In Many U.S. Cities, Blacks More Likely Than Whites to Live in Poor Quality Nursing Homes

David Barton Smith, PhD. Research Professor, Center for Health Equality Department of Health Management and Policy. Phone: 215.762.7448. Email: dbs33@drexel.edu Professor Smith received his Ph.D. in Health Services Research from The University of Michigan. He was awarded a 1995 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Investigator Award for research on the history and legacy of the racial segregation of health care and continues to do research, write and give lectures on this topic at medical and law schools across the country. He is the author or co-author of five books on the organization of health services, the most recent being, Health Care Divided: Race and Healing a Nation (The University of Michigan Press 1999), and Reinventing Care: Assisted Living in New York City (Vanderbilt University Press 2003). The latter book propelled legislative reform in the regulation of assisted living in New York State. He is also author of Long Term Care in Transition: the Regulation of Nursing Homes (Health Administration Press 1981) that helped initiate quality of care reforms in that decade.

Poorer Quality of Care In Nursing Homes Linked To Racial Segregation; Nursing Homes in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cleveland Have Greatest Disparities. In metropolitan areas across the United States, blacks are more likely than whites to live in poor quality nursing homes, according to a study of Health Affairs. The problem is most acute in the Midwest. After ranking metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on disparities between blacks and whites in access to quality nursing homes, researchers found that 10 of the 20 nursing homes with the greatest disparities in quality of care were located in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. The metropolitan area with the greatest disparity in care is Milwaukee, where blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in a nursing home with significant inspection deficiencies, substantial staffing shortages, and financial problems. The study showed that inequalities in care are closely correlated to racial segregation. Researchers found that nursing homes in the Cleveland metropolitan area were the most segregated, followed closely by Gary, Ind., Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Harrisburg, Pa., Toledo, Ohio, and Cincinnati (A complete list of the 147 MSA rankings is available in a separate document). At the same time, researchers found that nursing homes in the South were least likely to have unequal racial distribution of residents relative to residential racial composition. And only four Southern urban centers – Houston, West Palm Beach, Fla., Richmond, Va. and Winston-Salem, N.C. – landed in the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest level of racial disparities in nursing home quality. The study, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, is the first to document this relationship between racial segregation and quality disparities in U.S. nursing homes.

The study was co-authored by David Barton Smith and Jacqueline S. Zinn of Temple University, and Zhanlian Feng, Mary L. Fennell, and Vincent Mor of Brown University.

In their analysis, researchers looked at racial segregation in 147 MSAs, with 7,196 nursing homes, caring for more than 800,000 residents. Researchers used the Dissimilarity Index, the most common measure of residential segregation. The index indicates the combined percentage of residents of both races who would have to be relocated for there to be an equal proportion of blacks and whites in the nursing home.

The researchers found that:

* Blacks were nearly three times as likely as whites to be located in a nursing home housing predominantly Medicaid residents.
* Blacks were nearly twice as likely as whites to be located in a nursing home that was subsequently terminated from Medicare and Medicaid participation because of poor quality.
* Blacks were 1.41 times as likely as whites to be in a nursing home that had been cited with a deficiency causing actual harm or immediate jeopardy to residents.
* Blacks were 1.12 times as likely as whites to reside in a nursing home that was greatly understaffed.

"This study shows us that racial segregation has a significant impact on the quality of care received by nursing home residents," said Smith, a professor at Temple University and lead author of the study. "While it is important to eliminate disparities in care within nursing homes to achieve full equity, our research indicates that it is far more important to eliminate persistent patterns of segregation and the differences in the quality of care between nursing homes that tend to serve blacks as opposed to whites."

According to the research, blacks make up about 15 percent of all U.S. nursing home residents. Yet around 60 percent of black residents were concentrated in less than 10 percent of those homes. The 10 percent of U.S. nursing homes in which blacks reside tend to be in the bottom quartile with respect to quality, the study showed.

"Blacks and whites aren't getting different care in the same nursing homes. They're getting different care because they live in different nursing homes," said Mor, chairman of the Department of Community Health at Brown University and lead investigator on the study. "In the same urban areas, blacks are more likely to be concentrated in substandard nursing homes—homes with smaller budgets, smaller staffs and poorer regulatory performance."

"People being admitted to nursing homes understandably want to stay close to family members but exercising that choice should not put them in greater jeopardy of receiving poor quality care. The degree of the disparity in quality revealed by this study is unacceptable," said Commonwealth Fund Assistant Vice President for Quality of Care for Frail Elders, Mary Jane Koren, M.D. "If we are to ensure access to high quality health care for all we must address the stark differences in care provided by facilities that serve a predominantly minority population."

The study authors offered recommendations for policy changes that could improve the quality of care in nursing homes and potentially eliminate the disparities highlighted by the study. Their recommendations include:

* improvements to payment structures for nursing homes with a high proportion of Medicaid residents;
* closing the gap between the amount paid to nursing homes by Medicaid and private payers;
* broader regional planning in response to concerns about racial disparities; and
* ongoing monitoring of admissions practices to ensure that they meet Civil Rights Act requirements.

The Commonwealth Fund is an independent foundation working toward health policy reform and a high performance health system.

Brown University is an internationally known Ivy League institution with a distinctive undergraduate academic curriculum, outstanding faculty, state-of-the-art research facilities, and a tradition of innovative and rigorous multidisciplinary study. For more information, visit www.brown.edu

Health Affairs, published by Project HOPE, is the leading journal of health policy. The peer-reviewed journal appears bimonthly in print with additional online-only papers published weekly as Health Affairs Web Exclusives at www.healthaffairs.org. Copies of the September/ October 2007 issue will be provided free to interested members of the press. Journalists may also access content on the Health Affairs Web site after the embargo lifts by using the press username 'media' and the password 'november'. Address inquiries to Christopher Fleming at Health Affairs, 301-347-3944, or via e-mail, cfleming@projecthope.org

Temple University's Fox School of Business is the largest, most comprehensive business school in the greater Philadelphia region and among the largest in the world, with more than 6,000 students, 150 full-time faculty members and 51,000 alumni. For more information, visit www.fox.temple.edu

Commonwealth Contact(s): Mary Mahon Public Information Officer TEL 212-606-3853, cell phone 917-225-2314, mm@cmwf.org Bethanne Fox (301) 576-6359

First African-American astronaut who walked in space visits NJIT

Bernard A. Harris, Jr., (M.D.) NASA Astronaut Born June 26, 1956, in Temple, Texas. Married to the former Sandra Fay Lewis of Sunnyvale, California. They have one child. He enjoys flying, sailing, skiing, running, scuba diving, art and music. Bernard's mother, Mrs. Gussie H. Burgess, and his stepfather, Mr. Joe Roye Burgess, reside in San Antonio, Texas. His father, Mr. Bernard A. Harris, Sr., resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sandra's parents, Mr. & Mrs. Joe Reed, reside in Sunnyvale. Graduated from Sam Houston High School, San Antonio, Texas, in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in biology from University of Houston in 1978, a doctorate in medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1982. Dr. Harris completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in 1985. In addition, he completed a National Research Council Fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center in 1987, and trained as a flight surgeon at the Aerospace School of Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, in 1988. Dr. Harris also received a master's degree in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1996. Astronaut Bio: Bernard Harris

