Browsing by Subject "racial minorities"

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    The COVID-19 health equity twindemic: Statewide epidemiologic trends of SARS-CoV-2 outcomes among racial minorities and in rural America
    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2021) Dixon, Brian E.; Grannis, Shaun J.; Lembcke, Lauren; Roberts, Anna; Embi, Peter J.; Epidemiology, School of Public Health
    Background Early studies on COVID-19 identified unequal patterns in hospitalization and mortality in urban environments for racial and ethnic minorities. These studies were primarily single center observational studies conducted within the first few weeks or months of the pandemic. We sought to examine trends in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality over time for minority and rural populations, especially during the U.S. fall surge. Methods Statewide cohort of all adult residents in Indiana tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection between March 1 and December 31, 2020, linked to electronic health records. Primary measures were per capita rates of infection, hospitalization, and death. Age adjusted rates were calculated for multiple time periods corresponding to public health mitigation efforts. Results Morbidity and mortality increased over time with notable differences among sub-populations. Initially, per capita hospitalizations among racial minorities were 3-4 times higher than whites, and per capita deaths among urban residents were twice those of rural residents. By fall 2020, per capita hospitalizations and deaths in rural areas surpassed those of urban areas, and gaps between black/brown and white populations narrowed. Cumulative morbidity and mortality were highest among minority groups and in rural communities. Conclusions Burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality shifted over time, creating a twindemic involving disparities in outcomes based on race and geography. Health officials should explicitly measure disparities and adjust mitigation and vaccination strategies to protect vulnerable sub-populations with greater disease burden.
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    Racialized Religion and Judicial Injustice: How Whiteness and Biblicist Christianity Intersect to Promote a Preference for (Unjust) Punishment
    (Wiley, 2021-03) Perry, Samuel L.; Whitehead, Andrew L.; Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    America's judicial system is both exceptionally punitive and demonstrably unjust toward racial minorities. While these dual realities are structured into America's institutions, we propose they are also partially sustained by the intersection of ideologies that are both racialized and sacralized. Using multiple waves of the General Social Surveys and a unique measure that asks Americans to choose between two forms of judicial injustice (wrongful conviction or erroneous acquittal), we examine how white racial identity intersects with biblical literalism to bolster America's bent toward unjust punitiveness. In the main effects, Americans who affirm biblical literalism are more likely to show a preference for convicting the innocent, as are whites compared to Black Americans. Examining interaction effects, however, we find whiteness moderates the influence of biblical literalism such that only white biblical literalists (as opposed to non-white biblical literalists or white non-biblical literalists) are more likely to prefer wrongful conviction. Indeed, in our full model, being a white biblical literalist is the strongest predictor of preferring wrongful conviction. We theorize that preference for wrongful conviction over erroneous acquittal stems, at least in part, from the combination of sacralized authoritarianism and perceived racial threat.