Browsing by Subject "African American"
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Item Open Access Building a New Aesthetic for the Black Church Funeral: “Hello Black Church, I Am the Green Funeral”(2022) Collins, SequolaThe care of creation is the responsibility of all Christians. Consequently, the Black Church has a role to play and must attend to its responsibilities seriously. In this thesis, I take a comprehensive look into rituals of the Black Church related to death—funerals, memorials, and burial practices—and how the church can take ownership and be more responsible in the care of creation. For instance, the Black Church could benefit from a new aesthetic of beauty related to funeral processing. Currently, the Black Church funeral concept of aesthetics is tightly coupled with visuals and preservation of the corpse—shiny gold coffins and embalming. As a chaplain, director of bereavement, and minister of the Gospel, I focus on the Black Church’s relative silence and insufficient attention given to how our practices around death go against the foundational principle of covenant relationship and therefore distort our perceptions of Christian beauty. This thesis engages aesthetics and ecological commitments that lead to introducing practices of ministry that honor God and contribute to the care and sustainability of the earth.
Item Open Access Factors Affecting the Likely Use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for Young African American Men Who Have Sex with Men(2018) Arscott, Joyell S.African-American young men who have sex with men (YMSM) are seven and three times more likely than their White and Hispanic counterparts, respectively, to be infected with HIV. Once-daily oral co-formulated tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine [FTC/TDF], for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP has been demonstrated to be an effective method of reducing rates of new HIV infections within this population. Despite this breakthrough in HIV prevention, African American YMSM use PrEP at a much lower and disproportionate rate in comparison to white MSM. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation was to develop a deeper understanding of the HIV prevention needs of African American YMSM as it relates to PrEP. This study was conducted using a descriptive qualitative approach, which was guided by a naturalistic design to explore and understand African American YMSM’s cognitive and emotional processes as it relates to PrEP, and how these responses influence their likely future use of PrEP as an HIV prevention method. The findings revealed important individual-, social-, cultural-, and structural-level factors that affect African American YMSM’s likely future use of PrEP. These findings revealed opportunities for future research and interventions to address the disparate rates of future PrEP use for African American YMSM.
Item Open Access Protecting and Serving: What Actually Matters to Young, Black Men in Durham, North Carolina(2021) Clemmons, Ajenai ShareeceYoung Black men in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and intensive policing have a greater risk of violent death—both at the hands of civilians and police—than any other demographic group in the United States. Yet, there is a dearth of academic research that examines safety and what constitutes legitimate policing from this demographic’s perspective. In this dissertation, I conduct two-hour qualitative interviews of 21 young Black men living in Durham, NC to examine how they assess police and their desired police reforms. Chapters focus on participants’ (1) criteria for judging how well police are doing; (2) ideal attributes of officers well-suited to carry out their vision of policing; and (3) standards for building and maintain trust. I find that participants are principally concerned with the unpredictable nature of policing. Their reforms center on forging a police force that is predictable and reliable, and whose actions reflect a government contract they are owed as American citizens and, more importantly, human beings. Findings enrich our theoretical understanding of what this population believes would need to change to ensure their communities are and feel safe. Each substantive chapter concludes with policy recommendations for police departments and municipal leaders.
Item Open Access Relational Hermeneutics: A Womanist's Approach for Renewing the Reader's Self-Understanding, Commitments, and Practices(2021) Daniels, ShreéHow do readers regain their enthusiasm for reading Scripture when what they are reading does not relate to their life’s circumstances? With all the competing voices in the world today, readers find it challenging to read the Bible when what they read is distant from their realities. Some readers have even said they prefer other spiritual books above the Bible. This paper addresses the phenomena of disengagement that is growing amongst Christian readers and looks into ways, particularly relational hermeneutics in which readers can gain renewal in reading for self-understanding, commitments, and practices.
This paper will ask the reader to make a commitment to relocating themselves in the text while paying attention to their own circumstances, emphasizing the importance of building a relationship with the text that translates into relational hermeneutics. This paper will intentionally move away from Eurocentric hermeneutics with the intent of engaging the term relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach that invites readers to reframe their accounts into meaningful stories. Examining the traditional understanding of hermeneutics and cases involving hermeneutics readers can commit to “relocating” their own stories in biblical narratives that help to facilitate their readings - giving the reader the responsibility of renewing their relationship with Christ through relational Biblical stories. Additionally, this paper highlights relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach and concludes with an African American woman’s account of doing relational hermeneutics that resulted in renewal. Hopefully readers can follow this approach with the intent of achieving similar results.
