Ministers' Perceptions of Foster Care,Adoptions, and the Role of the Black Church

ABSTRACT

Results from survey research of 51 Black ministers indicate that the Black church is potentially an untapped resource for the placement of African American children in permanent homes. The study population indicated knowledge of the need for African American foster care and adoptive families but did not include this need as part of the focus of work for their respective churches. Implications for additional research are highlighted.     

Methodological Issues in Conducting Community-Based Health and Social Services Research Among Urban Black and African American LGBT Populations

Abstract

Health and social service utilization experiences of disenfranchised groups have recently gained renewed public attention. Reducing and eliminating racial disparities in health care has become a major national agenda. While a fairly substantial literature on Black and African American health outcomes and social service utilization does exist, and may help to influence interventions to reduce disparities, there is no comparable literature for Black and African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. In this article the author examines factors affecting research with urban Black and African American LGBT populations. A brief case study is included that demonstrates the viability of the recommended research methods and discusses the possible negative consequences of deviating from these methodological suggestions.     

Talent,the Staying Power of Racism,and Transformation: Trans-Atlantic Observations

Abstract

This paper argues that the transformation of universities will not happen until the central issue of racial discrimination is consciously addressed at Predominantly White Universities (PWUs) in South Africa. The paper makes a concerted effort to address issues that reveal why Black faculty members in North American and South African academies have had to struggle to make their presence felt as far back as the beginning of the twentieth century. It does this by looking initially at the history of intelligence testing the early pioneering South African Black faculty members, and by comparing the current contemporary scenes of both societies insofar as what African American and Black South African faculty members undergo. The paper concludes by positing that only in the event of a strong anti-racist agenda will genuine transformation of the PWUs be possible without alienating Black talent.     

Potential Roles of Black Churches in HIV/AIDS Prevention

Abstract

This study examines the role of Black churches in AIDS/HIV prevention. This is a pilot survey study design administered to 11 churches represented by 11 ministers and one church member. The analysis is both qualitative and quantitative. The results showed that most of the ministers had spoken with their congregation on HIV/AIDS. A few ministers had previously sponsored or taken part in HIV/AIDS workshops and disseminated HIV/AIDS educational material in the African American community. None of the churches had an established HIV/AIDS prevention program. Most of the ministers were receptive to implementing an HIV/AIDS prevention program, provided that it did not violate the church doctrines. The findings in this study suggest that Black churches represent an important potential resource for HIV/AIDS prevention. For success, the initial strategy should involve the minister in the early planning stage. Future research should focus on expanding the scope of this study and improving communication between the church, community-based organizations, and health professionals.     

W.E.B. DU BOIS,THE BLACK CHURCH,AND THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION

During his early sociological period (1896–1914), Du Bois published several empirically-based studies on the Black Church. Many topics were addressed that are relevant to the contemporary study of the Black Church and the sociology of religion. Du Bois utilized methodological triangulation to empirically ground his studies of the Black Church. Census, survey, and ethnographic data were integrated to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of the Black Church in the African American community. He addressed the social construction of African American religious identity and provided an early functional analysis of the Black Church. The association between religion and social class was recognized, and Du Bois was a pioneer in the area of congregational studies addressing such issues as church expenditures and membership patterns and generating surveys of children's religious beliefs and ministerial effectiveness. Extensive data were collected on Black Church membership in large cities and small communities. These data make it possible to reconstruct the Black Church religious economy in these areas. Du Bois' sociological work on religion provides a link to the discipline's past and a bridge to its future.     

Spirituality and social work practice at historically Black colleges and universities

ABSTRACT

In 2011 the Council on Social Work Education Religion and Spirituality Work Group was organized “to promote social workers’ knowledge, values, and skills for ethical and effective practice that takes into account the diverse expressions of religion and spirituality among clients and their communities.” In this article we discuss how the mission, charters, and goals of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) addressed the domains of religion and spirituality from their inception. More specifically, the focus of this discussion is the epistemology of spirituality and religion at HBCUs from historical and contemporary perspectives. Content on the exploration of the related themes, religion and spirituality, as manifested in the curriculum, cultural milieu, and social environment of HBCUs will be described. Additionally, we document the role and influence of the African American community, church, and political insurgency. These forces, coupled with the inability or unwillingness of established social service agencies and other social institutions to address issues of inequality and marginalization of African Americans, influenced the essence of the content offered in HBCU schools of social work. Spirituality, advocacy for material aid, and critical race theory are themes that were prevalent in HBCUs curriculum. Finally we show that this “unique HBCU curriculum” was brought about primarily by environmental factors such as racism, segregation, and financial uncertainty, leading to what Du Bois referred to as a double-consciousness.     

