Racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of discrimination among Muslim Americans

I use data from the 2011 Pew Survey (N?=?1,033) to examine the prevalence and correlates of perceived discrimination across Muslim American racial/ethnic groups. Asian Muslims report the lowest frequency of perceived discrimination than other Muslim racial/ethnic groups. Nearly, all Muslim racial/ethnic groups have a few times higher odds of reporting one or more types of perceived discrimination than white Muslims. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, the observed relationships persist for Hispanic Muslims but disappear for black and other/mixed race Muslims. Women are less likely than men to report several forms of discrimination. Older Muslims report lower rates of perceived discrimination than younger Muslims. White Muslim men are more likely to report experiencing discrimination than white, black and Asian Muslim women. The findings highlight varying degrees of perceived discrimination among Muslim American racial/ethnic groups and suggest examining negative implications for Muslims who are at the greatest risk of mistreatment.     

Perceived Racial Discrimination in the Workplace and Body Weight among the Unemployed

This study investigates the association between body weight and the likelihood that people perceive that they have been the victims of racial discrimination in the workplace among the unemployed. I find that unemployed obese men and women are 8.4 percentage points and 7.7 percentage points, respectively, more likely to have experienced racial discrimination before becoming unemployed than their non-obese counterparts. For unemployed men, the relationship between body weight and perceived racial discrimination does not seem to be associated with race. For unemployed women, being black and obese significantly increases the likelihood of perceiving racial discrimination.     

Gendered segmented assimilation: earnings trajectories of African immigrant women and men

Racial stratification in immigrant earnings has been widely influential in theories of immigrant socioeconomic assimilation, but discussions of how racial stratification might differ by gender are underdeveloped. Segmented assimilation theory attempts to explain the underlying mechanisms that cause racial disparities, but it fails to incorporate gendered dynamics like occupational sex segregation and the feminization of particular labour flows. In this paper, we address that gap. Using data from the 1990 decennial census and the American Community Survey in 2009–11, we compare the earnings of black and white African migrants to US-born blacks and whites separately by gender. Our findings indicate that black African migrant women experience no racial disadvantage in their earnings, but black African migrant men do. Our results highlight the importance of examining racial differences in immigrant earnings interacting with gender.     

Do employers discriminate against obese employees? Evidence from individuals who are simultaneously self-employed and working for an employer

We test whether the lower wages of obese employees result from employer discrimination using a novel empirical strategy. Using data from two nationally representative surveys from the US, we analyze the wages of individuals who are simultaneously self-employed and working for an employer. While lower productivity and customer discrimination against obese individuals may affect wages in both types of jobs, employer discrimination cannot affect the wages of solo entrepreneurs. Our estimates suggest that, even after controlling for productivity (proxied by their concurrent wage in self-employment), white women (men) who are obese earn 11.4% (9.7%) less than their healthy-weight counterparts in their paid employment jobs. We also find that white women (but not men) who are overweight earn 9.1% less than their healthy-weight counterparts. We do not find any evidence of significant bodyweight discrimination among black and Hispanic workers. These results suggest that white workers, especially white women, are likely to face bodyweight discrimination in their workplaces. We report the results for a series of robustness checks to rule out alternative explanations, such as reverse causality, differences in healthcare costs, and occupation-specific customer discrimination.     

Focus: Sex and Gender Health: Beyond the Pap Smear: Gender-responsive HIV Care for Women

Women comprise nearly one-quarter of all people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the U.S. and 20 percent of incident annual cases. Though women overall are more likely than men to be diagnosed with HIV and engage in care, they are as unlikely to successfully achieve viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy, suggesting gender-based disparities that should be addressed by gender-responsive policies and programs. Using the socioecological model of health and syndemics theory, we comprehensively reviewed published literature to evaluate reasons for and ways to address gender differences in HIV risk and treatment. We discuss the biologic, sociocultural, interpersonal, and behavioral contexts of HIV risk that affect women, comprehensive healthcare for women with HIV that includes pregnancy planning or prevention, and policy implications.     

