. Black
commentators spout the same statistical verbiage. Popular
films, from the awful Coach Carter (2005) to the magnificent
Creed (2015), celebrate Black athleticism rather than the
academics as in The Great Debaters (2007). Black-British
writer Reni Eddo-Lodge in her 2017 book, Why I’m No
Longer Talking to White People About Race, wrote of white
sports fans making racist monkey chants and throwing
bananas at Black footballers in Europe. White owners of
Black dominated sports teams echo the history of slave
ownership. Address “race” and racism in sports. Point out
the contradictions of academics and athletics on college
campuses. Reflect on the power of professional sports to
change the social and political landscape. Address short and
long-range effects of professional sports on health. Consider
chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other diseases.

Campus Racism:
College campuses are not bastions of liberalism neither in
the United States nor abroad. The Guardian Newspaper in
the United Kingdom report several disturbing incidences of
racist behavior from white students on campuses such as
Nottingham Trent University, Warwick University, Montfort
University, University of Birmingham and Cambridge
University. Acts of racism range from white students
shouting, “we hate blacks” to a Black female student at
Bournemouth University described as “big black ape, a
“cotton-picking fuck” and “gorilla-looking motherfucker.”
Unless you feel these are over-statements, remember in the
United States, former First-Lady Michelle Obama was
described as an “ape in heels.” Where does such racism
come from? Why within an international dimension and in all
places college campuses in the U.S. and in Europe? Taken
as a free-speech vis-à-vis hate-speech, where do you draw
the line… or is there even one? Point to how such name-
calling produces health consequences from the
interpersonal, personal, group, community, regional,
national and global perspectives.

29
9
Ebola Doesn’t Live Here:
When 45 year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, a Black African from
Liberia, visited the United States on September 30, 2014, he
unknowingly brought with him the Ebola virus. Duncan
complained of stomach pain, dizziness and nausea when he
stumbled into the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
emergency room. Duncan treated in much the same way
any low-income person-of-color in a market-oriented health
delivery system. Duncan was sent home only to be return
by ambulance and die after suffering increase pain,
diarrhea, projectile vomiting and a massive fever. Politicians
reacted in a manner similar to Trump’s wall, with wanting to
close off the United States especially to people from the
West Coast of Africa. The prominence of Ebola in West Africa
might answer why pharmaceutical companies are less
interested in finding a treatment since until Duncan’s U.S.
arrival and death in the U.S., Ebola was more prevalent
West Africa. Explore the ramifications of the Ebola outbreak.
Aspects of structural racism can include but not limited to
issues of capitalism, globalization, race, ethnicity,
pharmacology, research and development, health providers,
World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control,
politics, ideology, etc.

10
Family Life:
Marriage (and divorce) are major determinants of health. On
average, married couples live longer. Single motherhood
and absentee fathers have long been a consequence of
structural racism. The availability of marriageable partners
within race, ethnic, or socio-economic categories
(endogamous) and stability have been shown in such classic
sociological works as Eliot Liebow’s Tally’s Corner (1967)
and Carol Stack’s All Our Kin (1974). Rebecca Skloot
provided valuable insights into an impoverished African
American family in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
(2010). In pop culture, the family unit has been redefined
in the dystopian British TV series, Humans, with a cast of
multi-racial cyborg siblings. In politics, the incestuous
Trump Administration has less regard for families in its
tearing apart families of refugees at the southern border in
2018. Discern the definitions of the family; whether
traditional, extended, same sex, etc., as related to health
and well-being and structural racism.

+
11 Female Circumcision or Mutilation?:
This is the partial or total removable of the external genitalia
of girls and young women done for traditional and non-
medical reasons. The choice of words, circumcision or
mutilation, is valued loaded when seen through a
westernized lens. For instance, a Law & Order TV episode
made in 1997 entitled ”Ritual,” featured the murder of an
Egyptian doctor hired to perform a female circumcision on a
man’s 11 year-old niece in New York. The TV show is far
from the best example of the controversy, but it illustrated a
clash of cultures as defined by the mass media and

30
 produced Dick Wolf. Prominent in parts of Africa, Middle
East, Asia, Europe and South America, the immigration of
women into more westernized countries has produce a
banding of this practice. How does female circumcision or
mutilation (choose the term and elaborate) impact the
health and well-being of women? When and where does
structural racism come in, or is it always there?

