Research has shown that speakers opposing political demonstrations can pathologize protesters campaigning against racial prejudice in order to justify racialized police profiling and brutality. This paper builds on these insights by exploring how right-wing political commentators reinforce the racist stereotype of violent Black people when discussing protests and police brutality in Black Lives Matter (BLM) debates. The dataset includes two debates drawn from Conservative Talk Radio and The Candace Owen Show, where issues concerning anti-Black racism in the United States were discussed-including racialized police brutality and BLM demonstrations. Using discursive and rhetorical psychology, we show how far-right commentators managed their (arguably racist) identities by employing 'rioter' categories against the BLM movement. We demonstrate that far-right commentators used anti-protest rhetoric and anti-Black racist tropes to portray BLM activists as uncivilized and violent rioters. Doing so portrayed the BLM movement as using anti-racism as an ulterior motive to enact violence which also downplayed racialized police brutality. This study shows how anti-protest rhetoric and anti-Black stereotypes overlap when right-wing speakers undermine attempts to challenge systemic racism. Black people and protesters are discriminated against in similar ways; both are characterized as violent and uncivilized when they mobilize against structural oppression and inequality.
Although racism has received growing attention in medical education in recent years, there remains a lack of clarity about the central recommendations for policy and practice. This study synthesises anti-racist recommendations from the literature to address this gap. We searched twenty-four medical education journals to identify articles published in the year 2023 focusing primarily on race and racism. Policy and practice recommendations from these articles were analysed using content analysis. Across the 107 included articles, anti-racist recommendations were organised into seven themes: (1) Increasing cross-cultural and historical research; (2) Changing culture and mission of institutions; (3) Enhancing patient and community involvement; (4) Developing greater community solidarity; (5) Redesigning student and faculty recruitment; (6) Expanding antiracist content in curricula; (7) Reforming assessment and course evaluation. Recommendations to tackle racism in medical education focus both on symbolic changes that send signals to stakeholders such as rewriting mission statements, and on structural changes that rewire existing systems to make them fairer, such as redefining recruitment criteria. Medical education leaders can consider whether their interventions align with these recommendation categories, and medical education researchers can critically interrogate whether they should be refined as geopolitical and sociocultural contexts rapidly shift.
Dominant social representations of history play a central role in shaping how societies interpret the past and regulate intergroup relations in the present. Yet empirical evidence on how historical narratives causally influence racist beliefs remains limited. Drawing on the Social Representations of History framework, the present research examines how dominant and counter-representations of colonial history relate to the endorsement of biological and cultural racism. Focusing on the Portuguese context, where colonial history is often narrated through a positive and benevolent lens grounded in the ideology of Luso-tropicalism-the belief that Portuguese colonialism was uniquely tolerant and benign-we investigate both correlational and causal pathways linking these representations to racist attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 216), using data from CRONOS-2, part of the European Social Survey Round 10, we show that endorsement of Luso-tropicalist beliefs predicts higher levels of both biological and cultural racism, above and beyond age and education. In Study 2 (N = 220), we experimentally manipulated representations of colonial history using three conditions: a positive representation derived from a textbook, a negative representation, and a neutral control. Results indicate that biological racism was significantly lower when colonial history was presented in a negative frame compared to a combined positive and neutral representation, while no significant differences emerged for cultural racism. Together, findings from Study 1 and Study 2 provide novel evidence that counter, negative representations of colonial history can attenuate racist beliefs. By integrating correlational and experimental evidence, this research contributes to broader debates on social representations of history as political projects with enduring consequences for contemporary intergroup relations.