The Relationship of Social Support to African American Caregivers' Help-Seeking for Emotional Problems

This study analyzes whether social support serves as a link to or substitute for formal services among African American female caregivers seeking help with emotional problems. It also analyzes other determinants of help-seeking. It relies on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning Study and is guided by a modified version of the behavioral model of health services use. Using hierarchical binary logistic regression, analyses reveal that only age, stress, and support from fellow church members are statistically significantly associated with the likelihood of help-seeking. These results support the linking hypothesis, suggesting that the social support received by African American women caregivers in the context of their religious organizations helps to link them to services.     

White Mothers Negotiating Race and Ethnicity in the Mothering of Biracial,Black-White Adolescents

Abstract

Eleven White mothers of biracial, Black/White adolescents were interviewed in a qualitative study to determine whether and how these mothers socialize their children to issues of race and ethnicity. The majority of the women were raising their children with a focus exclusively on an African American culture and not including elements of an ethnicity germane to the mother. Their children identified as biracial privately and Black publicly. The specific strategies utilized by the women to foster ecological competence are discussed.     

From Problems to Personal Resilience

SUMMARY

This paper reviews data on select areas relevant to the status, functioning, and general well-being of African American Youth. Practitioners in both policy and clinical intervention must assert a greater role in helping these adolescents grow, develop, and become prepared to take their rightful place in American Society. Attention is afforded the African American Family, particularly Black youth and the threats, both historical and contemporary, which confront their ability to survive, cope, and sustain a resilient presence. Conflict theory is used to understand how this population interfaces with oppression, and a resilience framework, coupled with group as a method are presented as strategies for working with Black adolescents. The authors proffer that a justice-based model is useful in supporting this resilience framework within a group approach.     

Suffering in Silence: Child Sexual Molestation and the Black Church: If God Don’t Help Me Who Can I Turn To?

The invasion by another of a child’s inner self causes greater damage to the soul than perhaps any other type of abuse. Each year an estimated 90,000 children are victims of child sexual abuse. Many social institutions that are designed to help in healthy child development have failed to protect children from sexual abuse. The Black church is a major institution within the African American community that provides a plethora of supports for the community. However, it has also come under recent scrutiny for its failure to protect its children from sexual predators from within. The authors of this article discuss the role of the Black church, give theories to explain child sexual molestation, and make recommendations to church leaders and others for prevention and intervention of this problem. Implications for churches, human service providers, and research are also discussed.     

Social Capital, Resource Mobilization and Origins of the Civil Rights Movement

Abstract  This article critiques the contradictory claims of Robert Putnam and Aldon Morris in relation to the American civil rights movement. Putnam identifies the South as the American region most lacking in social capital, and argues more generally that the 1960s marked a watershed beyond which social capital in the United States declined in all regions. Morris identifies the indigenous resources of southern African American communities as fundamental to the civil rights movement's emergence in the late 1950s and sees the social networks and cultural assets of the African American church in particular as central to the movement. The article disputes Putnam's negative judgment of the South by highlighting the role played by various types of social capital in the movement's launch. It also challenges Morris's over-emphasis on the ability of charismatic, black church leadership to deliver mass support and re-affirms the role played by female lay figures, such as beauticians.     

Violence in the Black Church

Abstract

Violence in the Black Church is an issue that is frequently discussed in quiet corners, mainly among church devotees. This article argues that the Black Church is the backbone of the Black community. Moreover, if it becomes secularized, and ensnared with disruptive factionalism, its role may be significantly diminished. Faith-based programs, school vouchers, the role of women in the church, and ministerial behaviors are among the structural issues giving rise to violence in the Black Church. The paper draws on many sources of data, and is interpreted within the theoretical framework of a systems perspective.     