12
Gangs & Gangsters:
Whether the Crips and Bloods, MS-13, Triads or Tongs, or
the Yakuza, criminal gangs of color seem to strike more
terror into the hearts of the mainstream than white gangs.
Panic flows from liberals and conservatives in the media,
whether CNN, MSNBC or Fox News that a dark hoard of
thugs will descend upon the privileged. Trump calls out
MS13 as if every Mexican immigrant is a gang member. The
the criminal gangster is as American as the immigrant
experience. From the history of Italian immigrants came
gangsters such as American-born Al Capone (1899-1947),
Lucky Luciano (1897-1962; Frank Costello (1891-1973) Vito
Genovese (1897-1969) and Carlo Gambino (1902-1976).
from Jewish immigrants came Meyer Lansky (1902-1983)
and American-born Bugsy Siegel (1906-1947). James
“Whitey” Bulger trace his own lineage to Irish immigrants.
The labelling youth-of-color, when gunned down such as
Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald and
others, were all assumed to have gang affiliation, as if the
label warranted their deaths. In this presentation, consider
crime, deviancy, labelling, multiculturalism and race as
determinant or perceptive factors. What elements of
structural racism emerge and produce differences in public
and political views of crime? Discern how systems function
in reaction to individuals or groups who act outside the law
and the political and social consequences.

13
Get Out!:
Not just the name of the 2017 interracial horror thriller from
African American director Jordan Peele, but indicative of
anti-immigration and xenophobic reaction of Americans who
voted for Trump and Britons who voted for Brexit. Some
Israelis want to expel immigrants-of-color from the Holy-
land and there is an internal fight to keep them. In the 2017
hit film, Wonder Woman, Israeli actress Gal Gadot is an
effective superhero starring as Diana Prince and she pleads
for compassion for women, disabled men, and the ragged
children being murdered and maimed in a “No Man’s Land”
between British and German soldiers. Watching the scene,
the viewer is jerk back to reality in that in real-life,
Palestinians represent the same kind of people in the movie
who are also being brutalized by Israeli forces. Similarly, the
Calais Jungle is a migrant camp in France from January
2015 to October 2016 reflect the European migrant crisis
and an abysmal lack of compassion. Who within a society or
system (political, economic, military, educational, family) is
treated with dignity or are they the accepted collateral
damage of the underside of democracy? Discuss the

31
 consequences to health when any person, group,
community, region or nation is denied care.

14
Guns, Guns & More Guns:
Computer hacker and Christ-figure Neo in the dystopian
science-fiction action drama, The Matrix (1999), demanded
guns and more guns and he got them. He and girlfriend
Trinity then laid waste to a fortress of bad-guys, or so we
assume since all were slaughtered by the protagonists. The
rhetoric of “good guy with a gun verses a bad guy with a
gun” has been espoused by the National Rifle Association
and seems to serve a rationale to kill. The Mulford Act of
1967 repealed the law allowing the public to carry fire-arms
was implemented in California when the Black militant
organization, the Black Panthers, openly carried guns in
their Oakland neighborhood to monitor and prevent rampant
police brutality. COVID-19 has brought out the usual crowd
of white right-wingers with guns in protest of government
mandates to limit the spread of the pandemic, but also
some African Americans are presenting their guns as a
defense from white racists. The NRA is presently under-fire
due to internal corruption. Compare and contrast America’s
love affair with guns with race or racism and health.

15
Haitians, AIDS, & the Politics of Labelling:
Vietnamese “boat-people” and Haitian “boat people” were
treated differently in America’s recent history. The French-
speaking Haitian refugees escaping political and economic
ravages were summarily and literally rejected from the
shores of the United State (the historical irony of the 17 th to
19th century trans-Atlantic slave trade). The labelling
Haitians as unwanted people came with the sexually
transmitted disease, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) in the United States circa 1981. The STD initially
effected mainly homosexuals (read the 1987 book, And the
Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic by
Randy Shilts). The disease came to include people tainted
with blood transfusions and addicts using contaminated
needles. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was
soon discovered to cause AIDS. Haitians remain the only
population linked to AIDS/HIV by their nationality and not
lifestyle. What was the role of structural racism in this bias?