Item Open Access Relational Hermeneutics: A Womanist's Approach for Renewing the Reader's Self-Understanding, Commitments, and Practices(2021) Daniels, ShreéHow do readers regain their enthusiasm for reading Scripture when what they are reading does not relate to their life’s circumstances? With all the competing voices in the world today, readers find it challenging to read the Bible when what they read is distant from their realities. Some readers have even said they prefer other spiritual books above the Bible. This paper addresses the phenomena of disengagement that is growing amongst Christian readers and looks into ways, particularly relational hermeneutics in which readers can gain renewal in reading for self-understanding, commitments, and practices.
This paper will ask the reader to make a commitment to relocating themselves in the text while paying attention to their own circumstances, emphasizing the importance of building a relationship with the text that translates into relational hermeneutics. This paper will intentionally move away from Eurocentric hermeneutics with the intent of engaging the term relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach that invites readers to reframe their accounts into meaningful stories. Examining the traditional understanding of hermeneutics and cases involving hermeneutics readers can commit to “relocating” their own stories in biblical narratives that help to facilitate their readings - giving the reader the responsibility of renewing their relationship with Christ through relational Biblical stories. Additionally, this paper highlights relational hermeneutics as an African American woman’s approach and concludes with an African American woman’s account of doing relational hermeneutics that resulted in renewal. Hopefully readers can follow this approach with the intent of achieving similar results.
Item Open Access The Excess Burden of Cytomegalovirus in African American Communities: A Geospatial Analysis.(Open Forum Infect Dis, 2015-12) Lantos, Paul M; Permar, Sallie R; Hoffman, Kate; Swamy, Geeta KBackground. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common cause of birth defects and hearing loss in infants and opportunistic infections in the immunocompromised. Previous studies have found higher CMV seroprevalence rates among minorities and among persons with lower socioeconomic status. No studies have investigated the geographic distribution of CMV and its relationship to age, race, and poverty in the community. Methods. We identified patients from 6 North Carolina counties who were tested in the Duke University Health System for CMV immunoglobulin G. We performed spatial statistical analyses to analyze the distributions of seropositive and seronegative individuals. Results. Of 1884 subjects, 90% were either white or African American. Cytomegalovirus seropositivity was significantly more common among African Americans (73% vs 42%; odds ratio, 3.31; 95% confidence interval, 2.7-4.1), and this disparity persisted across the life span. We identified clusters of high and low CMV odds, both of which were largely explained by race. Clusters of high CMV odds were found in communities with high proportions of African Americans. Conclusions. Cytomegalovirus seropositivity is geographically clustered, and its distribution is strongly determined by a community's racial composition. African American communities have high prevalence rates of CMV infection, and there may be a disparate burden of CMV-associated morbidity in these communities.Item Open Access The Munus Triplex: Pastoral Leadership Paradigm for HIV Prevention Ministry in the African American Context(2023) Wiggins-Banister, Tarsha L.Pastoral leaders in African American contexts often play a critical role in conveying messages about what is vital to black and brown people. Pastoral leadership has always been the driving force behind change within the Black Church, especially in times of community suffering. Health disparities such as the HIV epidemic in the Black community have created a crisis just as alarming as the COVID pandemic, and the key to addressing this issue will require pastoral leadership. This research aims to examine the framework of pastoral leadership through the theological model of the Munus Triplex and how it can be utilized and maximized within the congregational context to transform its culture into one in that is HIV competent and inculcated into the cultural fabric of the church.My thesis will focus on the significance of pastoral leadership in the areas of proactive and preventative HIV education, and how the pastor’s influence within the congregation can be best used to positively influence and generate outcomes leading to inclusive practices among members of the congregation in response to HIV stigmas. By examining the work of Christ through the lens of the Munus Triplex, we can ascertain some of the leadership competencies that constitute his roles as priest, prophet, and king. In turn, this can serve as a foundational model for pastoral leadership today. I will explore how each distinctive role of the Munus Triplex informs the pastor’s work towards affecting change within the congregational context. Based upon this work, I will propose a leadership paradigm approach for African American religious leaders to help them embrace their vocational responsibility to care for the whole person free of stigma and harmful theological rhetoric in response to the HIV epidemic.
Item Open Access The Social Determinants of Health for African American Mothers Living with HIV(2015) Caiola, Courtney EllisProblem: The disparate health outcomes of African American mothers living with HIV functions at the intersection of gender-, race-, and class-inequality; HIV-related stigma; and motherhood, requiring multidimensional approaches to address the complex social and economic conditions of their lives, collectively known as the social determinants of health. African American women suffer significantly higher HIV infection rates and tend to die earlier from their infection than their White counterparts. Poverty is a significant precipitating factor for HIV infection and African American women are disproportionately poorer than other subpopulations in the United States. HIV-related stigma is linked to poorer mental and physical health outcomes across a broad range of demographic profiles. Being a mother adds an extra layer of social complexity to the lives of women living with HIV. This dissertation was designed to develop knowledge on the social determinants of health for African American mothers living with HIV by describing their social location at the intersection of gender-, race- and class – inequality; HIV-related stigma; and motherhood and exploring how their unique social identity influences their health-related experiences.