Astronaut to teach laws of buoyancy to 52 minority middle school students WHO: Bernard Harris, the first African American to walk in space, NJIT instructors, Exxon-Mobil engineers and 52 students from Clifton (1); Dover (1); East Brunswick (1); East Rutherford (1); Hoboken (1); Jersey City (3); Kearny (2); Montclair (3); Morris Plains (1); Newark (22): North Bergen (4); Readington Township (1); Rockaway Township (1); Stewartsville (1); Teaneck, (1); Toms River (2); Union (1); Union City, (2); West Orange (1). NJIT will be Harris' only New York metro appearance. Camp closes July 17, 2008. To set up photo(s) and/or in-person interview(s) with Harris and area student(s) call Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436. WHAT: The first African American astronaut, Bernard Harris, ExxonMobil engineers and 52 middle school students will design and construct at NJIT small rafts of aluminum and straw designed to hold pennies. The exercise will demonstrate Archimedes' law which explains buoyancy, or why objects seem to lose weight in water or other liquids. This principle has been applied ever since the age of Archimedes to test precious metals. NJIT is the New York metro region's only location (of 25 around the U.S.) for Harris and the free, two-week ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp. WHERE: NJIT, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark WHEN: July 15, 2008, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. NOTE: Program closes July 17. WHY: Studies show that the United States will face a critical shortage of engineers, scientists and other technically trained workers. To address this crisis, Harris and ExxonMobil have teamed up to develop a camp offering innovative math and science programs to encourage middle school students to stay in school, develop their knowledge in these disciplines and foster their interest to eventually pursue careers in these fields. ###

NJIT, New Jersey's science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in 92 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences.

NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation's top 25 campuses for technology and top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report's 2007 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.

Contact: Sheryl Weinstein sheryl.m.weinstein@njit.edu 973-596-3436 New Jersey Institute of Technology

Initiatives Lead to Shift in Stage of Breast Cancer Diagnosis in African-American Women

Sheryl G. A. Gabram, MD, MBA. Professor of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine. Program Director, Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University. Director, AVON Comprehensive Breast Center, Grady Health System. Director, Oncologic Services, Georgia Cancer Center of Excellence, Grady Health System. Division of Surgical Oncology

Researchers at Emory University have determined that community education outreach and internal navigation programs lead to a significant shift in stage at diagnosis of breast cancer among African-American women. Sheryl Gabram, MD, an Emory Winship Cancer Institute surgical oncologist, and her colleagues report a doubling in the proportion of cases caught at the earliest stage and a nearly reciprocal drop in the proportion of cancers at most advanced stage in African-American women who participated in community education or internal navigation programs. The research suggests that initiatives aimed at raising awareness and utilization of breast cancer screening may improve breast cancer survival rates for African-American women, who have a higher risk of death from the disease compared to whites. The study is published on line this month and in the August 1, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A disproportionate number of deaths from breast cancer occur in African-American women, a disparity attributed to later stage of disease at diagnosis and diagnosis at an earlier age. Treatment differences may also contribute to the higher risk of mortality.

To assess the effectiveness of outreach programs on breast cancer stage among African-American women, Dr. Gabram, who also is director of the AVON Comprehensive Breast Center at the Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, reported on a program implemented in 2001 with two components: Community Health Advocacy and Patient Navigation. The Community Health Advocacy component includes public educational programs that encourage mammography screening, teach the importance of breast self exams, and instruct individuals to see a trained healthcare provider.

The Patient Navigation component involves breast cancer survivors who communicate directly with all patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the AVON Breast Center. Patient Navigators (PNs) encourage patients to follow-up with recommended medical care and access needed resources such as finances, transportation, and support services.

Between 2001 and 2004, the program conducted a total of 1,148 community interventions for more than 10,000 participants. During that same time period, a total of 487 patients were identified, diagnosed, and treated for breast cancer at the AVON Comprehensive Breast Center (89 percent African American, 5 percent Caucasian, 2 percent Hispanic, and 4 percent other race/ethnicity).

Dr. Gabram and her team found that there was a doubling in the proportion of Stage 0 non-invasive breast cancers (from 12.4 percent to 25.8 percent) over the study period, while the proportion of women diagnosed with Stage IV invasive breast cancers dropped from 16.8 percent to 9.4 percent.

"This reciprocal deviation of Stage 0 versus Stage IV cancers has implications on prognosis, and ultimately outcome for these women if recommended treatment guidelines are followed," say the authors. They, along with leadership from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health team, are currently conducting studies to see if the Patient Navigation program successfully influences patients to accept treatment recommendations and to adhere to appointments after they are diagnosed with breast cancer. Research has revealed that many patients with breast cancer refuse or do not receive appropriate therapy.

The authors concluded that programs with Community Health Advocates (CHAs) who encourage mammography screening and stress the importance of early diagnosis should be jointly emphasized with the efforts of the Patient Navigators (PNs) who encourage acceptance of and adherence to treatment standards.

Article: "Effects of an outreach and internal navigation program on breast cancer diagnosis in an urban cancer center with a large African-American population." Sheryl G.A. Gabram, Mary Jo B. Lund, Jessica Gardner, N adjo Hatchett, Harvey L. Bumpers, Joel Okoli, Monica Rizzo, Barbara J Johnson, Gina B Kirkpatrick, and Otis W. Brawley. CANCER; Published Online: June 23, 2008 (DOI: 10.002/cncr.23568); Print Issue Date: August 1, 2008.

TAVERN ON THE GREEN TO PAY $2.2 MILLION FOR HARASSMENT OF FEMALES, BLACKS, HISPANICS

EEOC Settles Job Discrimination Suit with Landmark NYC Restaurant NEW YORK – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the settlement of a harassment and retaliation lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act against Tavern on the Green,

a landmark restaurant located in Central Park in New York City, for $2.2 million and significant remedial relief.

The EEOC charged in the case that Tavern on the Green engaged in severe and pervasive sexual, racial, and national origin harassment of female, black, and Hispanic employees. The sexual harassment included graphic comments and demands for various sex acts, as well as groping of women’s buttocks and breasts. The racial and national origin harassment included epithets toward black and Hispanic employees and ridiculing Hispanics for their accents. The restaurant also retaliated against employees for refusing to consent to and/or objecting to the harassment, according to the EEOC.

The consent decree resolving the suit was submitted for approval today to U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The EEOC sued Tavern on the Green on Sept. 24, 2007 (Civil Action No. 07-CV-8256) after conducting an administrative investigation and first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement out of court.

“We are pleased that this settlement will provide appropriate relief for the individuals who have been harmed,” said EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Kam S.Wong of the New York District Office. “We are likewise glad that this employer is taking proactive measures to ensure a discrimination-free workplace in the future by addressing the problems that led to the lawsuit.”

As part of the consent decree, a claim fund of $2.2 million will be allocated to victims of the harassment and/or retaliation. Additionally, the restaurant will establish a telephone hotline which employees may use to raise any discrimination complaints, distribute a revised policy against discrimination and retaliation, and provide training to all employees against discrimination and retaliation.

EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis said, “This case should remind employers to take seriously allegations of harassment and retaliation, especially where managers in positions of authority are involved in the misconduct.”

On Feb. 28, 2007, EEOC Chair Naomi C. Earp launched the Commission's E-RACE Initiative (Eradicating Racism and Colorism from Employment), a national outreach, education, and enforcement campaign focusing on new and emerging race and color issues in the 21st century workplace. Further information about the E-RACE Initiative is available on the EEOC’s web site at eeoc.gov/initiatives/e-race/.

According to its web site, www.tavernonthegreen.com, the restaurant is “one of New York’s most dazzling dining experiences…Built to house sheep in 1870, the building now known as Tavern on the Green became a restaurant in 1934…and is currently the highest-grossing independently-owned restaurant in the United States with annual revenues in excess of $34 million and over half a million visitors a year.”