16
Hearts & Minds:
Reading novels brings insight into another world. Consider
Nigerian American Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and
her analysis of race and gender relations in the United
States. Black British author Zadie Smith’s White Teeth
addressed race, gender and class in England. Smith’s On
Beauty took an equally critical look at the United States.
Patrisse Khan-Cullor’s When They Call You a Terrorist
provided a penetrating vision of growing up as a queer
female in an impoverished single-parent household. Long
before J.D. Vance’s opportunistic Hillbilly Elegy was Tom
Wolfe’s I am Charlotte Simmons, addressing status on a
college campus through the eyes a female freshman from

32
 Appalachia. Writer Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem open
up China and Chinese Cultural Revolution with a female
protagonist. Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club provided valuable
insights into the lives of Chinese and Chinese American
women. Paula Hawkins exposed the domestic plight of white
women in Britain in Girl of the Train. Steig Larsson’s Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy gave valuable insights into
the Nordic region’s crime, sexism and anti-immigration
sentiments, as did novels about the troubled detective
Wallander from Hemming Mankell. Use a few novels of your
choice to represent and explain the intersectionality of
multiculturalism, geography, gender, class, ethnicity and
race relative to well-being.

17
Homogeneity & Health:
Three Parts:
(A) The Japanese have longer lifespan. The nation is a
highly homogeneous country with only 2% of
Korean ancestry. What might be the health status of
Koreans who are in essence, the nation’s ethnic
minority? What about the health status of Japan’s
indigenous Ainu population? Do they suffer a similar
fate of negative health as the indigenous Native
Americans in the US, or the First Nations people in
Canada, or Aboriginal Australians or New Zealand’s
Maoris? Is nature or nurture leads to long life? Is
homogeneity an argument for or against
multiculturalism?
(B) Japanese-Americans were forced into internment
camps on American soil, such as Manzanar in
California and Topaz in Utah during WWII following
December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor for no
other reason than they were Japanese. Why such
wholesale discrimination against Japanese-
Americans, and not German Americans or Italian
Americans? Speculate on some short and some
long-term health effects in spite of public health
notions about the long-lifer life-span of the
Japanese.
(C) What of pop culture’s seemingly one-dimensional
focus on the Japanese nations having interned white
Britons, as in such fever-pitched dramas of white
(male) defiance shown in Bridge on the River Kwai
(1957), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983),
Empire of the Sun (1987) and Unbroken (2014).
Why is there a seemingly propaganda that
diminishes systems of structural racism?

33
18
Homogenizing Asian Americans:
Asian-Americans comprise more than 25 culturally distinct
ethnic groups, yet statisticians and epidemiologists group
this exceedingly heterogeneous population under a single
“racial” designation. The demographic “Asian” designation
are people who originate from South Asia, East Asia, and
Southeast Asia. For this case/topic presentation, consider
some of these “Asian” groups by ethnicity rather than
“race.” What would be some health issues more inclusive to
an ethnic affiliation rather than the broad classification of
“Asian?” This is as prominent in the COVID-19 pandemic as
it is in the ethnic ancestry of Kamala Harris. How do our
present-day statistical and epidemiological calculations
diminish accurate data collection and thus does a disservice
to policies to ensure social equality? Why and how do such
broad categorization occur? What might be some social,
physical and emotional consequences?

19

Importation of a Middle-Class Minority into Canada:

The sovereignty of the island of Hong Kong officially
transferred from the United Kingdom back to the People’s
Republic of China in 1997. This historic event produced an
immigration wave of middle-class Chinese into Canada.
Where did the Chinese settle in Canada? Did they encounter
any residential discrimination as African Americans did (or
still do)? If so, why? If not, why not? Does money or class
status to limit of encourage the impact of racism or
xenophobia? What is the impact on health or well-being
either way?

20
Image & Globalization:
Bollywood actors appearing in the massive and prolific
cinema of India seem to depict skin-color as lighter and
lighter, especially among Indian women. The early films of
Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) featured dark-skinned Indians of
every gender. Today in many Bollywood films, Indian men
are taller and Indian women slimmer, taller and lighter in
skin-tone. Similarly in Nollywood or the up and coming
Nigerian film industry, where women maintain their curves
but racial mixture and wigs, some of them blond, are
features. Is this seeming global phenomenon reflective of
colorism found among African American actresses in
Hollywood films? If this Bollywood and Nollywood
phenomenon a product of globalization and/or
westernization? To what extent is dark vis-à-vis light skin-
tone feature in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Latin and South
American cinema? If so, how? If not, why not? What might
the role of structural racism in the global arena of mass
communication, westernized perspectives, and
entertainment?