Body Size Perceptions and Eating Attitudes in Elderly Men

The majority of studies on eating attitudes, dieting and body size perceptions have focused on young adults and women. This study examined these attitudes in 334 black and white men, ages 55 to 98 years, who were members of the Charleston Heart Study cohort. Associations of the eating attitude variable with race, education and weight status were examined. Eighty-two percent of the overweight white men studied had dieted to lose weight, whereas only 49% of slimmer white men had dieted. In contrast, overweight black men did not diet more than slimmer black men. Overall black men dieted less than white men (37% reported dieting). Black men who were high school graduates were 1.3 times more likely to have dieted than were less educated black men. Overweight white men were over twice as likely as slimmer white men to feel guilty after overeating. This difference was not found in overweight versus slimmer black men. Education was not associated with measured body mass index (BMI) or perceived or ideal body size. However, there were some racial differences in these variables. White men preferred to be slightly thinner than black men (ideal BMI 25.6 vs. 26.1 kg/m²), and the difference between actual and desired BMI was 0.6 kg/m² greater in white than in black men. These results indicate that effects of race and weight status on eating restraint and body size perceptions seen in younger subjects and in women are also present, at least to some degree, in elderly men.     

What factors account for black–white differences in anti-Muslim sentiment in the contemporary USA?

I use data from the 2004 General Social Survey (N=719) and multivariate analyses to: explore the effects of race on attitudes toward Muslims; evaluate the extent to which the racial differences were mediated by psychological and religious factors; and assess whether the race effects differed significantly by gender. The findings show that blacks report significantly more favourable feelings toward Muslims than whites. Those respondents who are female, more educated and Catholic also hold significantly higher scores on the 100-point scale assessing feelings toward Muslims. After controlling for religious and psychological factors, I find that the racial difference in feelings toward Muslims is increased, indicating that the race effect is suppressed by these factors. Moderation analysis reveals that white men hold the highest level of negative feelings toward Muslims, compared to women and black men. The findings suggest challenging the misconstrued perceptions of Muslims through education and endorsement of positive images.     

The nonlinear link between height and wages in Germany, 1985–2004

Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel, this article investigates the relationship between height and wages by gender. Unlike previous investigations, which have been limited to an examination of linear effects, this one finds that height influences on wages are curvilinear, and more so for men than for women. More specifically, it finds that women who are shorter than average and men who are somewhat taller than average, but not among the tallest, enjoy significant wage advantages. Furthermore, using Blinder's decomposition to determine two components of wage differences, we find that these differences can be partitioned into an endowment component and unexplained influences (discrimination). There is a difference between the public and private sectors and between men and women as to the degree of the latter effect. This investigation supports the hypothesis that short and very tall men employed in the private sector are disadvantaged the most. The outcome for women is less robust than for men.     

Exposing racial discrimination: implicit & explicit measures--the My Body, My Story study of 1005 US-born black & white community health center members

Background

To date, research on racial discrimination and health typically has employed explicit self-report measures, despite their potentially being affected by what people are able and willing to say. We accordingly employed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) for racial discrimination, first developed and used in two recent published studies, and measured associations of the explicit and implicit discrimination measures with each other, socioeconomic and psychosocial variables, and smoking.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Among the 504 black and 501 white US-born participants, age 35–64, randomly recruited in 2008–2010 from 4 community health centers in Boston, MA, black participants were over 1.5 times more likely (p<0.05) to be worse off economically (e.g., for poverty and low education) and have higher social desirability scores (43.8 vs. 28.2); their explicit discrimination exposure was also 2.5 to 3.7 times higher (p<0.05) depending on the measure used, with over 60% reporting exposure in 3 or more domains and within the last year. Higher IAT scores for target vs. perpetrator of discrimination occurred for the black versus white participants: for “black person vs. white person”: 0.26 vs. 0.13; and for “me vs. them”: 0.24 vs. 0.19. In both groups, only low non-significant correlations existed between the implicit and explicit discrimination measures; social desirability was significantly associated with the explicit but not implicit measures. Although neither the explicit nor implicit discrimination measures were associated with odds of being a current smoker, the excess risk for black participants (controlling for age and gender) rose in models that also controlled for the racial discrimination and psychosocial variables; additional control for socioeconomic position sharply reduced and rendered the association null.

Conclusions

Implicit and explicit measures of racial discrimination are not equivalent and both warrant use in research on racial discrimination and health, along with data on socioeconomic position and social desirability.     

‘Tell your own story’: manhood,masculinity and racial socialization among black fathers and their sons

This study examines how black fathers and sons in the USA conceptualize manhood and masculinity and the racial socializing practices of black men. Drawing upon data from an ethnography on black male schooling, this paper uses the interviews with fathers and sons to explore how race and gender intersect in how black males make meaning of their gendered performances. Common notions of manhood are articulated, including independence, responsibility and providership. However, race and gender intersect in particular ways for black men. The fathers engaged in particular racial socializing practices preparing their sons for encounters with racism. Both fathers and sons adopted black existentialist perspectives, emphasizing self-determination and resilience as racially and politically motivated acts of resistance. Finally, the paper describes how the fathers modelled to their sons how to navigate racialized spaces as black men.     