Methods: Using data from a literature review on intersectional approaches and other frameworks for examining vulnerable populations, an intersectional model for the study of the social determinants of health for African American mothers living with HIV was constructed. A pilot study exploring the methodological issues and ethical challenges of using photo elicitation with a highly stigmatized social group of women was conducted. The intersectional model and pilot study findings were then used to guide a qualitative descriptive study using storyline graphs, photo elicitation and in-depth qualitative interviewing as methods for exploring the intersection of the social determinants of health for eighteen (18) African American mothers living with HIV. Content, vector and frame analyses were used to describe the intersection of social determinants and identify potential process and structural level interventions.
Results: Findings from the pilot study include best practices for using visual methods with a highly stigmatized and potentially vulnerable group of women. Findings from the qualitative descriptive study include six additional social determinants of health - social support, religiosity, animal companions, physical environment, transportation and housing - not initially included in the conceptual model, a case for strength-based approaches, intersecting social determinants functioning as systems of oppression and the heterogeneous and fluid social locations as framed from the mother’s perspective. Three frames of social location for African American mothers living with HIV were proposed – emancipatory, situational, and internalized – as well as potential health implications and interventions. Each of the findings add to the literature on the configuration of intersecting social determinants health relevant to African American mothers living with HIV, expand the proposed intersectional model and help to generate hypotheses needed for intervention studies.
Item Open Access Ventricular conduction and long-term heart failure outcomes and mortality in African Americans: insights from the Jackson Heart Study.(Circ Heart Fail, 2015-03) Mentz, Robert J; Greiner, Melissa A; DeVore, Adam D; Dunlay, Shannon M; Choudhary, Gaurav; Ahmad, Tariq; Khazanie, Prateeti; Randolph, Tiffany C; Griswold, Michael E; Eapen, Zubin J; O'Brien, Emily C; Thomas, Kevin L; Curtis, Lesley H; Hernandez, Adrian FBACKGROUND: QRS prolongation is associated with adverse outcomes in mostly white populations, but its clinical significance is not well established for other groups. We investigated the association between QRS duration and mortality in African Americans. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed data from 5146 African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study stratified by QRS duration on baseline 12-lead ECG. We defined QRS prolongation as QRS≥100 ms. We assessed the association between QRS duration and all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models and reported the cumulative incidence of heart failure hospitalization. We identified factors associated with the development of QRS prolongation in patients with normal baseline QRS. At baseline, 30% (n=1528) of participants had QRS prolongation. The cumulative incidences of mortality and heart failure hospitalization were greater with versus without baseline QRS prolongation: 12.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0-14.4) versus 7.1% (95% CI, 6.3-8.0) and 8.2% (95% CI, 6.9-9.7) versus 4.4% (95% CI, 3.7-5.1), respectively. After risk adjustment, QRS prolongation was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03-1.56; P=0.02). There was a linear relationship between QRS duration and mortality (hazard ratio per 10 ms increase, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.12). Older age, male sex, prior myocardial infarction, lower ejection fraction, left ventricular hypertrophy, and left ventricular dilatation were associated with the development of QRS prolongation. CONCLUSIONS: QRS prolongation in African Americans was associated with increased mortality and heart failure hospitalization. Factors associated with developing QRS prolongation included age, male sex, prior myocardial infarction, and left ventricular structural abnormalities.Item Open Access Wildcat of the Streets: Race, Class and the Punitive Turn in 1970s Detroit(2015) Stauch, MichaelThis dissertation is a social history of the city of Detroit in the 1970s. Using archives official and unofficial - oral histories and archived document collections, self-published memoirs and legal documents, personal papers and the newspapers of the radical press - it portrays a city in flux. It was in the 1970s that the urban crisis in the cities of the United States crested. Detroit, as had been the case throughout the twentieth century, was at the forefront of these changes. This dissertation demonstrates the local social, political, and economic circumstances that contributed to the dramatic increase in prison populations since the 1970s with a focus on the halls of government, the courtroom, and city streets. In the streets, unemployed African American youth organized themselves to counteract the contracted social distribution allocated to them under rapidly changing economic circumstances. They organized themselves for creative expression, protection and solidarity in a hostile city, and to pursue economic endeavors in the informal economy. They sometimes committed crimes. In the courts, Wayne County Juvenile Court Judge James Lincoln, a liberal Democrat long allied with New Deal political alliances, became disenchanted with rehabilitative solutions to juvenile delinquency and embraced more punitive measures, namely incarceration. In city hall, Coleman Young, the city's first African American mayor, confronted this crisis with a form of policing that concentrated predominately on the city's unemployed African American youth, and the result was the criminalization of poverty and race we have come to understand as mass incarceration.