21

34
 In the Neighborhood: Temples, Mosque, Synagogue
and Churches:
The World Health Organization’s definition of health as not
just the absence of disease, but a complete state of social,
physical and emotional well-being, this could also include
spirituality as evident in The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks. As populations disperse across the globe, they bring
their religion with them. Choose any nation and trace
whatever relationships seen between religion and “race” or
ethnicity. Discern the “differences” between a Muslim house
of worship and a Jewish house of prayer or any House of
God in terms of the way each is viewed by the general
society. Consider Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and his
SonLife Broadcasting Network, televangelist Joel Osteen,
and author, paster and filmmaker TD Jakes Ministries and
mega-churches. What is given, received, appreciated,
embraced, tolerated or resisted in religious systems or
institutions? Among some suggested considerations are the
prevalence of Scientology, Unitarian, Baha I Faith, Islam,
Sikhism, Mormon, Rastafarianism, Temple, and those
Christian religions broadcasts.

22
Internalized Racism: “They’re Coming For You, Girl!”:
African American actress Zoe Saldana got caught-up in the
politics of phenotype within the narcissistic world of
Hollywood. “They’re coming for you, girl” was advice singer,
songwriter and actress Queen Latifah jokingly gave in an
interview about a controversy. Saldana portrayed real-life
Black musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone (1933-
2003) in the 2016 film drama, Nina. Saldana is of Dominican
and Puerto-Rican heritage and she wore dark make-up and
a prosthetic to “look more like” Simone. This created
controversy within some segments of African American
community. Saldana has since apologized for playing the
role. Explore the intersection between “blackness,” beauty,
skin-tone, hair-texture, and the power of mass media to
control the narrative. What narrative? Is this internalized
racism or something deeper? Address any aspect of health
or well-being from micro (personal) and/or macro (societal)
perspective.

23
“Lean-in,” “Me-Too” & “Missing White Women
Syndrome:”
The website from Facebook featuring Chief Operating Officer
Sheryl Sandberg states: “Women in over 150 countries have
joined the Lean-In community.” The site shows prominent
faces of smiling women-of-color, but how “real” is this
declaration of gender unanimity from Sandberg, rich and
privileged white woman? The “MeToo” hashtag (founded by
African American Tarana Burke) was release in October
2017 and expose widespread sexual harassment. This
overdue outrage of harassment and rape show middle to
upper class white women and women-of-color, whether
career professionals, housewives, maids or farmworkers, e
remain invisible or dismissed. Connected to Lean-in and
MeToo is the “Missing White Woman Syndrome” coined by

35
 Public Broadcasting news anchor Gwen Ifill (1955-2016) and
media’s obsession with the plight of only white middle to
upper women and girls such as the tragedy of Polly Klass,
JonBenet Ramsey, Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson and Natalee
Holloway, among the many. Explore the dynamics of
intersexuality, racism and sexism, select media scrutiny,
racial hierarchy, and the structural racism which produces a
racially-bias “tough on crime” political reaction and
implications to women’s health and well-being.

24
Let Only the Right Ones In:
Address the historical legacies of anti-immigration sentiment
in the United States and/or globally. Trump as the 45th U.S.
President based on his campaign on anti-immigration
rhetoric. He did not apologized for calling African and Latin
American countries “shit-holes” and favoring Nordic nations
where his present wife is from for emigration. The U.S.
Supreme Court supported Trump’s travel band aimed
squarely at Muslims. The president’s southern border
refugee policies have ripped children from their parents.
Britain has her own “Brexit” policy, a 2016 voter’s
referendum to leave the European Union, driven by anti-
immigration sentiment fueled by the National Front (NF) and
the United Kingdom Independent Party (UNKIP) party. In
France, a once a liberal and welcoming nation, engages in
forced acculturation / assimilation under the right-wing Len-
Pen Party. Discern how structural racism applies to this
global resentment against immigrants, refugees and asylum
seekers.

