Gangs as Alternative Transitional Structures

SUMMARY

This paper reports the results of a comparative study of youth gangs in minority communities in Los Angeles and London, England. A combined qualitative-quantitative research design was used to obtain information on the experiences, attitudes and behaviors of Black youth who were involved with or influenced by gangs.

Measures included two semi-structured interview schedules for focus groups and individual youth, respectively. Demographic data and statistics on social indicators were obtained for this population in both cities from government and social agency reports on rates of school drop-outs, youth unemployment, involvement in the juvenile/criminal justice system, and health/mental health utilization.

The sample included a total of 144 African-American youth, ages 15-30, in 17 focus groups and 32 for individual interviews in Los Angeles, and a total of 86 Afro-Caribbean youth, ages 15-24, in ten focus groups and 66 for individual interviews in London. Results suggest that gangs provide minority youth with an alternative transitional structure for achieving social and economic mobility.     

The Elder in African Society

ABSTRACT

Conventional wisdom presents the elder in African society as a wise, dignified and powerful figure, who keeps the culture alive and guides the young. This paper tries to demonstrate that this image of the elders in Africa is simplistic, using evidence from folklore and literature. Folklore, though a rarely used source for studies of this nature, is the most authentic expression of a people's reality and experience. Since it springs from the remote past, folklore bears the evidence of where the Africans have come from. Together with folklore, there are some literary works which are also used, since they spring from and appropriate key aspects of the folklore heritage.     

Policy Implications of Supporting Women of Color in the Sciences

ABSTRACT

This research suggests that, contrary to popular perception, there exists a pool of women of color with avid interest in science, and the academic skills to pursue that interest. It further suggests that these women, if given the support necessary to persist in science, will choose careers that address many other needs, domestic and international, including schooling and science education; rural and urban health care, public health and medical research; the environment; and other public service fields. Investing in the retention of high-achieving women of color in science yields returns on multiple levels. This conclusion is based on a study of high-achieving women of color interested in studying science, and an evaluation of a university enrichment program for science students of color.     

‘Pain on Top of Pain,Hurtness on Top of Hurtness’: Social Discrimination,Psychological Well-Being,and Sexual Risk Among Women Living With HIV/AIDS

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explored how a subsample (n = 26) of participants in Protect and Respect (N = 184), a safer-sex intervention for women living with HIV/AIDS (WLH/A), discussed their experiences of social discrimination and the impact of discrimination on their lives, psychological well-being, and risk behaviors during group intervention sessions. The majority of participants was Black (83%), earned less than $10,000 per year (80%), and acquired HIV through heterosexual sex (58%). Analyses demonstrated that social discrimination manifested in the women's lives as poverty, HIV/AIDS-related stigma, and gender inequality. These experiences caused intense psychological distress and limited WLH/A's ability to implement the safer-sex skills that they learned during the intervention. We discuss the applied and theoretical implications of our findings, advocating for HIV and sexual risk-reduction interventions that are based on an ecological framework that addresses holistically the individual, relational, and sociostructural factors that affect women's sexual risk behaviors.     

Masturbation and Sexual Health

Abstract

In this study we applied research examining the hypothesized benefits of masturbation in dealing with sexual problems to the urgent health crisis posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is the first study to test the hypothesized relationship between masturbation and HIV risk as predicted by the Sexual Health Model, a sex-positive approach to sexual health developed in response to the need for a more explicit focus on sexuality and relationships in HIV prevention. This is also the first study to examine the relationship between several masturbation variables (i.e., masturbation guilt, lifetime masturbation, and current masturbation) and HIV-related sexual behaviors and attitudes in a sample of African American women (N =239). Data was collected using face-to-face structured interviews as part of the Women's Initiative for Sexual Health (WISH), a randomized, controlled trial of an HIV prevention intervention based on the Sexual Health Model, targeting low income, adult African American women. Contrary to expectations, results showed that participants who reported masturbating were more likely to report having multiple partners, being in a nonmonogamous relationship and engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors. There was no significant relationship between level of masturbation guilt and HIV risk nor between masturbation and consistent condom use or attitudes toward condoms. This study adds to the growing empirical support for associations between sexual health variables and safer sex and argues for a more explicit focus on sexuality in HIV prevention.     

民权运动初期非裔美国人的身份认同——《阳光下的葡萄干》的主题探析

身份认同在文学作品中经常是学者们关注的要点之一,而在非裔美国文学中,身份认同似乎成了一个永恒的话题,作家们刻意描写的或是评论家们努力挖掘的常常都与自我探寻、身份建构有关。非裔美国女剧作家洛琳·汉丝贝莉的经典剧作《阳光下的葡萄干》反映了民权运动初期非裔美国人的身份认同观念及其行为取向,体现在作为美国人而向主流社会的认同和回归本源的非洲文化认同两个方面。身份认同的关键在于人们对待本族群“根源”的态度取向和由此产生的社会行为。人们根据时代、社会背景和自身的社会定位来做出必要的取舍,实现自我。     

Kinship Care: A Cultural Resource of African American and Latino Families Coping with Parental Substance Abuse

SUMMARY

This paper examines kinship care as a cultural resource used by African American and Latino families coping with substance abuse by a family member. Although there is a growing body of literature on kinship care, there are no conceptual or empirical studies that have drawn or built on cultural similarities between these two groups of ethnic minority families. A framework that prioritizes cultural assessment and relevance in using familial and cultural resources is proposed to assist practitioners confronted with the demographic realities of working with social, clinical and ethnocultural complexities when serving ethnic minority families. The framework is based on practice implications raised by recent studies on kinship care and from the perspective of pertinent cross-cultural and anthropological literature.     

Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation Efforts in an Inner-City African American Community

This paper describes the conceptual framework that guided the development and implementation of a large-scale, community-based health initiative to lower the prevalence of smoking in an urban African American community. This project developed culturally-sensitive approaches to reducing smoking in the community and to promoting tobacco control efforts developed and implemented by community members. A randomized clinical-trial methodology was used to test the efficacy of the culturally-sensitivey community-developed smoking cessation interventions in lowering smoking rates as compared with a self-help approach. Two theoretical models guided the intervention strategies: a macro-level model applicable to the community as a whole, and a psychological process model applicable to individuals. The community model was based on community systems theory and incorporated the Readiness for Change Model which was applied in both the individual and organizational models. In addition, culturally-sensitive data collection methods were developed to improve the reliability and validity of project data, especially in determining the smoking prevalence rates and smoking behaviors of hard-to-reach, inner-city African Americans. Since the health of individuals is related to the health of their communities, smoking cessation and tobacco control activities that are integrated into the framework of the community (Le., churches, city-council, housing developments, community organizations), and incorporate culturally-relevant and specific interventions can be effective methods for achieving behavioral and societal change.     

Race,Class, and the Packaging of Harlem

In the 1970s and early 1980s, patterns of divestment dotted Harlem's landscape with abandoned buildings and the urban blight this engenders. With government subsidies, many of these properties have been refurbished and are now occupied by African American professional homeowners. Overall, capital investment in housing property is up and businesses are taking an interest in a community that was previously avoided. This article looks at the impact of gentrification in Central and West Harlem, New York. It identifies key actors and institutions involved in facilitating this transformation, examines social relations among black professional residents, and considers how these may be informed by class and race inequalities. This article is also critical of theoretical and ethnographic approaches to African American life that mythologize the middle class, erase the working class, and fail to acknowledge fragmentation in both groupings. It concludes with a brief discussion of some of the responses to this research that were shared by project participants and other anthropologists.