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

CONTACT: Bryan White, Media Relations (212) 336-3670, Kam S.Wong, Senior Trial Atty. (212) 336-3703, Lisa Sirkin, Supervisory Trial Atty. (212) 336-3697. TTY: (212) 336-3622

Image Licensing: I, (Jim.henderson) the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I (Jim.henderson) grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Golf’s long-standing image problem

Orin Starn, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Director of Undergraduate Studies 07-08. Office Location: 208 Sciences Building, East Campus, Box 90091. Office Phone: 919-684-3221. Web Pages: orinstarn.com and golfpolitics.blogspot

"The truth is that the numbers of blacks and other minorities playing professional golf has instead been declining in recent years," says professor Orin Starn Durham, N.C. -- Many people consider it a dopey, snobby, boring game for chubby white men in plaid pants. Even golfers sometimes talk down the sport. "Where else could a guy with an IQ like mine make this much money," the well-known touring professional Hubert Green once said. Tiger Woods was supposed to transform golf, especially its whites-only reputation. When this charismatic black prodigy rocketed to stardom a decade ago, there was optimistic talk about the game opening to African Americans and other minorities.

It heightened the story’s drama that Tiger’s breakthrough win came in the 1997 Masters tournament at Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club, with its Jim Crow history of excluding of excluding blacks and women from membership.

It’s spring again, Masters time. But a decade after Tiger’s first triumph at Augusta, it has become apparent that the idea of Tiger as his sport’s racial savior was vastly oversold. The truth is that the numbers of blacks and other minorities playing professional golf has instead been declining in recent years.

Golf was the last major sport to integrate. Only in 1961 did the powerful Professional Golfers Association, or PGA, drop its "Caucasians-only" clause, and even then the first black professionals suffered every indignity. Charles Sifford, the first African American to win a PGA tournament, found human feces in the cup at the Phoenix Open; he received telephoned death threats at another tournament.

The Masters didn’t invite its first black golfer until 1975. As writer Curt Sampson documents, the idea of a good time for Augusta National members before World War II was watching blindfolded local black teenagers beat each other bloody in a boxing ring "battle royal," a few dollars going to the last one standing.

But a cohort of black professional golfers persevered, and there were more than 10 black PGA regulars in the 1970s. Hispanic professionals also made their mark, among them Lee Trevino, the smart, garrulous self-described "Super Mex" who became one of the top players of his time.

But consider this: Tiger is today the lone African American among the 125 players on the PGA tour. And there are just two Latinos: Robert Gamez and Pat Perez.

Only one black golfer, Tim O’Neal, plays the minor league Nationwide tour. There is not a single African American on the women’s professional golf tour despite the influx of fine Asian and Asian American players, a lesser force in men’s golf.

Even black caddies have almost vanished altogether. As the job became lucrative with mushrooming tournament purses, whites moved in to carry the bags. Tiger’s New Zealand-born caddy, Steve Williams, probably made over a million dollars last year.

What explains the resegregation of professional golf? Ironically, Tiger’s standard of excellence is part of the problem. Training a top golfer now demands specialized intensive instruction from a young age, in the way of figure skating or gymnastics. Although the black and Latino middle class has grown, comparatively few minority families can afford to send talented children to the expensive private golf academies that have sprung up to manufacture the future’s professional stars.

The golf cart also bears some blame. As servile as it may be to tote another man’s clubs, caddying exposed generations of poor kids to a rich man’s game. Famous old-time stars like Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen got their start in the caddyshack, as did Sifford and the other black pros of the 1970s. Except for a few high-end clubs and the professional golf tours, caddies have been replaced by golf carts, closing off that pathway of upward mobility into the sport.

But nobody seems to be paying much attention to the fact that professional golf is trending back toward becoming whites-only all over again, especially the men’s game. We live in a part-fatalistic, part-cynical, Crash-style era of "race fatigue," where many Americans feel it to be pointless and even naïve to imagine progress toward bridging the divides of color and class in this country. As much as most people would like to be rid of the silly, strange yet powerful folk belief that skin color says something essential about the person inside, the unhappy American history of racial discrimination, hierarchy and mistrust haunts us no matter how much we might want to ignore it or wish it away.

As much as most people would like to be rid of the silly, strange yet powerful folk belief that skin color says something essential about the person inside, the unhappy American history of racial discrimination, hierarchy, and mistrust haunts us no matter how much we might want to ignore it or wish it away. Here at Duke we’ve been forced to confront this painful truth just now with the terrible allegations against white university lacrosse players of raping a black woman at a student party.

As for Tiger, if he triumphs again at the Masters, he’ll don the victor’s traditional green jacket to applause from Augusta’s millionaire members, tournament ticketholders and fellow competitors and their caddies.

He’ll be one of the only brown faces in a sea of white.

Note to Editors: Orin Starn is a cultural anthropology professor at Duke who is currently writing a book about golf and American society

© 2008 Office of News & Communications. 615 Chapel Drive, Box 90563, Durham, NC 27708-0563 (919) 684-2823; After-hours phone (for reporters on deadline): (919) 812-6603

Divine intervention: Blacks use prayer to cope with stress

Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a spiritual home to many citizens of the "Sweet Auburn" community. Martin Luther King, Jr., was baptized as a child in the church.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Blacks are more likely to pray during stressful circumstances than whites, according to a new University of Michigan study. Black respondents (both African Americans and blacks of Caribbean descent) are also more likely than non-Hispanic whites to indicate that they look to God for support, strength and guidance.

About 90 percent of African Americans, 86 percent of Caribbean blacks and 60 percent of non-Hispanic whites state that prayer is very important when coping with life problems. Similar percentages of respondents from each group strongly endorsed the statement that they look to God for strength, support and guidance.

"The findings suggest that in this analysis of race and ethnicity influences, race status (being black vs. non-Hispanic white) is more important than ethnicity (being of Caribbean descent) in patterning attitudes concerning religious coping," the U-M researchers said.

The study is a first of its kind investigation of the correlates of religious coping (prayer during stressful times) among African Americans, Caribbean blacks and non-Hispanic whites. The inclusion of Caribbean Blacks allows the investigation of ethnic differences within the Black population that typically are not taken into account.

"Understanding the diversity that exists within the black population is vitally important, as Caribbean blacks are significantly different from African Americans on a number of social status and religious characteristics," the researchers said.

The research was done by Linda Chatters, a professor of social work and public health; Robert Taylor, professor and associate dean of research in the School of Social Work, James S. Jackson, director of the Institute for Social Research; and Karen Lincoln, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Southern California.

The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Community Psychology.

Researchers used data from the National Survey of American Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st Century, collected by the Program for Research on Black Americans at U-M's Institute for Social Research. The NSAL includes the first major probability sample of Caribbean Blacks ever conducted.

Respondents reflected on attitudes and opinions about religious coping, and provided information about their religious affiliation and demographic characteristics.

For both African Americans and Caribbean blacks, women and married respondents were more likely to look to God for guidance than were men and persons who cohabit with their partners, respectively.

In comparing regional differences, Southerners are more likely than respondents in the Northeast, North Central and West to seek strength and guidance from God. Denominational differences indicate that Baptists are more likely than Methodists and respondents with no religious affiliations to pray in dealing with stress.

Established in 1948, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world's oldest academic survey research organizations, and a world leader in the development and application of social science methodology. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, and the National Survey of Black Americans.

ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world' largest computerized social science data archive. Visit the ISR web site at www.isr.umich.edu for more information.