Restorative justice and anti-racism movements both aim to address and repair socially produced harm, yet their intersection remains limited. While public health research increasingly acknowledges the impacts of structural racism, there is a noticeable lack of restorative and reparative programs that actively incorporate anti-racist principles. To bridge this gap, we conducted a scoping review to identify restorative and reparatory justice programs that directly engage with anti-racism efforts. We restricted the review to publications that described and evaluated the implementation of restorative and reparatory programs and included a formal acknowledgment of structural racism in the harm being addressed. A two-tiered review of the literature included Google searches and Boolean searches of databases, and selected publications were analyzed along four axes: restoration and repair, injustice, parties involved, and structural racism. We identified 159 independent citations; six met the inclusion criteria. Most publications described programs in schools, health care, and criminal-legal settings. Nearly all programs strengthened relationships between those in positions of authority and communities affected by structural racism. Based on these findings, and recognizing that public health extends beyond health care settings, we offer recommendations for embedding anti-racist restorative and reparatory practices into the fabric of various public institutions. Revolutionary civil rights activist Malcolm X exemplifies this ethos in an interview: "If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made."
In this article, I explore how 36 Norwegian anti-racist activists of colour negotiate emotions when engaging with the white majority population. Much recent research on racist ideology draws on Bonilla-Silva's framework of colour-blindness, arguing that the white majority nowadays is more likely to deny systemic racism. However, few studies have explored the relationship between micro-level interactions and colour-blind ideology beyond the realm of language. Using Ahmed's theory on affective economies along with decolonial perspectives on emotions, I empirically demonstrate how an unequal distribution of emotions across racial divides works as a central mechanism in the development of colour-blind ideology. This finding reveals the need to incorporate the role of emotions within the literature on colour-blindness more broadly, as similar tendencies may be prevalent in other Western societies.
Nursing's moral imperative toward anti-racism has been vital in opening spaces of critical dialogue within the discipline and profession. Yet, solely focusing on a moral mandate is limiting by risking professional precarity and moral distress. A renewed reflection is required to address the material and structural conditions that impede sustained anti-racism action. Nursing leaders are well-positioned to undertake anti-racist worldmaking through their commitments for a political imperative.
Families with infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) experience high rates of perinatal mental health conditions, which are disproportionately experienced by families i) of minoritized racial identities; ii) with a primary language other than English (PLOE); and iii) of low socioeconomic status. Disparities in screening, diagnosis, and treatment for mental health conditions are complex. Multiple individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural factors may negatively impact marginalized individuals. Multifaceted recommendations to address these challenges are included in this article. This also serves as a call to action for the creation, standardization, and adoption of individual, institutional, and national interventions that can provide equitable mental health support for NICU families to mitigate disparities in mental health outcomes.
Western countries continue to demonstrate increased racism toward refugees, which manifests through discrimination, exclusion, and stigmatization in various social, institutional, and policy contexts. Research shows that racism adversely affects health, potentially undermining the psychosocial well-being of refugees. The objective of this review is to systematically examine and analyze the literature on the impact of racism on the psychosocial well-being of racialized refugees. What is the impact of racism on the psychosocial well-being of refugees? We systematically searched for published original articles across both academic and grey literature sources, employing a comprehensive set of pre-determined search-terms. We employed a two-step screening approach where two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts, followed by full texts of selected articles. We then tabulated and extracted data from the final selection of articles. These were: characteristics (i.e., year of publication, country, research design), methods, racism construct, psychosocial well-being construct, and psychosocial outcomes of refugees. The initial search yielded 3,116 articles. After removing duplicates, 2,532 articles remained. we identified 2,448 articles after title and abstract screening, leaving 84 for full-text review. Twenty articles were identified for the final analysis. Sixteen of the 20 articles found an association between racism and mental health or psychosocial outcomes. Notably, eight of the articles focused on racism in the media. Four of the articles did not find an association between racism and mental health. Our analysis revealed that racism significantly impacts refugees' well-being across five domains: mental health (psychological distress, trauma responses), identity and belonging (self-concept erosion, diminished social cohesion), socioeconomic integration (employment barriers, educational challenges), healthcare access, and coping and resilience strategies. This review found several articles that focused on racism and its impact on refugee mental health. Crucially, several of the articles narrowed their focus to racism in the media. This finding emphasizes the importance of focusing on media-based racism and its impact on refugee psychosocial well-being.
