Accidental Communities: Race,Emergency Medicine,and the Problem of PolyHeme®

This article focuses on emergency medical care in black urban populations, suggesting that the classification of a “community” within clinical trial language is problematic. The article references a cultural history of black Americans with pre-hospital emergency medical treatment as relevant to contemporary emergency medicine paradigms. Part I explores a relationship between “autonomy” and “community.” The idea of community emerges as a displacement for the ethical principle of autonomy precisely at the moment that institutionalized medicine focuses on diversity. Part II examines a clinical trial for the blood substitute PolyHeme^® (Northfield Laboratories, Inc., Evanston, IL). It illustrates the ways in which bias in research paradigms and Institutional Review Board decisions attach to the notion and utility of the language of “community.” The conclusion's contemporary anecdote makes apparent the vitality of the issues of prehospital emergency medical care and the ways in which decisions and practices fall too easily into a narrative of culturally biased treatment.     

"Involving the Elderly in Mission" -A Service Project

As one church grew from a small immigrant church to a conglomerate of 1,200 members, the natural social networks were no longer adequate to support the population of older persons. Networks had to be made intentional through programming. A needs assessment of the senior population identified specific subgroups and their needs. Recognizing the diversity of the senior population, a broad spectrum of programs was established. An effort was made to maintain a balance between traditional and innovative. The senior program has strengthened the networking among seniors, increased their integration with the other age groups in the church, and provided an entry level for those new to the church. The program has also become known in the community, which has resulted in cooperation with other senior service organizations who provide education and training. The Area Agency on Aging, realizing the importance of the church to the senior population, has selected a member of the church community to serve on its Advisory Board.     

The Space Between: Exploring How Religious Leaders Reconcile Religion and Politics

Religious leaders, across religious traditions and demographic backgrounds, engage in politics in America. However, making sense of this is not an easy task, especially when their religious and political positions do not align. In these instances, they must somehow reconcile their incongruous positions. This article draws upon interview conversations with black religious leaders to explore how this is achieved. It is revealed that respondents bridge the space between their religious and political positions mainly by deploying three mechanisms: religious sequestration, issue minimization, and selective denial. This study contributes to our understanding of how religious leaders make sense of privileging civic and political positions over religious orthodoxy. It outlines the implications of this for black religious leaders specifically and the role of religious leaders in civic and political spheres more broadly.     

She writes in many-coloured headscarves! A conversation with Shelina Zahra Janmohamed

Shelina Janmohamed, the British Muslim writer and commentator, feels impatient with the stereotypic labels attributed by the West to Asian Muslim women. Through her memoir, Love in a Headscarf, she breaks out all the miserable images of what it is to be a British Asian Muslim woman, addressing issues that range from Asian marriages to Islamic terrorism and the question of the veil.     

Hijab in the American workplace: visibility and discrimination

While the initial purpose of this article was to outline online collective action (OCA) towards promoting the rights of hijab-wearing Muslim women in the workplace, it became apparent that there were substantial impediments to this solidarity. Thus, the bulk of it takes up these obstacles, arguing that American hijabis face structural discrimination and Muslims in the United States are subjected to heightened discrimination when they are highly visible to the mainstream culture. This article reviews two cases of workplace discrimination against hijabis and the reactions to these incidents on the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, and hijab-oriented blogs. Findings indicate that intolerance of Muslims is prevalent across various political affiliations and apprehension associated with hijabi rights could be related to the perceived decline of white privilege. The analysis also demonstrates that there may be impediments to solidarity with hijabi rights within Muslim communities due to disagreements on the Qur’anic mandate of modesty, divergent perspectives on how Muslims can best promote their rights and ensure their safety, and misunderstandings related to the rights guaranteed under reasonable accommodation. Despite the various obstacles to solidarity with hijabis, the article traces various forms of OCA at local, national and international levels that were encountered on social media platforms.     

Thriving Among African‐American Adolescents: Religiosity,Religious Support,and Communalism

While research has identified some positive factors in the lives of African‐American adolescents, there is limited, yet growing, empirical research examining how positive factors foster thriving for these youth. Using a positive youth development framework, we examined naturally occurring factors that promote thriving among African‐American adolescents. This cross‐sectional study included 152 youth who were surveyed at five Black churches in a large Midwestern city. Using MPlus, the structural regression model results revealed support for a model that demonstrated religiosity, religious support, and communalism are significantly and directly related to thriving among African‐American adolescents. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed. Moving from a deficit lens to a strengths‐based approach can facilitate understanding of developmental processes and provide a foundation for supporting and enhancing positive outcomes among African‐American adolescents.     

Church service roles and anticipated support among older Mexican Americans

The purpose of this study is to see how feelings of anticipated support arise in church. Anticipated support refers to the belief that coreligionists will provide assistance in the future if the need arises. This model contains the following hypothesis: (1) people who affiliate with conservative Protestant congregations will be more deeply committed to their faith, (2) individuals who are more committed to their faith will attend church more frequently, (3) people who go to church more often will be more likely to occupy church service roles, (4) those who occupy church service roles will feel more highly valued by their coreligionists, (5) individuals who feel they are valued highly by fellow church members will receive more emotional support from them, and (6) people who receive more emotional support at church will have stronger anticipated support beliefs. Data from a nationwide survey of older Mexican Americans support these hypotheses.     

Do stigma and its psychosocial impact differ between Asian-born Chinese immigrants and Western-born Caucasians with head and neck cancer?

Stigma appears to influence emotional distress and well-being in cancer survivors, but cross-cultural differences have been ignored. Previous studies suggest that stigma may be especially relevant for survivors of Asian origin. However, their study designs (e.g. focused on female cancers, qualitative designs, and an absence of comparison groups) limit the strength of this conclusion. We hypothesized that (1) Asian-born Chinese immigrants (AI) would report more perceived cancer-related stigma than Western-born Caucasians (WBC); and (2) the impact of stigma on emotional distress and well-being would be greater in AI as compared to WBC. Head and neck cancer survivors (n = 118 AI and n = 404 WBC) completed measures of well-being, emotional distress, and a three-item indicator of stigma in structured interviews. The majority of respondents (59%) reported one or more indicators of stigma. Stigma correlated significantly with emotional distress (r = .13, p = .004) and well-being (r = ?.09, p = .032). Contrary to our hypotheses, WBCs and AIs did not differ in reported stigma nor did we detect differences in its psychosocial impact. Stigma exerts a deleterious psychosocial impact on head and neck cancer survivors. It did not differ significantly between AI and WBC survivors.