University of Michigan 412 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109-1399 PHONE: (734) 764-7260 FAX: (734) 764-7084

Depression linked to subsequent pregnancy in black teens

Beth Barnet, M.D. Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine. Department Family and Community Medicine. Special Interests: Adolescent Health. Medical Degree: George Washington University. Residency: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Family and Community Medicine. Fellowship: Johns Hopkins Hospital, Adolescent Medicine, Pediatrics. Certification: Family Medicine Contact Information: 1-800-373-4111 (physicians only), 1-800-492-5538 (patients and general information), 1-410-328-8919 (news media only)

African American adolescent mothers who have symptoms of depression may be more likely to have a subsequent pregnancy within two years of giving birth, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Studies indicate that teen mothers are twice as likely to experience depression as adult mothers with almost twice as many African American teen mothers affected compared with white teen mothers, according to background information in the article. Rapid subsequent pregnancy (occurring within 24 months of a birth) is common in young mothers. “A recent meta-analysis found that 19 percent of teen mothers experienced a subsequent pregnancy within 12 months and 38 percent experienced a subsequent pregnancy within 24 months. The highest rates are among younger, economically disadvantaged African American adolescents.” Depression and subsequent pregnancy are associated with parenting stress and negative parenting behaviors such as child abuse and neglect. Beth Barnet, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, followed 269 predominantly African American teens (ages 12 to 18) with low income who received prenatal care at five community sites.

Questionnaires were completed one or two years after childbirth to measure depressive symptoms and occurrence of subsequent pregnancy.

Among those who completed at least one follow-up questionnaire, 46 percent had depressive symptoms at the beginning of the study. A pregnancy within two years of childbirth was experienced by 120 (49 percent) of the 245 teens followed up through two years and 28 (10 percent) had more than one subsequent pregnancy. The average time between subsequent pregnancies was 11.4 months. “Teens having a subsequent pregnancy were more likely to be school dropouts; not use condoms consistently at follow-up; and report a relationship with their baby’s father, who tended to be older,” the authors write. Depressive symptoms were associated with a 44 percent increase in risk of subsequent pregnancy.

“Depression is unhealthy for mothers and their children. Treating maternal depression improves the health and well-being of both,” the authors conclude. “Our findings do not tell us how depression might fit into a casual pathway to repeat adolescent childbearing, but they do suggest that depression may be an important malleable risk factor.”

“Because depression is treatable, future studies should evaluate whether improved recognition and treatment of adolescent depression reduces the risk of rapid subsequent pregnancy.” ###

(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162[3]:246-252. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor’s Note: This study was supported by grants from the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and from an AAMC/CDC Cooperative Agreement. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Contact: Sharon Boston 410-328-8919 JAMA and Archives Journals

Black Caribbeans do better in America than in England

"James Jackson is a distinguished scholar and academic leader. He is an articulate national and international spokesperson, researcher and scholar, and he has great experience as a University administrator. Professor Jackson is eminently qualified to lead the Institute for Social Research, which is a central element of the University of Michigan’s international leadership in the social sciences and one of the largest and oldest social research and academic survey organizations in the world.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Black Caribbeans living in America enjoy better health, higher incomes and less discrimination at work than both their English counterparts and black Americans, according to the first international comparative study of these populations. The study, published this month online in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, was led by sociologist James Nazroo of the University of Manchester, U.K., and social psychologist James Jackson, director of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR). For the study, Nazroo, Jackson and colleagues compared survey data from national probability samples of five groups: Black, Caribbean and white Americans, and white and Caribbean English. In all, they analyzed data on approximately 20,000 individuals. The surveys were independent, but similarly designed, allowing researchers to sort out how differences in health were affected by economic and cultural factors, and by migration experiences. The U.S. survey data are part of the National Survey of American Life, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. They found that Caribbeans in the United States were more than twice as likely as Caribbeans in England to say their health was good.

They also found that whites and Caribbeans in the United States had similar levels of good health whereas Caribbeans in England had much worse health than their white counterparts.

The team also found that Caribbean Americans are wealthier than their English counterparts---with an income profile close to that of white Americans. In addition, Caribbean Americans reported less discrimination at work than their English counterparts, although levels of experienced racial abuse were similar in the two countries.

In contrast to the findings for Caribbean Americans, other black Americans fare just as badly as English Caribbeans in terms of health, wealth and racism.

Other findings:

* The prevalence of self-reported bad and poor health decreases steadily with increasing income for all groups.

* Poor health is strongly related to exposure to racism.

* In both countries, second-generation Caribbean immigrants are financially better off than first-generation immigrants but more likely to report exposure to racism and discrimination.

* Differences in health between populations in the two countries appear to be related to both socioeconomic inequalities and differences in patterns of migration.

"A common British perception is that Caribbeans who have settled in America endure similar levels of disadvantage to their black American counterparts and to Caribbeans living in England," Nazroo said. "But actually, our research shows that they do well and, beyond their experiences of racism, much better than Caribbeans in England.

"One of the most striking findings is the differences in health between the two Caribbean groups and how this appears to be driven by economic inequalities and migration factors. The situation is so different that American Caribbeans actually have a very similar health profile to their white American contemporaries."

According to Jackson, these differences can be at least partly explained by the different patterns of migration of Caribbeans to America and to England.

"Around 80 percent of the English Caribbean group came to the U.K. before the 1970s in a wave of migration driven by a shortage of labor after the war," he said. "On the other hand, over 80 percent of American Caribbeans migrated during and after the 1970s, just after the period when the U.S. civil rights movement had succeeded in opening up opportunities for black Americans.

"However, the social and economic disadvantage of long-settled black Americans is still apparent and born out by a long history of institutional racism and discrimination going back to the years of slavery." ###

A print edition of the journal will be published later this year. In addition to Nazroo and Jackson, co-authors of the article: "The black diaspora and health inequalities in the U.S. and England: Does where you go and how you get there make a difference," are Saffron Karlsen of University College London and Myriam Torres of the University of Michigan ISR.

Related Links:

• Sociology of Health and Illness online edition: blackwell-synergy.com/toc/
• ISR National Survey of American Life: rcgd.isr.umich.edu/prba/
• James Nazroo, University of Manchester: socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/

Established in 1948, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world's oldest academic survey research organizations, and a world leader in the development and application of social science methodology. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, and the National Survey of Black Americans.

ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world's largest computerized social science data archive. Visit the ISR web site at www.isr.umich.edu for more information.

Contact: Diane Swanbrow swanbrow@umich.edu 734-647-9069 University of Michigan

Racial Differences in Treating Vision Disorders

Timothy W. Olsen, MD. F. Phinizy Calhoun Sr. Professor of Ophthalmology. Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. Director, Emory Eye Center. Section of Vitreoretinal Surgery & Disease Timothy W. Olsen, MD

Study Alerts Eye Doctors of Racial Differences in Treating Vision Disorders ATLANTA - Blacks are more likely to lose vision due to increased pressure in the brain than other races, reports an Emory Eye Center researcher in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The pressure, called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, was identified as causing the disorder, says Beau Bruce, MD, a neuro-ophthalmology fellow at the Emory University School of Medicine and lead researcher for the study. “The racial factor is purely just that,” says Dr. Bruce. “Other factors such as differences in diagnosis, treatment or care don’t seem to matter.

We found that intracranial hypertension clearly affects black people more aggressively. This would tell us that ophthalmologists and others treating blacks need to monitor their vision very closely.”

Timothy W. Olsen, MD, director of Emory Eye Center, says, “Dr. Bruce and colleagues have discovered an interesting association that warrants further investigation. Identification of the key risk factors certainly help clinicians in patient management.”

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension has no known cause. Those affected may experience headache, ringing in the ears and vision problems. Blurriness and double vision are typical. This disease is most common in young, obese (black) women.