The minimization of racism among White adults stifles racial progress and underscores the need to discuss racism starting in childhood. Parents are key contributors to children's racial socialization and their actions may influence the development of anti-racist behaviors through modeling. Previous work examining parenting styles and behaviors has focused on child outcomes, with little examination of characteristics of White parents themselves, such as frequency of anti-racist behavior. As parents are children's first teachers, implications of parents' own involvement in anti-racism may inform interventions disrupting the intergenerational transmission of racism. To address this, 229 White parents completed questionnaires assessing self-reported parenting, anti-racism behaviors, and White fragility. Authoritarian parenting was negatively associated with anti-racist behavior (r = -0.20, p = 0.002). This association was qualified by White fragility, such that authoritarian parenting was positively associated with anti-racist behavior at high White fragility (+1 SD) and negatively associated with anti-racist behavior at low White fragility (-1 SD). Authoritative parenting was positively associated with anti-racist behavior (r = 0.25, p < 0.001); this effect was also qualified by White fragility such that this positive association only existed at relatively low and mean levels of White fragility (but not at high levels). These results suggest that the degree to which parenting styles are associated with anti-racism depends on parents' level of White fragility. Implications of these results include potential influences of parenting style and parents' anti-racist behavior on children's racial socialization as well as considerations for research focused on anti-racist socialization efforts.
Although there are approaches (e.g., psychological measures) to capture how people encounter online racism experiences, there is limited work on how the actual impact of online racism is felt or deemed relevant. Notably, in assessing the impact of online racism on negative mental health, it may be important to account for the degree to which people find their racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content stressful. Using data from 958 racially/ethnically minoritized adults (Mage = 27.41), we conducted moderation analyses to examine if the association between online racism and mental health was moderated by stress appraisals of racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content. Online racism was significantly associated with worse mental health. Both stress appraisals of racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content were significant moderators. Negative mental health associated with online racism was exacerbated among those who appraised their exposure to online racism as more stressful. When the stressfulness was appraised to be low, the association between online racism and negative mental health was not significant. These findings inform future research focused on mechanisms that could differentiate why certain individuals are more at risk of being impacted by online racism experiences.
Women of color encounter sexist and racist interactions, content, and media online that dehumanize their gendered racial identities. Yet, there is a dearth of quantitative empirical studies on online gendered racism and its impact on the mental health and well-being of women of color. We employed an intersectionality framework to develop the Online Gendered Racism Scale for Women of Color (OGRS-WoC) for the initial examination of the impact on mental health and to promote future empirical studies. Previous literature reviews, a survey of social media platforms, and expert review guided item development. Exploratory (N = 559) and confirmatory (N = 424) factor analyses yielded a three-factor structure and produced a 26-item scale with the following subscales: (a) Direct Gendered Racist Cyberaggression (12 items), (b) Vicarious Gendered Racist Cyberaggression (10 items), and (c) Gendered Racist Online Media (four items). Internal consistency estimates ranged from .86 to .96 and the OGRS-WoC accounted for 61.2% of the variance. An analysis of a second-order model indicated that using a total scale score is also viable. Preliminary evidence of construct validity emerged, as OGRS-WoC scores correlated with measures of offline discrimination, gendered racial microaggressions, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and resilience, aligning with theoretical frameworks and empirical findings. We found strong psychometric evidence of OGRS-WoC in assessing online gendered racism for women of color. We discuss future directions for research and practice recommendations based on the OGRS-WoC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
The health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted minorities and other minoritised groups in the UK, underscoring historical trends of social injustices. These health effects were felt by members of minoritised ethnic groups regardless of social or economic status. In this context, the combined impacts of disenfranchisement and discrimination accentuate health risks for members of these groups. These risks are worsened by structural racism, which frames vulnerability as linked to race instead of the effects of racism. This narrative has resulted in inadequate treatment pathways and unreliable data monitoring.In this paper, we discuss the impacts of discriminatory and racist practices in the UK, focusing on their role in perpetuating health injustices. We also present a few international examples to illustrate the widespread nature and harms of these discriminatory and racist practices, with a particular focus on the impacts and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that, from an intersectional perspective, addressing systemic injustices requires comprehensive restructuring of health and social institutions. Our goal in doing so is twofold: first, to draw attention to the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing racist health injustices and second, to propose an intersectional educational framework for students, practitioners and policymakers as one component of a response to these injustices. We argue that such a framework is vital in enabling practitioners, healthcare leaders and policymakers to appreciate the multiple layers and interconnecting impacts of social, economic and structural inequalities within healthcare to enable reform to improve patient outcomes for ethnic minorities. Education on this intersectionality is thus necessary to reduce the harmful impacts of discriminatory practitioner, leaders and managers' attitudes, and prompt the development of personalised treatment which responds to individual health needs, rather than erroneous assumptions based on prejudiced stereotypes and racist clichés. Such efforts must fully recognise and address the role of systemic racism and other forms of discrimination to mitigate health disparities effectively.
