African American Family

Burke, J.R., Wingfield, M.S., Lewis, K.E. et al. The Haw River syndrome dentatorubropalli-doluysian atrophy (DRPLA) in an African-American family. Nat. Genet. 7 521-524,1994. 

Roe, 1953 Wuthnow, 1985 Zuckerman, 1977). Overall, African Americans are less likely than whites to evaluate their marriages as positive. Significant black/white differences in marital stability may also be explained by differences in levels of education and income (Jaynes Williams, 1989). However, Murry et al. (2001, p. 916) emphasize that one source of stress that is unique to the African American experience is racial discrimination. They assert that exposure to chronic racial discrimination actually amplifies other stressors on the African American families. 

The remaining proportion of black people lives in some level of poverty. This proportion of poverty-stricken blacks is triple the percentage for whites. This ratio has remained fairly constant for nearly fifty years (Parrillo, 2005). This suggests that many African American families will continue to depend on the availability of financial aid for their children to attend college. One interviewee commented ... 

Suarez BK, Duan J, Sanders AR, Hinrichs AL, Jin CH, et al. 2006. Genomewide linkage scan of 409 European-ancestry and African American families with schizophrenia Suggestive evidence of linkage at 8p23.3-p21.2 and 1 Ipl3.1-ql4.1 in the combined sample. Am J Hum Genet 78 315-333. 

My fifteen months at Children s Hospital were influential in developing my understanding of the interrelationship of health and social factors. The hospital, at 1740 Bainbridge Street, was the oldest pediatric hospital in the nation. It was surrounded by a neighborhood of low-income African-American families. 

These two girls are some of the many healthy children born to African American families every year. Every year in the United States, though, more than 1,000 African American babies are born with the hemoglobin defect that causes sickle cell disease. 

Given that these edge cities are located in predominantly wealthy white areas it should be no surprise that the accessibility to jobs of African American workers is half that of white workers in Charlotte (Sultana, 2008). Hispanic workers have the lowest level of accessibility to work almost ten times less than African American workers and 20 times less than white workers. This observation provides another example of how the rise of edge cities can exacerbate a region s job-housing imbalance and spatial mismatch by widening the distance between economic opportunities and the concentration of low income and African American families. 

There is considerable evidence that children s schooling plays a critical role in their adjustment. For example, children evidencing disruptive behavior disorders are at high risk for poor school adjustment (Willcutt Pennington, 2000), and low participation in academic tasks is predictive of oppositional behavior (Finn Cox, 1992). Intensive educational interventions have been shown to reduce aggression as a function of increased achievement (Kellam et al., 1998). In addition, in a study of urban, African American families, academic self-esteem and academic achievement were protective factors for negative life events and for youth perceptions of family conflicts (Spencer et al., 1993). Thus, success in school is clearly associated... 

Another example of practices that exclude can be found in the following experience. Parents were asked to call a central number within the school system to access mental health services. In the initial assessment, neither cultural nor economic issues were taken into account. In one school district there were fewer inquiries from African American families than had been expected, given their proportion within the population. The interpretation by the school administration was... 

Non-modifiable risk factors include age, gender, race/ ethnicity, and heredity. Ischemic stroke risk is increased in those greater than 55 years of age, in men, and in African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Pacific Islanders. It is also increased in those with a family history of stroke. Modifiable risk factors include a number of treatable disease states and lifestyle factors that can greatly influence overall stroke risk. Hypertension is... 

In the United States, IBS affects women about twice as often as men. However, this may reflect a woman s tendency to seek medical care more often than a man may. Irritable bowel syndrome can occur at any age, but presentation is most common between the ages of 20 and 50 years. Onset beyond 60 years of age is rare. However, prevalence for older adults is the same as for young persons. Prevalence is similar in Caucasians and African-Americans but may be lower in people of Hispanic origin. A genetic link is unproven, but IBS seems more common in certain families. 

Posttransplant diabetes Insulin Oral hypoglycemics Risk factors obesity, family history, African-American race, cadaveric kidney, TAC greater than CSA May resolve/improve as immunosuppressive doses decrease... 

Prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in United States men. African-American ancestry, family history, and increased age are the primary risk factors for prostate cancer. 

Norbert Rillieux was born on March 17, 1806, to a wealthy white man and his longtime mistress. Norbert s father, Vincent Rillieux, was a cotton merchant and engineer. His mother, Constance Vivant, was a free African American from a rich real estate family in New Orleans she herself was the daughter of a white father and a black mother. 

Vincent Rillieux freely acknowledged his family. Norbert was baptized by a Roman Catholic priest in St. Louis Cathedral, where blacks and whites knelt side by side to pray. The child s birth was registered in City Hall in a mixture of French and English as Norbert Rillieux, quadroon libre, natural son of Vincent Rillieux and Constance Vivant. The words, quadroon libre, stipulated that Norbert was a free African American with more white ancestry than black. 

As heirs to prime New Orleans real estate, a number of free African Americans became quite wealthy before the Civil War. Norbert Rillieux s cousins included members of some of New Orleans richest families. A few of his cousins were so confident of their social status and their ability to pass as white that they signed their names without the required term free man of color, or f.m.c. Many free people of color also invested heavily in slaves. When Norbert Rillieux was in his twenties, more than 700 of New Orleans free African Americans owned an average of three slaves apiece, often family members who were eventually freed. Each of the 23 richest free people of color in New Orleans owned between 10 and 20 slaves. 

Nonmodifiable risk factors for stroke include increased age, male gender, race (African American, Asian, Hispanic), family history of stroke, and low birth weight. 

Individuals from communities of color are more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic whites. Over one-third of Hispanics (37%) are uninsured. They are three times more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic whites. Nearly one-fourth of African Americans and one-fifth of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) (Veenstra and Higashi, 2000) and American Indian/Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) are uninsured (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002). 

Consanguinity (choice A) could elevate the incidence of this autosomal recessive disease in a specific family, but it does not account for the elevated incidence of this specific disease in the African American population in general. 

Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrated by many African Americans from December 26 to January 1. It pays tribute to the rich cultural roots of Americans of African ancestry, and celebrates family, community, and culture. Kwanzaa means the first or the first fruits of the harvest and is based on the ancient African first-fruit harvest celebrations. The modern holiday of Kwanzaa was founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor at the California State University in Long Beach, California. The seven-day celebration encourages people to think about their African roots as well as their life in present-day America. 

Branson (1955) was unable to document that Carver ever published in any scientific peer review journal. However, he did point out that there were African American contemparies of Carver who were making significant and documented contributions to science. A few Alrican Americans (e.g. Ernest E. Just and Charles H. Turner) did conduct research at major laboratories, such as the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. However, they often were confronted by the prevailing racial attitudes of the time. Specifically, Just and his family were subjected to racist incidents in both the scientific and non-scientific communities (Manning, 1983). 

It is difficult to determine the extent of passing because many who have passed conceal It. In fact, some descendants of those who have passed permanently may be unaware of It themselves because their families purposely hid the knowledge from them. Passing is believed to be more common for men than for women. One explanation holds that passing usually involves economic advantages to African American males who must compete In a white man s world, but economic disadvantages for African American females who could get a white husband only from the lower classes, but possibly an African American husband from the upper classes (Myrdal, 1944). 

The findings of this study indicate that there is much more to learn about the family, education, employment, and professional experiences of African American doctoral chemists. There is a need for more comprehensive, systematic studies of these scientists and other underrepresented racial/ethnic minority scientists and engineers. Below, I summarize some of the key findings and their implications for policy, practice and research. 

Goodwin, P. Y. (2003). African American and European American women s marital well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 550-560. 

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