Alternative Practicum in Health Education

Abstract

Young African American men in the inner city have higher rates of mortality and morbidity from potentially preventable causes than other American men of the same age. They suffer disproportionately high rates of preventable illness from violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infection. These young men present with problems related to sexual concerns, mental health issues, substance abuse, and violence. They also report substantial risk-taking behaviors, including unprotected sex, substance use, and weapon carrying, as well as exposure to violence. Access to and use of preventive primary care services has been limited for these patients in the past because of financial barriers and competing social issues. Racism and historical oppression have created barriers of mistrust for young men of color. Factors that contribute to their adverse health status, as well as ways to address these problems, are discussed.     

Psychological Distress of Cuban Americans Affected by Restrictive U.S. Travel Policies

We describe the mental health consequences of United States travel policies affecting Cuban Americans (CAs) with relatives in Cuba and discuss these policies in the context of U.S. domestic politics and the Bush administration's desire for regime change in Cuba. Policies put into effect in 2004 restrict CAs from visiting relatives in Cuba more than once every 3 years, narrowly define family whom CAs can legally visit, and limit the assistance they can provide their Cuban relatives. We share case reports based on qualitative interviews with 53 Cuban Americans that illustrate travel-related psychological distress (TRPD) experienced by CAs in response to the restrictions. We note the difficulties CAs experience in coping with TRPD and the need for political and mental health interventions to address this condition. TRPD is directly related to the government's violation of the human and constitutional rights of CAs to travel freely. It is the responsibility of the state to restore those rights. Human services professionals should oppose TRPD as antithetical to family well-being.     

Filipinos and the Myth of Model Minority in Hawai'i

Abstract

Despite tremendous heterogeneity in culture, native language, values, socioeconomic status and a steadily growing presence in the United States, Asian Americans are viewed as a monolithic group under the model minority stereotype. Using the focus group approach with youth, young professionals, key/community leaders, and parent participants, the authors determined that in reference to Filipino Americans living in the diverse ethnic and cultural landscape of Hawai'i, the model minority label does not apply. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.     

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.     

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。     

Lesbian and gay men’s perceptions of their local area agency on aging

This article reviews data from a qualitative study of lesbians and gay men about engagement with their local Area Agency on Aging (AAA). Findings include lack of knowledge about the local AAA, feelings of exclusion, and the need for better outreach. It is important that AAAs engage their local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) elders, as data show they are at higher risk for aging alone and can often harbor mistrust of formal services due to lifetimes of discrimination. Suggestions on where AAAs can find training and resources on reaching out to the LGBT older adult community and implications for the profession of social work are provided.     

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.     

RURALIZING THE CITY: THE GREAT MIGRATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL REHABILITATION IN BALTIMORE,MARYLAND

This article examines the discursive and material presence of the “rural” in the “urban,” relating it to the historical and contemporary production of African American culture and identity. By using the case of the Great Migration, it discusses how African Americans negotiated and shaped their urban surroundings and formed individual and collective identities by drawing on their rural, southern histories. It then suggests the relevance of these broad historical processes to contemporary analyses and interventions in the urban environment of Baltimore, Maryland. This article challenges assumptions that obscure the agency of urban residents in the formation of identity and the establishment of community. It demonstrates ways in which the historical movement from rural South to urban North was accompanied by a range of cultural resources that have been adapted, discarded, or reconstructed.     

Muslim Political Activism or Political Activism by Muslims? Secular and Religious Identities Amongst Muslim Arab Activists in the United States and United Kingdom

Scholarship on Muslim political mobilisation in the West has developed as an important counterpoint to public discourse, which has tended to cast Muslims as a threat to social cohesion, liberal democracy, and national security. But even as scholarly literature has shed light on civic participation among Muslims, it has sidelined the diversity of political identities and values that motivate them. Most, if not all, Muslims in the West find their identities politicised in some way, but the question of whether this leads to a consensus amongst Muslims about the role of religion in public life often remains unexamined. In this article we draw on interviews with seventy-eight activists in Britain and the United States who are both Muslim and Arab to complicate ideas about the political mobilisation of Muslims in the West. Respondents, we show, are far from unified in their views on religion as a basis for political action and mobilisation. Some are keen to place Islam squarely in mainstream political spaces; most, however, are insistent that Islam should remain a private faith and identity and that political mobilisation should take place under the aegis of Arabness or other ‘secular’ identities. Using theoretical perspectives on the public sphere, we explain the complexity of our respondents' political identities and activism. Our overall aim is to broaden perspectives on the ways in which people from Muslim backgrounds participate in public, political life in Western contexts.