Seventeen years of records at Emory Eye Center were reviewed for the study.

All patients in the study had intracranial hypertension. Of the 450 patients, 197 were black, 246 were white, five were Hispanic and two were Asian. The black patients were 3.5 times more likely to end of up severe vision loss in at least one eye. Further, they were five times more likely to become legally blind than the non-black patients.

Dr. Bruce notes that the black patients in his study did have other risk factors including weight (higher body mass index), higher frequency of low blood iron and higher pressures around the brain than other study participants. Vision loss in blacks could be explained somewhat by those factors. Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. and the National Institutes of Health helped fund the study. ###

Media Contact: Joy H. Bell, 404-778-3711, jbell@emory.edu WEB: Emory Eye Center, Atlanta, Ga.

Employers who perform background checks hire more black workers

Federal Bureau of Investigation OMB NO. 1110-0026 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) Enrollment / E-Check Enrollment

A study in the Journal of Law and Economics finds that employers who choose to perform criminal background checks end up hiring more black workers – especially black men. Employers who systematically check criminal background during the hiring process are 8.4 percentage points more likely to have hired a black applicant into their most recently filled position. "The results are consistent with the proposition that in the absence of a criminal background check, employers use race to infer past criminal activity, especially employers with a strong stated aversion to hiring ex-offenders,"

write Harry J. Holzer (Georgetown Public Policy Institute), Steven Raphael (University of California, Berkeley), and Michael A. Stoll (University of California, Los Angeles).

Using a multi-city survey of more than 3,000 establishments in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles, the researchers found that the employers who are most averse to hiring ex-offenders were also the most likely to statistically discriminate. Those who perform criminal background checks are more likely to hire black applicants than those who do not, even when adjusting for proximity to black residential neighborhoods and proportion of black applicants.

"Calls to seal criminal history records fail to take into account this unintended consequence," write the authors. "The results of this study suggest that curtailing access to criminal history records may actually harm more people than it helps and aggravate racial difference in labor market outcomes."

This bias also extends to other stigmatized groups, specifically, workers with gaps in their employment history, the researchers found. Currently twenty-three state have some form of public access or freedom-of-information statutes pertaining to criminal history. Nearly all make a distinction between arrest records and conviction records and are generally less likely to disseminate information on arrests.
###

Holzer, Harry J. , Steven Raphael, and Michael A. Stoll, "Perceived Criminality, Criminal Background Checks, and the Racial Hiring Practices of Employers." Journal of Law and Economics: 49:2.

Contact: Suzanne Wu swu@press.uchicago.edu 773-834-0386 University of Chicago Press Journals

Boeing Donates $5 Million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

Jacob Armstead Lawrence was born on 17 September 1917 in Atlantic City, NJ. After spending part of his youth in both Philadelphia and Easton, PA, his mother moved the family to Harlem. His arrival coincided with the great "Harlem Renaissance" of the 1920s and early 1930s. This area was the center of a vibrant artistic community that was greatly influenced by the emergence of African-American social consciousness. It was his experiences during this time that shaped both his development and his future work as an artist.

The Boeing Company is contributing $5 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to support the design and construction of the museum. The Smithsonian's 19th museum will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. Boeing is the largest donor to date for the museum, which was established in December 2003 when President George W. Bush signed legislation establishing the museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution. It will be built on the National Mall at Constitution Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets N.W. The museum is scheduled to open in 2015 at a cost of approximately $500 million. Boeing leaders joined Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.); Cristián Samper, Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian; and Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the museum, in making the announcement. "As an early donor to the museum, Boeing will fund efforts to bring together representatives from existing African American history museums and community leaders throughout the country to share ideas about what this new museum will represent and what it will contain," said Tod Hullin, Boeing's senior vice president, Public Policy.

The museum opened its inaugural exhibition last fall at the International Center of Photography in New York in a unique collaboration with that museum and the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, from whose collection the exhibition images were drawn. That exhibition, "Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Photographs," has since traveled to Washington and the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans. A traveling version of the exhibition will be seen in nine cities, including Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston; Detroit; and Los Angeles.

The Monument site has been selected as the location for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Monument site is bordered by Constitution Ave. on the north, Madison Dr. on the south, 14th St., N.W. on the east and 15th St., N.W. on the west. The site is directly across 14th St. from the National Museum of American History (to the east) and the site is northeast of the Washington Monument. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Through a national collections and preservation initiative known as "Save Our African American Treasures," the museum is working with other organizations across the country, most recently with the Chicago Public Library, to offer workshops designed to teach people to identify and preserve historically significant items and ultimately, to help museums across the country secure items for exhibitions and collections. "We are grateful to Boeing for its support of our commitment to educate, engage and motivate people—all people—to pay attention to this nation and to the unique role African Americans played in its growth," said Bunch.

"Having the Boeing Company join us so early in the development of this museum helps bolster our belief that the work of this museum is too important to wait until the museum is built. With Boeing as a member of our institutional family, we are poised to move forward with work already started in the areas of building collections, building audiences and indeed, building a museum."

A key feature during the announcement of the Boeing gift was the first showing of items recently acquired by the museum for its collections. The display included a work by celebrated African American artist Jacob Lawrence, the Tuskegee Airmen Congressional Gold Medal and a rare, white Pullman Porter's hat worn only by the more experienced porters who served prominent travelers.

In an important phase of predesign research on the building, the museum is holding a series of meetings and focus groups across the country, encouraging participants to share ideas on what the museum should offer in areas ranging from programming to exhibitions.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established in 2003 by an Act of Congress, making it the 19th Smithsonian Institution museum. It is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. The Smithsonian Board of Regents, the governing body of the Institution, voted in January 2006 to build the museum on a five-acre site in the nation's capital on the National Mall. The Constitution Avenue site is adjacent to the Washington Monument and across the street from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Construction is expected to be completed in 2015.

Contacts Media Only: Fleur Paysour (202) 633-4761 James Gordon (202) 633-0095

Aspirin as Effective as Ticlopidine in African American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study

Philip B. Gorelick, MD MPH FACP. John S. Garvin Professor and Head. Chief, Neurology Service Interests: stroke, dementia, and neuroepidemiology research. Email:pgorelic@uic.edu Curriculum Vitae (in PDF format) Philip Gorelick's CV (61 Kb)

Results from the African American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study (AAASPS), a large multicenter trial of 1,809 African American stroke patients from over 60 sites in the United States, show that aspirin is as effective as ticlopidine for prevention of a second stroke in this population. The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is published in the June 11, 2003, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Originally scheduled to run until October 2003, the AAASPS was stopped in July 2002, after analyses suggested that there was less than a 1% chance that ticlopidine would be shown to be superior to aspirin if the study were carried to completion.

Looking at the results of previous trials of ticlopidine, a type of clot inhibitor, investigators thought that there was a strong possibility that this agent would be safer and more effective than aspirin in African Americans with a history of stroke. The NINDS funded the AAASPS in order to study this possibility.

"The study shows that aspirin is probably a better choice than ticlopidine for recurrent stroke prevention in African Americans. For those who can tolerate it, aspirin is readily available, inexpensive, and easy to administer. Ticlopidine, on the other hand, is more expensive, more difficult to use, and has the potential for serious side effects," said John R. Marler, M.D., Associate Director for Clinical Trials research at the NINDS.

African Americans are at about twice the risk of experiencing a stroke or dying from a stroke, compared to whites, and have a higher prevalence of stroke and cardiovascular disease risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and cigarette smoking.