Despite the amount of research on police culture, little is known about how police culture reinforces systemic racism in Canadian policing. In race and policing scholarship, less is known about how women police officers perpetuate systemic racism in policing. Based on 16 interviews with women police officers from a police organization in Alberta, this study examines how police culture reinforces systemic racism in Canadian policing. Using colorblind racism and intersectionality, the findings demonstrate that officers regularly say racist jokes to normalize racialized police violence. Officers emphasize warrior police culture and suspiciousness to physically assault and racially profile Indigenous people, including those living in encampments. Officers associate Blackness with criminality by reinforcing culturally racist stereotypes about Black Canadians, such as having criminal lifestyles. Furthermore, officers hold racist and xenophobic perceptions about refugees and when refugees call the police for help, officers culturally frame them as criminals and blame all refugees for an individual's criminal offense. White women officers were more likely than Black women and Biracial (Indigenous/White) women officers to reinforce the colorblind racist myth that racialized police violence is only an American problem, and that policing is a race-neutral practice.
Following David Theo Goldberg's astute insights, this article discusses a form of neoliberal authoritarianism that extends incessant denial of systematic racial degradation by de(-)meaning anti-racism. It argues that de(-)meaning works to redefine anti-racist struggle-including demands for a free Palestine and scholarship explaining the politics of racism-as racist and hostile, while recasting racialised and militarised state power as anti-racist and humane. Thus, anti-racism is de-meaned of its ethical and emancipatory terms, re-meaned as an unethical and exclusionary endeavour threatening modern socio-political arrangements, demeaned in the traditional, non-hyphenated sense of the word, and subject to state warfare masquerading as 'anti-racism'. As a specific strategy for maintaining structural racism, de(-)meaning necessitates resistance rather than defensiveness by reclaiming and renewing anti-racism that is at once political, collective, anti-militaristic and transformative.
A racially diverse mental health workforce has been suggested to address persistent racial disparities in mental health among racially minoritized service recipients. However, in a racialized society such as the United States, structural racism is shown to constrain mental health organizations' efforts to address disparities through workforce diversity. Theoretical Framework and Method: We recruited Black mental health workers (n = 10, Mage = 52.7 [SD = 6.9], 2 males (20%)/8 females; 4 married (40%)/6 single; 2 part time (20%)/8 full time) who have worked in a community mental health organization for at least seven years. We conducted semi-structured Zoom interviews with the participants to understand Black employees' perceptions about the organization's diversity efforts. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through the lens of the theory of racialized organizations, using the Sort and Sift, Think and Shift (SSTS) approach to qualitative data. Findings were organized around five themes: (1) workforce diversity matters, (2) whiteness of the leadership as the perceptions of organizational diversity, and (3) the impact of the whiteness of leadership. Two related subthemes were identified from the third theme: (3a) racial task burdens and (3b) racial outsourcing. Discussion/Implications: Workforce diversity among racialized workers without focusing on how structural racism shape organizational processes are more likely to burden and exploit racial minority workers instead of promoting equity. Anti-racist work must move beyond a focus on individuals, as racist or bad actors, to target organizational procedures, operations, and resource allocation, which may have far greater consequences.