25

LGBTQ: Accept, Hide & Rejection:

Correlated and contrast nations where same-sex marriage is
legal or is illegal or where gays are subject to imprisonment
or the death penalty. In Mexico, same sex marriage is
recognized but not performed. Does Catholicism play a role?
Former apartheid South Africa seems the only region on the
continent of Africa where same-sex unions are recognized.
This has been only a recent occurrence in South Africa. Why
is this? South Africa, however, has its own history of horrific
sexism against gay people. It seems ironic today that a
nation of such blatant racism could now be liberal regarding
sexuality? Is there something in the history of South Africa
that makes this seeming contradiction so? Within pop
culture, is the homosexual love scene in My Beautiful
Launderette (1985) and the male come-on in Skyfall (2012)
or lesbian love in Atomic Blond (2017)? Why did Wonder
Woman (2017) totally negate any hint at lesbianism given
the total absence of men on the island (not that they had to
be a pre-condition)? Trans Blacks have argued they have
not be allowed to fully engage in Black Lives Matter. Explore
the intersectionality of gender dynamics from a social, or
political, or historical, or cultural, or perhaps religious
perspective that facilitate and/or constrain same-sex
relationships?

36
26
Looking for Justice & Finding Just Us:
Such was the opening of a monolog from comedian Richard
Pryor (1940-2005) about his experience in an American
courtroom. African Americans and Hispanics are as over-
represented in prisons as they are underrepresent on college
campuses. African Americans are over-represented in big-
money intercollegiate sports and professional sports
programs. But they are underrepresented in college
classroom except as student-athletes. Novels such as I am
Charlotte Simmons and biographies such as Things that
Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennet have
exposed the institutional racism supporting these under and
over representations of student-athletes. Scholars have also
pointed to the school to prison pipeline. Michelle Wallace in
The New Jim Crow (2010) articulated Black and Brown
incarceration with the War on Drugs as does Bennet. Within
the African diaspora, point to some common determinants
that produce patterns of racial disproportionality within the
academic, sports and criminal justice system?

27
Maternal & Child:
The health status of any population is measured by the
health of women and children. The infant mortality rate for
African Americans remains above that of White Americans,
regardless of class or socio-economic status. Native
Americans have the highest infant mortality rate with
alcoholism playing a major role as pointed out in Sherman
Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
(2009). What of the “Latino paradox” where poor south-of-
the border Hispanic mothers have a more positive birth
outcome than their Latin, Black, Native American and low-
income white counter-parts in the United States? What
does the structural racism have to do with this complex
health phenomenon? Point to specific reasons and articulate
why the differences.

28
Mercy, Mercy Me: Ecology & Environmental Racism:
Words from the 1971 Marvin Gaye album, What’s Going On
is an anthem to environmental racism. The lead in the water
in Flint, Michigan; the lack of sanitation and electricity in the
Shantytowns in South Africa; and the crime and drugs
rampant in the favelas in Brazil each have their distinctive
race, ethnic and income characteristics. Analyze why
environmental factors feed into public health infrastructures
(systems of roads, bridges, buildings, housing, power
plants, communication, equipment relative to the built
environment within the ecology (air, land water).This can
include climate change. Explore some of the political and
economic elements that relate to the health of vulnerable
populations.

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 Myth of the Model Minority: Asians & Nigerians in
America & Britain.
Asian American lawyer Amy Chua published Battle Hymn of
the Tiger Mother in June, 2011, and created a firestorm.
Chua exacerbated the unneeded stereotype of Chinese
families producing smart children. The racist implications
were obvious given the ongoing academic achievement gap
between African Americans and whites. Chua attempted to
clean it all up with the assistance of her Jewish husband as
co-author in yet another publication emphasizing the
academic prowess of Nigerians in America, but they only
compound the culture-blaming. Interesting that Nigerian
author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s novel, Americanah
(2013), function to dispel Chua’s hypothesis as a product of
immigration and not culture, ethnicity ort race. Educators
and politicians who failed parents and children-of-color
nonetheless were quick to take Chua at her speculative
word. Her publications were use scapegoat Black and
Latinos families as negligent and less caring of taking a
decisive role in the education of their own children. In this
presentation, explain Chua’s reasoning in perpetuating the
image of model minority? What are some health implications
as wrapped up in the structure of racism?

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Out of the Melting Pot & Into the Fire: Racism & the
Contradictions of Democracy:
What might have impressed and perplexed French historian
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) in Democracy in America
(1835) was America’s boast of equality in the face of on-
going slavery. Similar patterns of racial inequalities have
existed within American and across nations in spite of their
different histories and health systems. Symbolic of such
inequalities within democracies have been the August 2014
protest, rioting, arson and looting in Ferguson, Missouri,
following the killing of yet another unarmed African
American, Michael Brown, by white policeman, Darren Miller.
In April 2015, riots also ensued in Baltimore, Maryland,
following the death of African American Freddie Gray while
in police custody. Across the pond in the United Kingdom
several of London’s Boroughs erupted in fires, looting, and
assaults, after the fatal shooting Black-Briton Mark Duggan
by a white policemen in 2011. In 2005 in de Tocqueville’s
native France, urban youth also rioted following a negative
encounter with police. There have been the protest, riots
and arson following the police murder of George Floyd from
the months of May, 2020. What are some of the common
denominators resulting in clashes with law enforcement?
When does a protest become a civil insurrection? How is
structural racism a manifestation of health locally and/or
across are globe?