Being black,foreign and woman: African immigrant identities in the United States

This paper contextualizes racial and ethnic identities in shaping African women’s work lives in the USA. While the literature on black immigrant groups has posited that ethnic identities are often deployed to shield black immigrants from racism, my findings indicate that for a group of African women, their racial and ethnic identities are viewed as potential sources of discrimination. As black immigrant women from middle-class backgrounds in their home countries, they also articulate experiences with racism and downward social and occupational mobility. Accounting for how race and ethnicity intersect in the lives of black immigrant groups can nuance our understanding of racial identities and highlight diversity in experiences among national and regional groups. Focusing on particular health-care settings further suggests the importance of professional contexts in shaping the identity formations of recent black immigrants.     

The Defining Moment: Children's Conceptualization of Race and Experiences with Racial Discrimination

This paper examines whether children of marginalized racial/ethnic groups have an awareness of race at earlier ages than youth from non-marginalized groups, documents their experiences with racial discrimination, and utilizes a modified racism-related stress model to explore the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and self-esteem. Data were collected for non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Hispanic children aged 7 - 12 using face-to-face interviews (n = 175). The concept of race was measured by assessing whether children could define race, if not a standard definition was provided. Racial discrimination was measured using the Williams Every-day-Discrimination Scale, self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Scale, and ethnic identity was assessed using the Multi-group Ethnic Identity Measure. Non-Hispanic black children were able to define race more accurately, but overall, Hispanic children encountered more racial discrimination, with frequent reports of ethnic slurs. Additionally, after accounting for ethnic identity, perceived racial discrimination remained a salient stressor that contributed to low self-esteem.     

Weight loss of black, white, and Hispanic men and women in the Diabetes Prevention Program

Objective: To provide the specific weight loss outcomes for African‐American, Hispanic, and white men and women in the lifestyle and metformin treatment arms of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) by race‐gender group to facilitate researchers translating similar interventions to minority populations, as well as provide realistic weight loss expectations for clinicians. Methods and Procedures: Secondary analyses of weight loss of 2,921 overweight participants (22% black; 17% Hispanic; 61% white; and 68% women) with impaired glucose tolerance randomized in the DPP to intensive lifestyle modification, metformin or placebo. Data over a 30‐month period are examined for comparability across treatment arms by race and gender. Results: Within lifestyle treatment, all race‐gender groups lost comparable amounts of weight with the exception of black women who exhibited significantly smaller weight losses (P < 0.01). For example, at 12 months, weight losses for white men (?8.4%), white women (?8.1%), Hispanic men (?7.8%), Hispanic women (?7.1%), and black men (?7.1%) were similar and significantly higher than black women (?4.5%). In contrast, within metformin treatment, all race‐gender groups including black women lost similar amounts of weight. Race‐gender specific mean weight loss data are provided by treatment arm for each follow‐up period. Discussion: Diminished weight losses were apparent among black women in comparison with other race‐gender groups in a lifestyle intervention but not metformin, underscoring the critical nature of examining sociocultural and environmental contributors to successful lifestyle intervention for black women.     

Gender,Ethnicity, Marital Status,and Body Weight in the United States

Married individuals tend to be heavier than those who are unmarried, particularly men, and individuals in different ethnic categories vary in their involvement in marriage and in their body weights. We examined gender and ethnic differences in relationships between marital status and body weight using cross‐sectional data from the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 3,947 women and 4,019 men. The findings revealed that compared to married men in the same ethnic category, white divorced men, black never‐married men, and all Hispanic men except for widows had lower odds of being overweight. Compared to married women in the same ethnic category, white women's weights did not significantly differ by marital status, black separated women had greater odds of being overweight, and Hispanic never‐married women had lower odds of being overweight. Associations of marriage with body weight appear to be at least partly contingent upon gender and ethnicity, which may reflect larger societal patterns of involvement in marriage, commitment to family, and body‐weight norms and expectations.     

The gender health gap in China: A decomposition analysis

Around the world, and in spite of their higher life expectancy, women tend to report worse health than men until old age. Explanations for this gender gap in self-perceived health may be different in China than in other countries due to the traditional phenomenon of son preference. We examine several possible reasons for the gap using the Chinese SAGE data. We first rule out differential reporting by gender as a possible explanation, exploiting information on anchoring vignettes in eight domains of health functioning. Decomposing the gap in general self-assessed health, we find that about 31% can be explained by socio-demographic factors, most of all by discrimination against women in education in the 20th century. A more complete specification including chronic conditions and health functioning fully explains the remainder of the gap (about 69%). Adding chronic conditions and health functioning also explains at least two thirds of the education contribution, suggesting how education may affect health. In particular, women's higher rates of arthritis, angina and eye diseases make the largest contributions to the gender health gap, by limiting mobility, increasing pain and discomfort, and causing sleep problems and a feeling of low energy.     