The FDA approved ticlopidine, for clinical use in the early 1990s to reduce the risk of fatal or non-fatal stroke in patients with stroke risk factors and in patients who had a completed thrombotic stroke. In North America, ticlopidine was tested in two large trials, the Ticlopidine Aspirin Stroke Study (TASS) and the Canadian American Ticlopidine Study (CATS). A sub-analysis from TASS suggested that ticlopidine might produce fewer side effects and be particularly effective for stroke reduction among non-whites, mostly African Americans. Ticlopidine can cause rash and diarrhea but carries a lower risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and irritation than aspirin. Other adverse effects attributed to ticlopidine include serious blood conditions such as neutropenia and thrombocytopenia.

AAASPS study subjects were enrolled between one week and 90 days after the occurrence of an ischemic stroke. Volunteers were assigned daily doses of either 650 mg of aspirin or 500 mg of ticlopidine. They were examined every 2 weeks during the first 3 months of the study as well as at 6, 10, 12, 16, 20, and 24 months for the occurrence of adverse events. Complete blood and platelet counts were monitored every 2 weeks in the first 3 study months, as well as at 12 months, 24 months, any time a study subject withdrew from the trial, or at any time a local investigator believed these blood tests were indicated. Telephone contacts were made each month that an enrollee was not scheduled for an examination.

Historically, African Americans have been underrepresented in clinical trials including stroke prevention studies. AAASPS investigators built control mechanisms into the study to effectively maintain and assure patient safety, and they worked closely with the African American community during the pre-trial planning phases and during the conduct of the study. An African American Community Advisory Board and other community organizations played an active role in advising the AAASPS investigators on key issues relating to minority participation in clinical trials and the use of specific educational materials.

"We are encouraged to have such a large number of African Americans in a clinical trial on stroke. This study showed that with careful planning and sensitivity to community concerns we were able to recruit a large number of African Americans and safely follow them through an important clinical trial initiative such as AAASPS," said Audrey S. Penn, M.D., Acting Director of the NINDS.

The study was led by Philip B. Gorelick, M.D., M.P.H., of the Center for Stroke Research at Rush Medical College in Chicago, IL.

All remaining study subjects have the option of staying in the study until patient follow-up is completed to assure that all patients receive stroke prevention care. During this transition period, all of the study volunteers may opt for stroke prevention therapy prescribed by their community physician and best community practice or continue on in AAASPS in an open-label aspirin arm of the study.

The NINDS is part of the National Institutes of Health, a component of the Department of Health and Human Services. NINDS is the primary supporter of brain research in the country.

NINDS Stroke Information Page

New Resource for Preventing Diabetes in African-Americans

Joint CDC and NIH Program Releases New Resource for Use by Faith and Community-based Groups

A new diabetes prevention resource designed to encourage and help faith–based and community organizations get actively involved in deterring preventable diabetes among African–Americans was released by the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), a joint venture of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health.

The new interactive educational kit, Power to Prevent: A Family Lifestyle Approach to Diabetes Prevention, provides hands–on instruction and guidance in making behavior changes that can help prevent diabetes.

“Too many African–Americans have, or will get, diabetes,” said Ann Albright, PhD., director of CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation. “Fortunately, many people and families can take steps to prevent that from happening.

It′s often difficult to change or adopt new behaviors, but this new resource gives many examples of things that most people can do that will help them avoid a very serious life–long disease. This program also helps faith–based and community organizations which are very important to many African–American families provide the support that can make a difference in helping people take on new nutrition and exercise habits.” The Power to Prevent program includes 12 interactive group sessions that provide hands–on instruction in ways to prevent diabetes, and shows how families and individuals can change their daily habits so that they get more physical activity, make healthy food choices and better control their food serving sizes.

The sessions are designed to be led by various members of the faith–based or community organization, such as a recreation director.

“We know that churches, faith–based organizations and community groups can be very effective in helping people learn about diabetes, and in helping take steps that can prevent diabetes for most people,” said Albright. “That's why we created this new tool. We need faith and community–based organizations to be actively involved in diabetes prevention among their members, and with this easy–to–use program, they can do that effectively.”

Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States; and the prevalence rate more than doubled among African–Americans from 1980 to 2005, from 3.3 to 6.8. Diabetes is a disease associated with high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production that causes sugar to build up in the body. It can cause serious health complications including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower–extremity amputations; and can also lead to premature death. It is estimated that, among Americans aged 20 and older, more than 20 million have diabetes, of which more than 3 million are African–Americans. After taking into consideration the age differences in the various populations, non–Hispanics blacks are 1.8 times as likely to have diabetes as non–Hispanics whites.

The CDC Division of Diabetes Translation, through the NDEP (co–sponsored by the NIH), provides diabetes education to improve the treatment and outcomes for people with diabetes, promote early diagnosis, and prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. While the design and appearance of Power to Prevent is specifically directed toward African–Americans because of the increasing prevalence in this group, the basic content can be useful and relevant to all populations.

To download or order a free single printed copy of Power to Prevent go to� cdc.gov/diabetes/ndep/power_to_prevent. For general information about diabetes, please visit cdc.gov/diabetes. ### DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Contact: Rhonda Smith CDC Division of Media Relations Phone: 404–639–3286

NYC Marijuana Possession Arrests Skyrocket, Illustrate NYPD Racial Bias VIDEO

The NYPD arrested and jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana between 1997 and 2007,

a tenfold increase in marijuana arrests over the previous decade and a figure marked by startling racial and gender disparities, according to a report released Tuesday at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The report, The Marijuana Arrest Crusade in New York City: Racial Bias in Police Policy 1997-2007, is the first ever in-depth study of misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations.

Researched and written by Prof. Harry G. Levine, a sociologist at Queens College, and Deborah Peterson Small, an attorney and advocate for drug policy reform, the report is based upon two years of observations in criminal courts as well as extensive interviews with public defenders; Legal Aid and private attorneys; veteran police officers; current and former prosecutors and judges; and those arrested for possessing marijuana.

“The massive, organized and relentless pursuit of these arrests under two mayors and three police commissioners represents a crusade by law enforcement,” Levine said. “But that term does not capture other important characteristics of these arrests – including the harm they inflict on black and Latino young people and their families.”

Between 1997 and 2007, police arrested and jailed about 205,000 blacks, 122,000 Latinos and 59,000 whites for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Blacks accounted for about 52 percent of the arrests, though they represented only 26 percent of the city’s population over that time span. Latinos accounted for 31 percent of the arrests but 27 percent of the population. Whites represented only 15 percent of those arrested, despite comprising 35 percent of the population.

Government surveys of high school seniors and young adults 18 to 25 consistently show that young whites use marijuana more often than young blacks and Latinos. The arrests also are heavily skewed by gender. About 91 percent of people arrested were male.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. “The NYPD routinely targets young men based on their skin color and where they live. Arresting and jailing thousands for marijuana possession does not create safer streets. It only fosters distrust between the police and community and strips hundreds of thousands of young New Yorkers of their dignity.”

The arrests, which cost taxpayers up to $90 million a year, are indicative of the NYPD’s broken windows approach to law enforcement, in which police focus on minor offenses as a method of reducing crime. This approach, also called quality of life policing, has caused a dramatic spike in stop-and-frisk encounters between police and city residents.

In 2007, the NYPD stopped nearly 469,000 New Yorkers. Eighty-eight percent were found completely innocent of any wrongdoing. The racial disparity in the stop-and-frisk encounters is almost identical to the disparity in marijuana arrests: Though they make up only a quarter of the city’s population, more than half of those stopped were black.

Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, said the increase in marijuana arrests is linked to the quality of life initiative and the increase in NYPD stop-and-frisk street interrogations.

