The Corner Liquor Store: Rethinking Toxicity in the Black Metropolis.

Liquor stores have been repeatedly shown to be disproportionately prevalent in Black neighborhoods and therefore constitute a disproportionate health risk. This paper examines the ways in which liquor stores jeopardize Black lives through social and material conditions that are broader than health risk. Embodying and perpetuating dysfunctional markets, liquor stores relegate Black consumers to an overabundance of inexpensive and potent alcoholic beverages sold from heavily securitized storefronts and provoke conflicted and oppositional relationships.

Perceiving the Black female body: Race and gender in police constructions of body weight.

Representations of Black women in United States popular culture and public discourse frequently depict them stereotypically as fat and in need of policing for moral failures. As well, research has shown that Black women are perceived and constructed as non-prototypical for their gender. Taken together, observers within a White dominant social frame could be said to have difficulty correctly seeing Black women's bodies and gender presentations.

Racism at the intersections: Gender and socioeconomic differences in the experience of racism among African Americans.

Several studies investigating the health effects of racism have reported gender and socioeconomic differences in exposures to racism, with women typically reporting lower frequencies, and individuals with greater resources reporting higher frequencies. This study used diverse measures of socioeconomic position and multiple measures and methods to assess experienced racism. Socioeconomic position included education and financial and employment status.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of racism on mental health among residents of Black neighborhoods in New York City.

Objectives: We investigated the impact of reported racism on the mental health of African Americans at cross-sectional time points and longitudinally, over the course of 1 year.

Methods: The Black Linking Inequality, Feelings, and the Environment (LIFE) Study recruited Black residents (n = 144) from a probability sample of 2 predominantly Black New York City neighborhoods during December 2011 to June 2013. Respondents completed self-report surveys, including multiple measures of racism.

An empirical analysis of White privilege, social position and health.

Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that social position matters for health. Those with greater socioeconomic resources and greater perceived standing in the social hierarchy have better health than those with fewer resources and lower perceived standing. Race is another salient axis by which health is stratified in the U.

"Racism still exists": a public health intervention using racism "countermarketing" outdoor advertising in a Black neighborhood.

The negative health effects of racism have been well documented, but how to intervene to redress these effects has been little studied. This study reports on RISE (Racism Still Exists), a high-risk, high-reward public health intervention that used outdoor advertising to disseminate a "countermarketing" campaign in New York City (NYC). Over 6 months, the campaign advertised stark facts about the persistence of racism in the USA.

Havens of risks or resources? A study of two Latino neighborhoods in New York City.

Research has been mixed on the potential risks and resources that ethnic enclaves may confer upon residents: whereas some authors characterize racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods through the lens of segregation and risk, others argue that these minority neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves that can improve the availability of resources to residents. In this study, we sought to assess two predominantly Latino New York City neighborhoods (one enclave neighborhood and one comparison) in the areas of structural resources (e.g.

Retail redlining in New York City: racialized access to day-to-day retail resources.

Racial residential segregation is associated with health inequalities in the USA, and one of the primary mechanisms is through influencing features of the neighborhood physical environment. To better understand how Black residential segregation might contribute to health risk, we examined retail redlining; the inequitable distribution of retail resources across racially distinct areas. A combination of visual and analytic methods was used to investigate whether predominantly Black census block groups in New York City had poor access to retail stores important for health.

The myth of meritocracy and African American health.

Recent theoretical and empirical studies of the social determinants of health inequities have shown that economic deprivation, multiple levels of racism, and neighborhood context limit African American health chances and that African Americans' poor health status is predicated on unequal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. President Obama's election has been touted as a demonstration of American meritocracy-the belief that all may obtain the American Dream-and has instilled hope in African Americans. However, we argue that in the context of racism and other barriers to success, meritocratic ideology may act as a negative health determinant for African Americans.

Separate and unequal: the influence of neighborhood and school characteristics on spatial proximity between fast food and schools.

Objective: Social science and health literature have identified residential segregation as a critical factor in exposure to health-related resources, including food environments. Differential spatial patterning of food environments surrounding schools has significant import for youth. We examined whether fast food restaurants clustered around schools in New York City, and whether any observed clustering varied as a function of school type, school racial demographics, and area racial and socioeconomic demographics.

Association between residential exposure to outdoor alcohol advertising and problem drinking among African American women in New York City.