Gender differences in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV

Many cases of HIV infection in women in the United States are diagnosed very late in the course of their illness. HIV testing should be routinely recommended if a woman presents with certain gynecologic conditions or sexually transmitted diseases. Lack of awareness of HIV status leads to the majority of new sexually transmitted HIV infections. In the United States, most AIDS cases diagnosed among females in 2004 were attributable to high-risk heterosexual contact, disproportionately affecting black and Hispanic women. Depending on the racial/ethnic community being served, obstacles to access to care, including poverty, transportation issues, and cultural and language barriers, must be overcome. The full implications of gender differences in viral load and CD4 count in the treatment of women with HIV are not yet known. Clinical trial data on HIV therapies in women are limited, and most studies that have included women have not been powered to detect gender differences in virologic and immunologic success rates. Timing and choice of treatment are affected by the pharmacokinetics of antiretroviral drugs and the long-term complications of treatment, both of which may be different for men and women with HIV infection.     

Women Are Better at Selecting Gifts than Men

There is a widespread belief that women are better at selecting gifts than men; however, this claim has not been assessed on the basis of objective criteria. The current studies do exactly that and show that women do indeed make better gift selections for others, regardless of the gender of the receiver and the type of relationship between the giver and receiver. We investigate the mediating role of different aspects of interpersonal sensitivity and reveal that differences in interpersonal interest (measured with an autism questionnaire), but not differences in interpersonal reactivity, explain gender differences in gift selection quality. The current studies thus present the first objective evidence for the claim that women are better in selecting gifts for others and also give an indication of why this is the case.     

Educational differences in obesity in the United States: a closer look at the trends

Both body weight and educational attainment have risen in the United States. Empirical evidence regarding educational differences in obesity (BMI ≥30) is inconsistent. According to some widely cited claims, these differences have declined since the 1970s, and the most educated have experienced the greatest gain in obesity. Prior research was limited in grouping college graduates with nongraduates, combining men and women in the same analysis, and using self-reported rather than measured anthropometric information. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), we address these issues and examine changing educational differences in obesity from 1971-1980 to 1999-2006 for non-Hispanic whites and blacks in two separate age groups (25-44 vs. 45-64 years). We find that (i) obesity differentials by education have remained largely stable, (ii) compared with college graduates, less educated whites and younger black women continue to be more likely to be obese, (iii) but the differentials are larger for women than men, and weak or nonexistent among black men and older black women. There are exceptions to the overall trend. The obesity gap has widened between the two groups of college-educated younger women, but disappeared between the least and most educated younger white men. Thus, the increase in obesity was similar for most educational groups, but significantly greater for younger women with some college and smaller for younger white men without a high-school degree. Lumping together the two distinct college groups has biased previous estimates of educational differences in obesity.     

Perceived discrimination and self-rated health in South Korea: a nationally representative survey

Background

There is mounting evidence that discriminatory experiences can harm health. However, previous research has mainly focused on the health effects of racial discrimination in U.S. or European countries although there is pervasive discrimination by gender, age, education and other factors in Asian countries.

Methods

We analyzed the data from the 7th wave of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study to investigate the association between perceived discriminatory experience and poor self-rated health in South Korea. Perceived discriminatory experiences were measured in eight situations through a modified Experience of Discrimination questionnaire. In each of eight situations, the lifetime prevalence of perceived discriminatory experience was compared between men and women and the main causes of those experiences were identified separately by gender. After adjusting for potential confounders, we examined the association between perceived discriminatory experience and poor self-rated health in each of eight social situations and also checked the association using the number of situations of perceived discriminatory experiences.

Results

For both men and women, education level and age were the main sources of work-related perceived discriminatory experiences. Gender was one of the main causes among women across eight situations and more than 90% of women reported their gender as a main cause of discriminatory experience in getting higher education and at home. Discriminatory experiences in four situations were positively associated with poor self-rated health. The odds ratio for poor self-rated health for those exposed to one, two, three or four or more social situations of perceived discrimination were respectively 1.06 (95% CI : 0.87–1.29), 1.15 (95% CI : 0.96–1.55), 1.59 (95% CI : 1.19–2.14), and 1.78 (95% CI :1.26–2.51).

Conclusion

There is consistent association between perceived discriminatory experience and poor self-rated health across eight social situations in South Korea.