“If you work in this community for any length of time, you see it first hand – police randomly stopping and searching kids on the streets,” she said. “It’s no surprise that so many residents feel like they are living in a police state. The people in these neighborhoods are subject to a level of intense policing not found in affluent communities.”

Marijuana arrests do not reduce serious or violent crime. According to a study by two University of Chicago professors, these arrests only take police off the streets and divert them into nonessential police work. What they do succeed in is driving thousands of young men of color into the criminal justice system.

“By targeting black and Latino youth for misdemeanor marijuana arrests, the NYPD is labeling children with criminal records for offenses the law deems a violation, not a crime,” said Small, executive director of Break the Chains, a non-profit organization that advocates for reforms of punitive drug laws. “The consequences of the arrests follow these children for the rest of their lives. It was to avoid these consequences that marijuana possession was decriminalized in the first place. It is particularly perverse that black and Latino youth are being targeted for violating a law that was passed to reduce the likelihood that young people would acquire criminal records for possessing small amounts of marijuana.”

The majority of the nearly 400,000 people arrested for possessing marijuana were not carrying or smoking the drug in public. Most people simply had a small amount of marijuana in their possession, usually concealed in a pocket or backpack. New York State decriminalized marijuana possession in 1977, making it a violation like speeding or driving through a stop light. When police officers coerce or intimidate people into showing marijuana in the open, though, they are able to classify it as a misdemeanor and arrest for it.

“The criminal complaint always charges that they had it in open view,” Steinberg said of her clients in the Bronx. “That is preposterous. It’s obvious that everyone isn’t walking around carrying pot in open view.”

Police did not focus on marijuana arrests from 1977 through 1996, arresting around 30,000 people total in both decades for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. But police equaled or topped that 10-year arrest total in nine of the next 11 years. In 2007 alone, police made 39,700 arrests for marijuana possession.

The NYPD, rarely shy about touting success, does not promote its record-breaking crackdown on small-time marijuana possession. The report identifies incentives for the NYPD to focus on marijuana arrests. For instance, the arrests provide police officers a relatively safe and easy way to demonstrate productivity, especially in an organization such as the NYPD that heavily relies on statistics to measure effectiveness. Among other benefits, the arrests also help officers accrue overtime pay. Supervisors use marijuana arrests to generate arrest records, facilitate supervision of police activities and show that their officers are productive.

The arrests also succeed in dramatically expanding the NYPD’s vast database of New Yorkers’ personal information. Each marijuana arrest brings a new set of fingerprints and photos into the NYPD’s extensive system.

Three former police chiefs of some of the nation’s largest cities have endorsed the report’s findings. All three of the former chiefs believe marijuana possession arrests are a waste of police resources that do not reduce violent crime.

“Illegal, trivial, meaningless arrests undermine confidence in the justice system and corrupt the enforcers,” said Anthony V. Bouza, a former NYPD commander in the Bronx who was chief of police in Minneapolis from 1980 to 1989. “New York’s marijuana arrests are counterproductive, a classic misapplication of police resources.”

Norm Stamper, Seattle’s police chief from 1994 to 2000, said the enormous spike in marijuana arrests negatively affects both law enforcement and the community.

“I do not believe the two New York City mayors and three police commissioners who have presided over these practices are motivated by personal racism,” Stamp said. “But the effects of these practices are deeply, undeniably discriminatory, as well as damaging to legitimate crime fighting, community relations and police morale.”

George Napper, Atlanta’s chief of police from 1990 to 1997, said the report reveals common policing patterns, including racially skewed stop-and-frisk searches, that are poorly understood by the general public.

“People who care about the fate of American cities and the incarceration of racial minorities should read this fine study,” Napper said. “As a New York City police officer quoted in the report says: ‘Welcome to the real world.’”

Among an extensive list of recommendations, the report urges policymakers to:

* Hold public hearings and thoroughly examine the costs, consequences, and racial, gender, age and class disparities of the NYPD’s marijuana arrest practices.
* Ensure that law enforcement of marijuana offenses is consistent with the intent of New York State law.
* Substantially increase the pay scale of police officers to reduce the need for overtime.
* Require the NYPD to provide the City Council and state detailed, accurate and timely data on its arrests, citations and other practices, and make that information public.

New York Civil Liberties Union. 125 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004 Phone 212-607-3300 Fax 212-607-3318 and 212-607-3329

Blacks more likely to be shot than whites even when holding harmless objects

ANTHONY G. GREENWALD, Present Position Professor of Psychology, University of Washington Adjunct Professor of Marketing and International Business, University of Washington Office Address: Department of Psychology, Box 351525, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525 Telephone: (206) 543-7227 ; FAX (206) 685-3157 Electronic mail: agg@u.washington.edu Home page: faculty.washington.edu

Given only a fraction of a second to respond to images of men popping out from behind a garbage Dumpster, people were more likely to shoot blacks than whites, even when the men were holding a harmless object such as a flashlight rather than a gun. The finding comes from a study that is was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The research used a virtual reality simulation and was prompted by a number of mistaken shootings of unarmed blacks by police officers in recent years. It was directed by Anthony Greenwald, a University of Washington psychologist who examines the unconscious roots and levels of prejudice. Although the subjects in this study were college students, Greenwald said there is every reason to believe that police officers have the same prejudices or psychological perceptions about race as students. He bases that conclusion on data collected from hundreds of thousands of people who have taken versions of the Implicit Association Tests (IAT), including one that measures unconscious attitudes about people and weapons. The majority of people who have taken the tests exhibit some form of unconscious racial, ethnic, gender or age prejudice or stereotype.

The IAT was created by Greenwald, and developed in collaboration with Mahazarin Banaji, a Harvard University psychology professor and Brian Nosek, a University of Virginia assistant professor of psychology.

"Police receive training to make them more sensitive to weapons, but they don't get training to undo unconscious race stereotypes or biases," said Greenwald. "There are some very sophisticated simulators police officers can train on, but they are geared to weapons, not race. Bias awareness training could give officers the chance to discover and counteract automatic stereotypes that can interfere with the best performance of their duties."

In the study, more than a hundred college students, predominantly white or Asian, participated in two experiments in which they were asked to play the role of a plainclothes police officer. Their job was to take quick action in response to three categories of simulated potential targets: criminals, fellow officers and citizens. Students were given less than a second to respond -- eight-tenths of a second in experiment one and nine-tenths of a second in experiment two -- to figures that popped out from behind one of two Dumpsters. The subjects were instructed to "shoot" at criminals by pointing the mouse at them and then left clicking, to send a safety signal to fellow officers by pressing the spacebar, and to make no response to citizens.

All of the targets were dressed similarly in casual clothes. Subjects could distinguish police officers and criminals, both of whom held guns, from citizens, who carried harmless objects -- a camera, beer bottle or flashlight. The only feature that distinguished police officers from criminals was race. Each subject responded to two variations of the simulation. In one, white targets were criminals and blacks were police officers. In the other, the roles were reversed with blacks as criminals and whites as officers.

Greenwald said the time pressure subjects faced was comparable to conditions police officers sometimes encounter.

"Actually, police officers try to do whatever they can so as not to be forced to respond this quickly. But there are situations that do require them to respond this rapidly," he said

Data from the two experiments indicated that the subjects had greater difficulty distinguishing weapons from harmless objects in the hands of blacks than whites. They also were more likely to shoot when the target person was black, regardless of knowing what was in the person's hand. In the two experiments, whites were wrongly "shot" 26 percent of the time while blacks were wrongly "shot" 35 percent of the time, which is statistically significant.