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Racially Mixed: Acceptance & Rejection:
In what ways do genotype and phenotype define a
population? How is health or well-being realized among
people defined as racially mixed? How much of one racial
group does a person have to be? Why were there laws
against miscegenation (interracial marriage). What is “racial

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 purity”? What is Eugenics? What aspects of emotional
health did proponents of racial purity conjecture about the
children of mix-unions. David Olusoga’s Black and British: A
Forgotten History articulated this and Hollywood, from films
such as the soap-opera-like Imitation of Life (1934, 1959),
Pinky (1949) to Black film-maker Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever
(1991) and the flawed Human Stain (2003) express the
experiences of the racially-mixed. Barak Obama defines
himself as African American as does Kamala Harris while
also emphasizing her Asian-Indian heritage, compared to
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, who defines herself
as bi-racial. Is there a difference in terms of structural
racism and/or intersectionality? What are some social,
political, economic or cultural implications regarding
commercial DNA tests such as “23 and Me,” owned and
administered by a privately-owned biotechnology company?
Trump has demanded that senator Elizabeth Warren take
such a test to prove her self-described Native American
ancestry. Why? What are some implications for this in terms
of structural racism?

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Rape:
A health issue as old as humanity is sexual assault. Roman
mythology provided the Rape of the Sabine Women which
pop popular romanticized in the musical Seven Brides for
Seven Brothers (1954). Whether “abduction” and
“kidnapping” is synonymous with “rape” is a distinction
without difference. Rape involves forced sexual penetration
and occurs across time, culture, race/ethnicity, gender,
religion and nation. From domestic abuse to the exercise of
absolute power (i.e. in prison) to incapacitated rape
(partner, spouse, date rape), the conventional attitudes
about sexual entitlement to blaming the victim can be
addressed. Race and privilege correlate with condemnation
and dismissal as in the case of Stanford University swimmer
Brock Turner. Rape is rampant in popular culture and
presented as accepted in Gone with the Wind (1939) or as
self-serving in And Justice for All (1979) and A Time to Kill
(1996) and used as a right-wing set-up in Death Wish
(1974) or uncovering pedophile priests Spotlight (2015).
The sadism of the rapist and Post Traumatic Stress Disease
(PTSD) of victims are major health issues as framed within
systems and institutions (academic, law enforcement,
media, religion, family, sports, corporations, etc.)

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Sex Worker “Rights”:
Viewing sex through a Puritan lens can obscure the global
reality of prostitution as a self-selected and voluntary
enterprise. In this presentation, sex-trafficking, sexual
exploitation and pedophilia can be separated from working
in strip clubs, pornography and phone sex. Stephanie
Gregory Clifford aka Stormy Daniels is an adult film actress
seemingly in control of her life and could well be the match
to Donald Trump. When is sex-work a choice or not? Are we
to accept a pop culture image as shown World of Suzy Wong
(1960), Taxi Driver (1976), Pretty Woman (1990) and
Broadway’s Miss Saigon? Sex work is a global phenomenon.

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 Should it be decriminalized? How is sex-work different from
sex-trafficking? Can the two be mutually exclusive?
Comparisons made between Amsterdam’s red-light district
and the brothels in Nevada. Sex worker rights organizations
now exist in Canada, Ireland, Australia, Africa, Asia and
Europe, and Latin America. Is there structural racism and
sexism in sex work?

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Somebody… Call the Police!:
Whether it is two Black men waiting for the third at an over-
price Starbucks Coffee shop; or a young Black female
college student catching-up on needed sleep in a campus
day-room; or a Black female politician canvassing in her
own neighborhood; or an African American mother and her
child using a community pool, white people call 911 on
them. The cops arrive with guns and “command presence”
directed toward the African American without seeking
clarification as to why the call was made in the first place,
thereby escalating the incident with often lethal
consequences. What are some underlying assumptions or
presumptions of white people who are so quick to summon
the armed guards of the social order? Who is being
protected? Who is being served? What are some health
implications from a social, physical and emotion
perspective? What aspects of structural racism are in these
day-by-day encounters that are perpetrated against the
minority by the majority?

