The Impact of Hate-Motivated Behavior on African American Health | 2023 Black Physicians Forum

Addressing Racial Trauma and Hate Crimes on College Campuses

Universities must address stark racial inequities within university counseling centers.

Author’s note: CAP uses “Black” and “African American” interchangeably throughout many of our products. We chose to capitalize “Black” in order to reflect that we are discussing a group of people and to be consistent with the capitalization of “African American.”

Two years ago, Americans watched in horror as torch-bearing white nationalists marched through the campus of the University of Virginia chanting messages of hate and attacking local residents and university students. The chaotic rampage left three people dead and dozens more maimed and wounded. But this episode was not an isolated incident—racially motivated hate crimes are on the rise on college campuses across the nation. Beyond the physical danger that the resurgence of white nationalism imposes, incidents like these are also traumatic and undermine affected students’ mental health. Too often, however, university counseling centers lack the resources necessary to respond effectively to students’ needs. With more than 1,000 campus hate crimes reported in 2016 alone, universities must do more to slash fees, reduce wait times, and promote staff diversity at campus counseling centers nationwide. This column specifically focuses on the impact of racist hate violence.

Hate crimes and bias incidents are on the rise on college campuses

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by an offender’s bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Between 2011 and 2016, the NCES documented a 40 percent increase in campus hate crimes. (see Figure 1) In 2016, more than 1,000 hate crimes were committed on college campuses across the country. For years, racial bias has been the most common motivation for committing such crimes.

Read more at: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/addressing-racial-trauma-hate-crimes-college-campuses/

Hate as a system: Examining hate crimes and hate groups as state level moderators on the impact of online and offline racism on mental health

Abstract

The rise in race-based hate crimes and groups should not only be examined as an individual- or group-level issue but as indicators that reflect state-level norms of hate and degradation toward racial minority groups. Specifically, for racial minority individuals residing in states that yield higher rates of hate crimes and groups, this may reflect a greater hate culture, and the distress associated with racism may be exacerbated, compared to those residing in states with less of a hate culture (e.g., lower numbers of hate crimes and groups). Thus, to test these assertions, we examined whether state-level indicators of race-based hate crimes and groups would moderate the relationship between perceived racism (offline and online) and stress among racial minority individuals. Using data from 935 racial minority adults across 43 states, a multilevel analysis was conducted with online and offline racism predicting distress at level 1, and the total number of hate crimes and groups moderating this relationship at level 2 (state-level). Between hate crimes and groups, only hate groups was a significant indicator moderating this link. In states with a low number of hate groups, the link between offline racism and stress was not significant while this link was significant in states with a high number of hate groups. Online racism was significantly associated with stress, but this link was not moderated by any of the hate indicators. The findings suggest that the presence and activity of hate groups may be a significant contextual factor in understanding the salience of racial discrimination. Implications

for research are discussed.

Read more at: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147176722001055

Moderator

Moderator – William Jahmal Miller, MHA, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Mercy Medical Group, CommonSpirit Health

Jahmal Miller, as Chief Administrative Officer, strategically leads Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group’s organizational development, health system relationships, talent management and business operations. Miller, who most recently served Dignity Health’s parent company, CommonSpirit Health, as System Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, was previously Director of Corporate Reputation and Thought Leadership for Blue Shield of California. In addition to leadership roles at Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health systems, Miller served as the Deputy Director of the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Heath Equity, serving as the state’s lead advisor on issues related to reducing health and mental health disparities and to achieving health equity for all Californians.

Miller is internationally recognized as a thought leader and expert on issues pertaining to health care, public health, health equity, mental health and public policy. He co-led a system-wide CommonSpirit Health partnership with the Morehouse School of Medicine and the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, serves as a member of the California Endowment’s Board of Directors, and has received appointments to the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Health Equity Task Force (2020) and the deputy director role for the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity (2013).

Miller earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia University, and received his Master’s of Health Administration from the University of Southern California. Western University of Health Sciences awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters (DHL) for his achievements in the field of health and human services. Debuting as an author, new book entitled Equity, Equality & Justice for All was recently published by Pegasus Books.

Keynote

Presenter – Dr. Flojaune Cofer, Epidemiologist and 2024 Candidate for Sacramento Mayor

Flojaune Griffin Cofer is an epidemiologist who has servee as the Senior Director of Policy for Public Health Advocates for the past 6 years. She manages a team of staff leading health equity initiatives focused on California state policy, boys and men of color (My Brother’s Keeper), community-based 911 response (First Response Transformation), transgender health (California TRANScends), youth trauma prevention in cities (All Children Thrive) , student wellness in Boyle Heights (Building Healthy Communities), and most recently public health response to COVID-19 (California COVID Justice: Recovery, Response, Repair). Her professional interest is addressing emerging and persistent public health challenges through research, policy, and community engagement. Her work primarily focuses on public health prevention and restorative justice.

Flojaune is currently serving her third term as chair of the City of Sacramento Measure U Sales Tax Community Advisory Committee and is a member of the People’s Budget Sacramento. She helped to create the Sacramento Sister Circle Voter Guide in partnership with the Sacramento chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) and co-hosts the Sacramento political podcast, Voices: River City.

On April 19, 2023, she announced her campaign to run for mayor of Sacramento. Learn more at FloForMayor.com