The UW researchers looked at perceptual sensitivity or their subjects' abilities, in this case, to distinguish a weapon from a harmless object, and their response bias, or readiness to respond by shooting more readily at blacks than whites. Greenwald likened these processes to baseball, where perceptual sensitivity would be a batter's "eye" that tells a ball from a strike and response bias would be the readiness of the batter to swing at anything.

The study is the third in recent months to produce similar findings, but involved a task that may have come closer than the others to model the complexity of natural situations.

"The subjects were on edge because of the time pressure to respond quickly or do nothing in the case of civilians," said Greenwald. "The stress we created is like that of facing a weapon in a video game but it is not the same as the stress faced a by the police officer on the street. Ours is an analog of a high-stress situation of what an officer might encounter. In more realistic simulations for weapons training there are reports of officers with heart rates approaching 200 beats per minute.

"The practical value of our work is for people who manage police on the beat. Our studies and the previous ones lead to the conclusion that we need to look at what kind of training officers are receiving and what kind of training is needed to eventually overcome race-influenced errors that have resulted in blacks being hugely over-represented among victims of mistaken shootings by police."

Co-authors of the study are Mark Oaks, a psychology doctoral student, and Hunter Hoffman, a research engineer in the UW's Human Interface Technology Laboratory where the virtual reality simulation was created. The National Institute of Mental Health funded the research.

People may take the IAT test that measures unconscious attitudes about people and weapons at a Web site operated by the Southern Poverty Law Center at: tolerance.org/hidden_bias. The site also offers a number of other tests measuring other unconscious attitudes. ###

For more information, contact Greenwald at (206) 543-7227 or agg@u.washington.edu. He will be in Santa Fe, N.M., July 15-22 and can be reached at (505) 984-1420.

Contact: Joel Schwarz joels@u.washington.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington

Suicide attempt rate for blacks higher than previously reported

Sean Joe: Assistant Professor of Social Work, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Faculty Associate, RCGD, I Degrees * BA, Africana Studies, 1991, State University of New York, Stony Brook; * MSW, Social Welfare, 1994, State University of New York, Stony Brook; * PhD, Social Work, 1999, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sean Joe's current research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, focuses on developing father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent urban, Black American, adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors, including suicidal behavior. Dr. Joe has published in the areas of suicide, violence, and firearm-related violence. His seminal review paper on suicide among Black Americans for the first national conference on suicide prevention remains the most thorough and thoughtful review of the topic. This effort contributed to the increasing rates of suicide among young, Black American males being highlighted in the Surgeon General's "Call to Action to Prevent Suicide."

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Research indicates that blacks in the United States have a lifetime prevalence of attempted suicide of about 4 percent, a rate comparable with the general population, but higher than previous estimates. The University of Michigan findings—the first known national study that provides information about the prevalence of attempted suicide among blacks—appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death among all Americans and the rates range across specific demographic subgroups. In recent years, suicide and nonfatal suicidal behavior have emerged as crucial health issues for blacks, particularly among older adolescents and young adults. Sean Joe, assistant professor at the U-M School of Social Work, and colleagues sought to determine national estimates of the lifetime prevalence and risk factors for suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts among blacks of African American and Caribbean ethnicity in the United States. The researchers used data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), a national sample of 5,181 black respondents age 18 and older, conducted between February 2001 and June 2003. The NSAL study was conducted by the Program for Research on Black Americans at U-M's Institute for Social Research. The estimated lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among blacks in the United States was 4.1 percent; for suicidal thoughts, 11.7 percent. By comparison, the most recent data from the National Institute of Mental Health's Epidemiologic Catchment Area study for the period 1980-1984 had the lifetime estimate of attempted suicide among blacks at 2.3 percent. In Joe's study, among those who reported suicidal thoughts, 34.6 percent made a suicide plan and 21 percent made an unplanned attempt. Significant differences were found based on gender, with suicide attempts more prevalent among women (4.9 percent) than men (3.1 percent). The prevalence of suicide attempts was highest for Caribbean black men (7.5 percent), followed by African American women (5 percent). Risk of a suicide attempt and risk of suicidal thoughts were significantly associated with being younger, having a low education level, residing in the Midwest region of the United States, and having one or more psychiatric disorders. The researchers indicate the study's results should influence clinicians who screen patients for risk of suicide. For instance, clinicians should focus on modifiable risk factors—such as anxiety or depression—and should engage blacks in aggressive treatment in the high-risk period of the first year after the initial ideas of suicide and continue to observe patients who attempt suicide.

Clinicians must also consider, when screening blacks, the strong association of psychiatric disorders with the risk for suicide attempts, the greater likelihood for young adults to be impulsive and for older adults to engage in planned suicide attempts. It is also important that black patients at risk for impulsive attempts do not have access to firearms or medications that can be used to attempt suicide.

Contact: Jared Wadley Phone: (734) 936-7819 U-M School of Social Work

Family History Influences Cancer Screening

A new study indicates that African Americans with a family history of colorectal cancer are less likely to be screened than African Americans at average risk for the disease. There is also some evidence to indicate that AA with a family history are less likely to be screened than their white counterparts. The study is published in the July 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

African Americans have the highest colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and death rates of all racial groups in the United States. The reason for this is thought to be multifactorial but remains poorly understood. Overall, African Americans have low rates of colorectal cancer screening compared to most other racial groups. Early detection is especially important for those with family histories of CRC who are at higher risk of developing the disease. Factors associated with CRC screening are not well understood for African Americans, both those with and without family histories of CRC.

To investigate the factors associated with risk-appropriate CRC screening, Kathleen Griffith, Ph.D., CRNP, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and colleagues at the University of Maryland Baltimore analyzed data from the 2002 Maryland Cancer Survey, a telephone survey of more than 5,000 Maryland residents, performed under the Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund Program, to identify predictors of screening among African Americans.

The researchers' analyses revealed that for African Americans, regardless of family history, a health care provider's recommendation for colorectal cancer screening was strongly correlated with a higher likelihood of screening. Furthermore, individuals who were more physically active were also more likely to have been screened for colorectal cancer. Surprisingly, though, having a family history of colorectal cancer did not predict a higher likelihood of screening. In fact, the researchers found that African Americans with a family history were less likely to have received risk-appropriate screening than those without a family history. Family history of colorectal cancer is often associated with increased rates of screening in whites.

The authors say it is difficult to explain why a perception of increased risk, which is significantly higher in African Americans with a family history of CRC than in those without, did not translate into screening. Their findings suggest that other unknown or unmeasured factors may play a role is screening decisions. Additional studies to determine what those factors might be could lead to culturally tailored interventions designed to increase screening rates, which in turn could ultimately improve early detection and reduce colorectal cancer deaths in African Americans. "This study suggests that African Americans would benefit from a primary care approach that evaluates their risk factors for colorectal cancer, and provides corresponding recommendations for appropriate screening tests," the authors write.

Regular colorectal cancer screening is one of the most powerful weapons in preventing colorectal cancer. It can, in many cases, prevent colorectal cancer altogether. Experts estimate adherence to national screening guidelines could prevent up to eight in ten deaths from the disease. The American Cancer Society recommends that people at average risk begin screening for colorectal cancer at age 50. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States, as well as the third leading cause of cancer-related death among both men and women in the United States. ###

Article: "Influence of family history and preventive health behaviors on colorectal cancer screening in African Americans." Kathleen A. Griffith, Deborah B. McGuire, Renee Royak-Schaler, Keith O. Plowden, and Eileen K. Steinberger. CANCER; Published Online: June 9, 2008 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.23550); Print Issue Date: July 15, 2008.

Contact: David Sampson david.sampson@cancer.org 213-368-8523 American Cancer Society