Sophia Hogan
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Shervin Assari
Co-Presenter: Brownlee, LeeAnne
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Public Health + Psychiatry / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 2 – 11am – 11:50am
Room: Breakout Room 2
Authors: Shervin Assari, Sophia Hogan, LeeAnne Brownlee
Presenter: 2
Abstract
The Marginalized-Related Diminished Returns Research Center (or MDRs) has the main focus of investigating the effects of racism in the lives of Middle-Class racial/ethnic minority people. MDRs acknowledges that there are many persistent and pervasive racial and ethnic disparities within the society that impact health and developmental outcomes of middle-class Black people when compared to non-Hispanic Whites in the United States. This research center examines the lasting consequences of structural racism as a source of existing health and economic inequalities of Black or African American identifying individuals by comparing and documenting the overt gaps in the daily experiences of Black and White families. Our research project addresses the determinants of such health disparities and social marginalization in the US. This research is vital because there are not many publications about how structural racism affects the health and development of racial and ethnic minority groups. Data on race/ethnicity are often omitted from many neuroscience papers because research on race/ethnicity and the brain has been used to promote certain racist ideologies. For instance, The Bell Curve by Charles Murray contained very controversial topics and proposed a biological basis for racial/ethnic variation in intelligence. As this book argued about lower IQ among Black people than White people, this narration caused substantial trauma in Black communities. We argue that the publication of Bell Curve may have caused neuroscientists to prefer to be silent about race/ethnicity in their data. Another possibility is that they may have ignored racial and ethnic group membership for their paper. So whether this was a decision to be “politically correctâ€, “avoid conflictâ€, or was because the variable was ignored, information on race/ethnicity of participants is mainly non-existent. Through continued investigation and research, in the MDRs research center, we are conducting an analysis of highly-cited neuroscience literature to test whether these studies do or do not report the race/ethnicity of their participants. Our hope is to take a sociological view of race/ethnicity and conduct ethically valid research rather than a biologically deterministic approach or simply ignore such important constructs. In the MDRs research center, research shows that racism impacts all aspects of human development with brain development as no exception. To equalize brain development, structural racism should be eliminated. This includes elimination or reduction of segregation, social stratification, discrimination, unfair treatment, and similar unfair processes. We need to eliminate structural racism if we wish to equalize brain development of racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Addressing racism is core to improving the overall well-being of US minority groups.
Interdisciplinary, Public Health
