Race and Social Problems最新文献

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been reported to disproportionately impact racial/ethnic minorities in the USA, both in terms of infections and deaths. This racial disparity in the COVID-19 outcomes may result from the segregation of minorities in neighborhoods with health-compromising conditions. We, thus, anticipate that neighborhoods would be especially vulnerable to COVID-19 if they are of present-day economic and racial disadvantage and were redlined historically. To test this expectation, we examined the change of both confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths from April to July, 2020, in zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the New York City using multilevel regression analysis. The results indicate that ZCTAs with a higher proportion of black and Hispanic populations are associated with a higher percentage of COVID-19 infection. Historically low-graded neighborhoods show a higher risk for COVID-19 infection, even for ZCTAs with present-day economic and racial privilege. These associations change over time as the pandemic unfolds. Racial/ethnic minorities are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic's health impact. The current evidence shows that the pre-existing social structure in the form of racial residential segregation could be partially responsible for the disparities observed, highlighting an urgent need to stress historical segregation and to build a less segregated and more equal society.

The issue of reparations to the descendants of persons enslaved in the United States is receiving increasing attention in both the public sphere (e.g., 2020 Presidential campaigns) and in academic circles. However, the term “reparations” often goes undefined in such discussions, despite the fact that different types of government action (e.g., an apology versus financial payments) are associated with varying levels of public opposition (or support). We also know little about how attitudes toward reparations explicitly targeting the consequences of slavery differ from attitudes toward more generic race-targeted policies. Drawing on data from an online survey of white Americans conducted in 2016, we examine how levels of opposition to a range of different race-targeted government actions varies by (1) the type and aims of the intervention, and (2) whites’ social locations and political orientations. Regarding policy type, whites are least opposed to selected symbolic reparations (e.g., a memorial to enslaved persons) and to policies designed to ensure “fair treatment” of black Americans in the workplace. Whites are most opposed to reparations in the form of direct financial payments to black Americans and to policies involving “preferential treatment” of blacks in the workplace. In addition, whites who are older, more conservative, and who view race relations as unimportant are most opposed to the reparations and other race-based policies we examine. We conclude with suggestions for future work on this timely topic.

Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between black residential segregation and poor health outcomes. However, this association is less clear for the segregation of other racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States, such as Latinos and Asians. We argue that immigration may moderate this relationship, and that this could help explain these disparate results. We test this using multilevel statistical models of individual-level health data nested within Census tracts in a study of the Houston area using the 2009–2014 Kinder Houston Area Survey, the 2010 U.S. Census, and the 2006–2010 American Community Survey. We find that black and Latino residential segregation is associated with greater poor health reporting, though not for Asian segregation. Further, we find that immigration moderates this relationship for Latino segregation, such that where tract-level immigration is low, Latino segregation is positively related to poor health, but that this slope becomes flatter as immigration increases.