We evaluated the association between residential exposure to outdoor alcohol advertising and current problem drinking among 139 African American women aged 21 to 49 years in Central Harlem, New York City. We found that exposure to advertisements was positively related to problem drinking (13% greater odds), even after we controlled for a family history of alcohol problems and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that the density of alcohol advertisements in predominantly African American neighborhoods may add to problem drinking behavior of their residents.

Inequality in obesigenic environments: fast food density in New York City.

The high prevalence of obesity in African American populations may be due to the food environment in residential communities, and the density of fast food restaurants is an important aspect of the restaurant landscape in US cities. This study investigated racial and socioeconomic correlates of fast food density in New York City. We found that predominantly Black areas had higher densities of fast food than predominantly White areas; high-income Black areas had similar exposure as low-income Black areas; and national chains were most dense in commercial areas.

Association between temporal orientation and attitudes about BRCA1/2 testing among women of African descent with family histories of breast cancer.

Objective: Previous studies have identified specific attitudes (pros and cons) about BRCA testing held by women of African descent that are associated with decisions to participate in testing. These testing attitudes may be determined, in part, by temporal orientation, or how one perceives the significance of events and the consequences of their actions in terms of past, present, and future. The current study explored the relationship between temporal orientation and pros and cons of BRCA testing among 140 women of African descent with a family history suggestive of a genetic mutation predisposing to breast cancer.

Prevalence, proximity and predictors of alcohol ads in Central Harlem.

Aims: This study examined the prevalence of alcohol ads, the spatial relationship between alcohol ads and schools, churches and playgrounds, and area-level determinants of alcohol ad density in Central Harlem, New York City.

Methods: Alcohol advertising was quantified using street observation. Data on city demographics and infrastructure were obtained from the census and municipal databases.

Fried chicken and fresh apples: racial segregation as a fundamental cause of fast food density in black neighborhoods.

As rates of overweight and obesity have surged in the US, researchers have turned attention to the environmental context of diet and disparities in access to healthful foods. Despite evidence that Black neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to fast food, few explanations have been advanced to illuminate explanatory mechanisms. This paper contends that race-based residential segregation is a fundamental cause of fast food density in Black neighborhoods.

Ghettoizing outdoor advertising: disadvantage and ad panel density in black neighborhoods.

This study investigated correlates of outdoor advertising panel density in predominantly African American neighborhoods in New York City. Research shows that black neighborhoods have more outdoor advertising space than white neighborhoods, and these spaces disproportionately market alcohol and tobacco advertisements. Thus, understanding the factors associated with outdoor advertising panel density has important implications for public health.

The heresy of African-centered psychology.

This paper contends that African-centered models of psychopathology represent a heretical challenge to orthodox North American Mental Health. Heresy is the defiant rejection of ideology from a smaller community within the orthodoxy. African-centered models of psychopathology use much of the same language and ideas about the diagnostic process as Western psychiatry and clinical psychology but explicitly reject the ideological foundations of illness definition.

Acculturation and its relationship to smoking and breast self-examination frequency in African American women.

The concept of acculturation has been used to understand differences in health behaviors between and within a variety of racial and ethnic immigrant groups. Few studies, however, have examined the potential impact of acculturation on health behaviors among African Americans. The present study has two goals: 1) to reconfirm relations between acculturation and cigarette smoking; 2) to investigate the impact of acculturation on another type of health behavior, cancer screening and specifically breast self-examination (BSE).

Brief report: etiological attributions for breast cancer among healthy African American and European American women.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that African American women's attributions about breast cancer may differ from European American women, but empirical studies are lacking. The present study examined attributions about breast cancer made by a sample of healthy African American and European American women. The sample included 197 women (75 African American, 122 European American), with a mean age of 39.

Dietary behavior among African Americans: assessing cultural identity and health consciousness.

The present study utilized the African self-consciousness (ASC) construct as an index of African-American cultural identity, and explored its association .with health consciousness and dietary behavior. One hundred ninety-seven African-American adults residing in a Southeastern community participated in the study.

Enhancing the readability of materials describing genetic risk for breast cancer.

Background: The number of individuals contemplating genetic testing is increasing, but the current materials and overall subject matter remain complex and not easily understood by many. The goal of this project was to evaluate efforts to revise and increase the readability of an existing information packet describing genetic risk for breast cancer.

Methods: Evaluation was conducted in two stages through two related studies.

Experiences of racist events are associated with negative health consequences for African American women.

This study investigated whether experiences of racist events were related to psychological distress, negative health behaviors, and health problems. Participants were 71 African American women (mean age 44.4) who were recruited from an urban cancer-screening clinic as part of a larger longitudinal study on familial risk of breast cancer.