Patricia Hill Collins's Black Sexual Politics and the Genealogy of the Strong Black Woman

Increasingly, as Black Sexual Politics nears its ending, a shift in tone and level of intensity makes a reader aware that Collins's analysis of interlocking social institutions and media representations is aimed not just at informing, but at liberating, individual African American readers—that she wishes to give African American men and women the tools to resist the internalization of racist sexual ideology and denigrating gender roles. The texts that I examine here—by young Black feminist writers Veronica Chambers, Joan Morgan, and Kimberley Springer, along with a response to their work from Sheila Radford-Hill—continue Collins's deconstructive work on Black gender stereotypes by focusing on the Strong Black Woman role. These autobiographical/theoretical texts not only provide a historical context for the role's origins and development, but also add a psychological and emotional dimension: they tell us what it means to individual African American women to live up to the gender role requirements of Strong Black Woman. Juxtaposed through my analysis, these texts provide a kind of dialogue that moves, in the spirit of Collins' earlier pioneering work on standpoint theory, toward a collective standpoint on the Strong Black Woman gender role and its psychic and emotional costs.     

Buffers of Racial Discrimination: Links With Depression Among Rural African American Mothers

The current study examines racial discrimination as a predictor of depression in a sample of 414 rural, low‐income African American mothers of young children. The potential moderating role of optimism and church‐based social support was also examined. Mothers completed questionnaires when their child was 24 months old. Hierarchical regression revealed that mothers' perception of racism was a significant predictor of depression even after controlling for a variety of distal demographic characteristics and environmental stressors. Significant interactions suggested the importance of psychological and social characteristics in understanding maternal depression. Specifically, high levels of optimism and church‐based social support buffered mothers from increased depressive symptomology attributable to perceived racism.     

Self-Perceived Physical Attractiveness,Self-Esteem,Race, and Gender

Abstract

African American self-perceptions of physical attractiveness are found to be higher than white self-perceptions, while there is no difference by race in the correlation between self-perceived attractiveness and self-esteem. Controlling for self-perceived attractiveness, African Americans have lower self-esteem than whites, suggesting that African American perceptions of physical attractiveness, mirrored in the slogan “Black is Beautiful,” may have contributed to the disappearance over the past forty years of the gap between African American and white self-esteem. Self-esteem is more strongly related to self-perceived physical attractiveness for females than males, particularly among whites.     

Community Revitalization in Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Critical Analysis of Social Capital in an African American Neighborhood

ABSTRACT

This research explored the role of social capital, particularly civic engagement and social trust, in community revitalization efforts in a primarily African American post-Katrina neighborhood (n?=?153). Findings reveal high levels of participation in neighborhood and political activities but low levels of social trust. Eighty-four percent of this primarily African American sample reported that they do not trust people of other races as compared to 23 to 32% of African American respondents in the national study. Drawing from critical theoretical perspectives, we offer a critique of the limits of social capital theory as well as a discussion of the importance of building social and racial trust as central components of community development practice. Implications include emphasizing organizational capacity-building activities, community organizing training, and racial reconciliation efforts in post-disaster environments.     

Perceptions of Misogyny in Hip Hop and Rap: What Do the Youths Think?

This article presents the results of an exploratory study conducted at a community forum sponsored by a prominent African American church and a historically Black university. These institutions are concerned with negative messages given to African American females about their appearance and their morals. The data presented describe the population of female (68.6%) and male (31.4%) participants ages 18 to 24 and inform us about their perceptions about hip hop and rap music, especially as they relate to misogyny. This study found that listening habits and age were significant in understanding youths' views about misogyny.     

Why We Can't Wait!

Abstract

An Afrocentric theoretical approach is utilized as a framework in guiding practitioners working with African American families. Afrocentricity places African American history, culture, and African heritage at the center of persons of African American families. An Afrocentric perspective also epitomizes the political, economic, and social freedom of African American families and communities. More importantly, understanding the cultural dynamics of African American families and their historical and contemporary use of resources (e.g., worldview, language, spirituality, etc.) to adapt and overcome certain life circumstances can be useful in assessment and treatment.