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Stop, Look, Listen to Your Heart:
In 1958 when Mildred Jeter, an African American woman of
Native American ancestry, and Richard loving, a white man,
were married in Washington, DC, they violated the anti-
miscegenation law in their home state of Virginia. Such a
denial of a human right was not exclusive to the South.
During that time, interracial couples flocked to the state of
Washington to be married, but in 1935, King Country
prosecutor Warren Magnuson proposed HB 301 to the state
legislature in support of anti-miscegenation. This action by
Magnuson (the Health Sciences Center is in his name as well
as beaches and parks) started when King County Auditor
Earl Milken refused the request for a marriage license to a
Filipino man and a white woman. House Bill 301 prohibited
marriage of persons of Caucasian ancestry to “Negroes,
Orientals, Malays and persons of Eastern European
extraction.” The bill did not make it into law, and anti-
miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional in 1967
under Loving V Virginia, for violating the Equal Protection
clause of the 4th Amendment. In 2015, the ruling was used
to support same-sex marriage as Constitutional. Students
explore the intersectionality of history, biology, genetics,
power, privilege, and ethics and the construction and
deconstruction of such laws.

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36
“Tell Them We Are Here! Asians in Predominately
White Societies:
The Vietnamese diaspora became worldwide particularly in
1975 following the Vietnam War, but before then as well.
English novelist Graham Green’s 1955 novel, The Quiet
American, set in the French Colonization of Viet Nam and
reflected the beginning of American involvement. The novel
and subsequent film adaptions in 1955 and 2002 objectified
Vietnamese women as sexually passive in their encounters
with white British and white American men. Within the U.K.
the British-Vietnamese overall are less acknowledged than
British Blacks or British Asian-Indians. However, Humans
(2016-), a highly popular scientific fiction TV series, has a
prominent role for British-Chinese actress Gemma Chan.
Canadian Korean actress Sandra Oh’s Emmy nomination as
MI5 spy in Killing Eve (2018) reflects a much needed Asian
presence which might still be limited. Compare and contrast
the myriad of “Asians” seen in reality and in fiction across
the globe and articulate how any such stereotypical and
limited imagery can feeds into structural racism.

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There Goes the Neighborhood!:
Explore the history of residential racial segregation. Jim
Crow Era laws backed by U.S. Supreme Court Decision such
as in Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) sustained residential
segregation based on race. The Great Migration of African
Americans in 1910 from the rural south to the urban north
and mid-west resulted in more residential segregation.
Playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was the first
African American to have her work on Broadway: A Raisin in
the Sun highlighted racial segregation in housing in Chicago.
What were some of the health consequences from this Black
internal migration? Students can review the community of
Levittown in New York in the 1950s and compare and
contrast Seattle’s own history of racial red-lining (banks and
real-estate companies working in concert to refuse loans in
order to keep neighborhoods poor and segregated).

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“They Don’t Look Like Indians to Me:”
Such was the declarations of Donald J. Trump as he testified
before a House subcommittee on the Mafia’s involvement in
Native American gambling casinos back in 1993. Trump was
referring to the Italian-Americans supposedly in the casino
business. Trump’s ignorance of racial history continued to
emerged while yet brilliantly playing to the media’s
obsessions with ratings when he went after U.S. senator
Elizabeth Warren in 2016. He questioning her self-described
Native American ancestry calling her Pocahontas at a
presidential campaign rally July 5, 2018. Native Americans
could be the most racially mixed “race,” with African
American admixture being less recognized or acknowledge.
Historian William Loren Katz‘s Black Indians: A Hidden
Heritage (1997) highlight the African American presence
within Native American culture. How does the history of
American racism feed into Trump and the general

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 population’s limited or myopic phenotypic perception of
admixture of this indigenous population?

