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Racial Justice

How scientists are subtracting race from medical risk calculators

How scientists are subtracting race from medical risk calculators

Nwamaka Eneanya of the Perelman School of Medicine said researchers need to consider the drivers of health disparities, rather than merely correlating race with health outcomes. “That’s not a standard that is expected of scientists in this day and age, and it needs to be,” she says. “This is a wake-up call for the scientific community.”

COVID plus overdose deaths drove down life expectancy in 2020

COVID plus overdose deaths drove down life expectancy in 2020

Irma Elo of the School of Arts & Sciences said the decline in life expectancy among Black and Latinx Americans reflects unequal access to health care and class privilege. "The people who have disproportionately suffered from this pandemic were the same people who were put in positions where they were more likely to be exposed because of their employment," she said.

To honor John Lewis, we must turn back the rising tide of voter suppression

To honor John Lewis, we must turn back the rising tide of voter suppression

Mary Frances Berry of the School of Arts & Sciences wrote about the resurgence of voter suppression laws in the U.S. To preserve the right to vote, Berry said, “We must pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And to do that, we must remove the Senate filibuster as a barrier to the legislation.”

How to raise kids who won’t be racist

How to raise kids who won’t be racist

Howard Stevenson of the Graduate School of Education offered tips for how parents can address racist or insensitive comments made by children. “Get a sense of what they understand it to mean from their perspective,” he said. “Where did they hear it from? How is it being used in the social context they’re in? Then you have a better angle to how you can speak to it.”

Study finds that higher death rates for Black COVID patients tied to hospital quality

Study finds that higher death rates for Black COVID patients tied to hospital quality

David Asch of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School spoke about his research on racial disparities in health outcomes for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. "Perhaps the main reason that Black patients tend to have worse outcomes than white patients is because they go to hospitals that provide worse care for all," he said. "I think it's a story of racial residential segregation. Most people go to hospitals near where they live. And we fund hospitals very much by local resources."

In These Times: ‘Race and Repair’
Drawing of books, an African American student’s face, a diploma, a fist in the air.

Image: Adriana Bellet

In These Times: ‘Race and Repair’

OMNIA’s final episodes look into how institutions have perpetuated racial hierarchies, how the past reverberates through the present, and consider what justice looks like.

From Omnia

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional
 Glass doors read "polling station" with opening times listed

“What you should be doing with voting is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to vote with the fewest restrictions,” says Mary Frances Berry. 

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court ruled that Arizona’s election laws—pertaining to out of precinct ballots and whether or not third parties can pick up and deliver absentee ballots—do not violate the Voting Rights Act.

Kristina Linnea García

Amani Carter develops a new study on unmasking coded bias
Partially obscured head of Blind Justice statue against a backdrop of algorithmic code.

Amani Carter develops a new study on unmasking coded bias

The Class of 2022 law student works to identify biases and ‘stereotype threat’ in AI and help provide context for the conversation around mitigating those biases.

From Penn Carey Law

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and mass incarceration
Asian prisoner in jumpsuit laying on a cot behind bars.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and mass incarceration

Penn Law student Raymond Magsaysay has an article forthcoming in the Michigan Journal of Race & Law about the absence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the conversation about criminal justice reform.

From Penn Carey Law

For Juneteenth, a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi
James on left and Kendi on right during virtual BlueJeans lecture

For Juneteenth, a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi

The award-winning author, professor, and antiracist activist joined Wharton Dean Erika James for a virtual lecture for the Penn community to commemorate the day.

Lauren Hertzler