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The author, an African American, reflects on what it means to be a psychoanalyst and the effectiveness of psychoanalytic thinking in response to the racial dilemma in the United States. The current climate is a result of longstanding inequality of the races and reflects the social unrest prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement and the police killings of unarmed Black people. Three poems are also presented expressing some of the ideas discussed in the meditation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a large gap between Black and White American life expectancies, the gap fell 48.9%between 1990 and 2018, mainly due to mortality declines among Black Americans. We examine age-specific mortality trends and racial gaps in life expectancy in high- and low-income US areas and with reference to six European countries. Inequalities in life expectancy are starker in the United States than in Europe. In 1990, White Americans and Europeans in high-income areas had similar overall life expectancy, while life expectancy for White Americans in low-income areas was lower. However, since then, even high-income White Americans have lost ground relative to Europeans. Meanwhile, the gap in life expectancy between Black Americans and Europeans decreased by 8.3%. Black American life expectancy increased more than White American life expectancy in all US areas, but improvements in lower-income areas had the greatest impact on the racial life expectancy gap. The causes that contributed the most to Black Americans’ mortality reductions included cancer, homicide, HIV, and causes originating in the fetal or infant period. Life expectancy for both Black and White Americans plateaued or slightly declined after 2012, but this stalling was most evident among Black Americans even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. If improvements had continued at the 1990 to 2012 rate, the racial gap in life expectancy would have closed by 2036. European life expectancy also stalled after 2014. Still, the comparison with Europe suggests that mortality rates of both Black and White Americans could fall much further across all ages and in both high-income and low-income areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 4-y college degree is increasingly the key to good jobs and, ultimately, to good lives in an ever-more meritocratic and unequal society. The bachelor's degree (BA) is increasingly dividing Americans; the one-third with a BA or more live longer and more prosperous lives, while the two-thirds without face rising mortality and declining prospects. We construct a time series, from 1990 to 2018, of a summary of each year's mortality rates and expected years lived from 25 to 75 at the fixed mortality rates of that year. Our measure excludes those over 75 who have done relatively well over the last three decades and focuses on the years when deaths rose rapidly through drug overdoses, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease and when the decline in mortality from cardiovascular disease slowed and reversed. The BA/no-BA gap in our measure widened steadily from 1990 to 2018. Beyond 2010, as those with a BA continued to see increases in our period measure of expected life, those without saw declines. This is true for the population as a whole, for men and for women, and for Black and White people. In contrast to growing education gaps, gaps between Black and White people diminished but did not vanish. By 2018, intraracial college divides were larger than interracial divides conditional on college; by our measure, those with a college diploma are more alike one another irrespective of race than they are like those of the same race who do not have a BA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the historically contentious relationship – including most notably the use of excessive and lethal force – between the police and African Americans, the current project examines the extent to which Blacks in the United States fear police brutality. The study is based on a national-level survey (N = 1,000), and measures fear by how much respondents "worry" about experiencing police force. The data support the racial divide hypothesis, showing that Blacks' worry about such violence is over five times that of Whites. Guided by the racial/ethnic gradient hypothesis, the analyses also assess Hispanic respondents' level of worry. Rather than forming a gradient by falling midway between Blacks and Whites, Hispanics' worry about police brutality more closely reflects those of Blacks at more than four times that of Whites, suggesting a racial/ethnic divide. These findings thus assert that worrying about police brutality is an emotional injury that minorities disproportionately experience and whose pervasiveness remains largely hidden from view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing The Washington Post, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University 2006 African American Survey, the current project focuses on three related issues. First, I examine whether African Americans and whites share a common “sensibility” or “cognitive landscape” when considering why African-American men are disproportionately imprisoned. Second, the current research investigates whether the sensibilities held by African Americans and whites are collectively held. Third, I investigate whether the relative subordinate position of African Americans—as manifested in their personal experiences with racial discrimination—shapes the opinions that they have about why black men are disproportionately incarcerated. Findings reveal that African Americans and whites significantly differ in their opinions about why black men are imprisoned. They also show that deep divisions exist among whites, whereas African Americans tend to share a common sensibility as to why black males are disproportionately incarcerated. The results reveal that the cognitive landscape that African Americans collectively hold about why black men are incarcerated is shaped by their personal experiences with racial discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of North Americans have more access to the Internet today as compared to ten years ago. Schools, libraries, homes, coffee houses, and workplaces are equipped with the technology needed to get people online. This paper addresses a need to shift the focus from describing the digital divide, unequal access to the Internet, to the focus of describing the digital divide in usage. Research suggests that differences in usage do exist between social categories, such as race/ethnicity, gender, education, income, region, and age. This paper attempts to go beyond previous research studies by exploring the usage of the Internet by sex, education, income, and age within the racial categories of white and non-white. Data for this study is from the Current Population Survey. Our findings indicate that differences do exist within the categories of white and non-white. Furthermore, the study presents the findings of what people engage in while on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project investigates the racial divide in support for capital punishment. The authors examine whether race has a direct effect on support for capital punishment and test whether the influence of race varies across class, being a native southerner, confidence in government officials, political orientation, and religious affiliation. Using data drawn from the General Social Survey, they find a substantial racial divide, with African Americans much less likely to support the death penalty. Furthermore, the analysis revealed little support for the "spurious/social convergence" hypothesis; shared factors that might be expected to bring African Americans and Whites together--class, confidence in government, conservative politics, regional location, and religious fundamentalism--either did not narrow African American-White punishment attitudes or, at best, had only modest effects. The Results suggest that the racial divide in support for capital punishment is likely to remain a point of symbolic contention in African American-White conceptions of criminal injustice in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]