39
“Uncle Ike Ain’t No Kin to Me:”
Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop is located at 2310 E. Union Street in
the heart of Seattle’s Central District, Washington State. The
establishment sells an assortment of marijuana products.
The scene evokes white musician Boz Scaggs’ JoJo, who can
“get you all you want.” The Central Districts’ pot-shop
owner, Karl Eisenberg, is making a fortune selling product in
what was be a predominantly Black neighborhood and now
where African Americans serve prison time for doing the
same thing as Eisenburg is now doing. The Nixon
Administration’s War on Drugs and “three strikes”
mandatory sentencing policies put disproportionate numbers
of Blacks and Latinx in prison for selling pot. Describe this
criminal justice duality. Include issues of gentrification if you
like. Trace the historical demonization of pot, also known as
weed and grass, relative to a particular segment of Black
culture in America (name this segment). Address the
decriminalization of marijuana in terms of the racial cross-
over, and with all the blatant implications of negative
labelling, deconstruction of deviancy, and structural racism.
Also, okay to go after the anti-Semitism which has been
directed at Uncle Ike by some.

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“White Saviors” with a Heart of Darkness?:
“The white man has a god complex” was a title of the rap-
song from The Last Poets, a Black forerunner group to Hip-
Hop and Rap culture. The “white savior” is as old as Rudyard
Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden.” The image of the Christ-
figure is also in the half-naked “Tarzan the Ape-man”
swinging on vines through the thickest jungles of darkest
Africa. The ultimate Jesus-figure and savior is Superman,
ironically an immigrant. White saviors are the gun-blazing
urban cops supposedly “putting their life on the line” to
confront savage street thugs, but never any greedy
corporate CEOs. In this presentation, show how the
symbolic White Savior, whether as well-meaning Angelina
Jolie, Madonna, or Mia Farrow adopting poor children of
color from the deplorable conditions in their homeland, or of
Mother Teresa having literally been elevated to sainthood.
Pop culture propagandizes the “white savior” in films such as
Lion (2016), The Blind Side (2009), Freedom Writers
(2007), Conrack (1974) and The Help (2011). But what are
the implications for white people who truly put themselves
at-risk when trying to do the right thing? How do politics
and economics based in the historical era of colonization
(remember the Abolitionists) to present-day globalization
(business connection) feed the image and reality of white
people and social justice?

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About the Instructor:

Clarence Spigner was raised in poverty and segregation in Orangeburg, South Carolina and served in the U.S. Air
Force (1964-68), including a tour in Vietnam (1966-67). He worked as a telephone lineman (1968-74) in Los
Angeles County while attending community colleges in Santa Monica (1974-76) and Oakland (1977) on the GI Bill.
He then had a series of odd jobs (dispatcher, janitor, physical fitness instructor, kitchen-worker, tutor) while
completing his BA in sociology at UC Berkeley (1977-1979) and his MPH (1980-1982). He did his pre-doctoral
research as health planner for the National Health Service in London, England (1982-83) and returned to U.C.
Berkeley to earn his doctorate (DrPH) in 1987. Following a post-doc at U.C. Berkeley, he joined the faculty at the
University of Oregon as an Assistant Professor in 1988. While at UO, he developed research/teaching interests in
race/ethnic relations and health, took on the politically sensitive issue of intercollegiate sports and the exploitation
of student-athletes. He earned tenure in 1994 and recruited to the University of Washington’s School of Public
Health & Community Medicine. Spigner studied tobacco-related behavior among Asian/Pacific Islander Americans
and opinions about organ donation and transplantation among minority populations. His current research deals
with measuring health-provider attitudes towards kidney patients. He’s provided technical assistance to community
based organizations and to the State Department of Health about tobacco-prevention strategies. He teaches
courses on Race, Racism and Public Health, Values & Ethics, Program Planning & Evaluation and Qualitative
Research. He has faculty appointments in the Health Services with adjunct appointments in the Global Health and
courtesy appointments in American Ethnic Studies and in the African Studies Program. He served on UW’s the
Institutional Review Board from 2002–2009. He was faculty advisor to the Multicultural International Research
Training program. He directed the Global Partnerships Travel Grant Program and was faculty director for Global
Health’s Peace Corps Masters International (PCMI) program. He is currently the Director for the Masters in Public
Health program (since 2013). Spigner has created and taught several new courses in Honor’s College based on
such prize-winning books such as I am Charlotte Simmons, Stoner and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Since
year 2016, he created and taught the first course on the Black Lives Matter and Police Violence. He has created a
Freshman Seminar called Good Books exploring public health in literature and art. He directs his own highly
popular study abroad program (since 2007) called Dark Empire incorporating the intersectionality of history,
multiculturalism and health in England, the United States and the world.

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