This article traces fourteen years of the life of lesbian-feminist poet-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt in the state of North Carolina from 1968 to 1972. This history of Pratt's movement through North Carolina demonstrates that the landscape of the state, both its lesbian-feminist and natural ecologies, shaped Pratt's writing long after she left. First, Pratt's involvement in a radical, supportive, and connected community of lesbian-feminists across the South and nation fed her-figuratively and literally-as she embraced her identity as a lesbian in the mid-1970s. Second, it illuminates the strength and influence of the important North Carolina lesbian-feminist print movement, of which Pratt and the women of Feminary, a southern lesbian-feminist literary journal, were part. This movement developed anti-racist and anti-misogynist critiques of southern culture that spread in lesbian-feminist communities throughout the United States. The women of Feminary also produced a specific, non-essentialist view of womanhood through natural imagery that continued to influence Pratt's writing and engagement with the natural world throughout her life. Finally, it shows how violent anti-gay and racist events in North Carolina shook Pratt and developed her social justice consciousness, first in Fayetteville and later within the lesbian and gay movement in Durham. These experiences also connected the burgeoning lesbian movement to the broader activist Left in the state. Although the work produced by the lesbian-feminist community of Durham, North Carolina has had a far-reaching impact on the national movement, the size of the community itself was small. Understanding Durham's lesbian-feminist community illuminates Pratt's political and artistic perspective. Similarly, Pratt's biography and creative output highlight the story of North Carolina as a lesbian-feminist hub in the late twentieth century.
Despite efforts to reduce health disparities, racism is recognized as a global public health crisis. Addressing racism aligns with international healthcare policies and healthcare goals of promoting health justice. Nursing students, as future healthcare workers, are key to re-establish social patterns. This study aims to explore nursing students' experiences of racism in healthcare and their perspectives on how such situations can be avoided. Qualitative data were collected in two phases through written reflections upon case scenarios and individual interviews of nursing students. Data were analysed through an inductive content analysis approach. The data analysis led to developing one theme `there is an urgent need for ways to handle and prevent racism' and four categories. Our results clearly reveal the presence of both overt and covert racism in healthcare, influencing professional integrity and patient rights. Racism in healthcare has a complex and multifaceted nature and an expectation that nurses respond to racist behaviour toward patients and colleagues is emphasized. However, it is difficult to identify racism and react in 'real life' than in a hypothetical situation. Reactions to racist behaviour depend on patient's background and health condition. Sharing of experiences, increased knowledge of cultural sensitivity, and clear healthcare leadership are strategies that help with preventing racism in healthcare. This study enhances international understanding of racism within healthcare, as experienced by nursing students. It underscores that racism is not always overt or easily identifiable. Also, nursing students often feel unprepared to respond effectively in real-life situations, underscoring the need for education and training on how to address racism in practice and thereby promote health justice. Not applicable.
Racism in nursing education is a persistent issue that affects the educational experience and clinical readiness of nursing students. The purpose of this study was to unveil behaviors that represent racism and cultural humility within nursing education. A secondary data analysis was conducted of a qualitative, descriptive study that interviewed 10 doctoral-prepared nurses of color to unveil the experiences of racism and cultural humility in the context of nursing education. Three central themes were identified: (1) racist behaviors experienced by faculty members; (2) racist behaviors experienced by students; and (3) cultural humility experienced by faculty members and students of color. By understanding the lived experiences of students and faculty of color, this research identifies how racism may manifest in nursing education and identifies actionable strategies to help dismantle racism in nursing education.
Research on everyday racism in healthcare remains limited, particularly in Germany. This study examines how healthcare professionals perceive their own conduct toward racialized healthcare users and explores the interpretive frameworks that shape these perceptions. By focusing on the everyday concepts that guide clinical encounters, the analysis highlights how racism is reproduced within healthcare interactions and offers insight into the knowledge frameworks and institutional processes that sustain inequities in care. We conducted problem-centred expert interviews with doctors, nurses, and members of the therapeutic professions (occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychotherapists) working in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities in Germany. Participants were recruited systematically across three German states and interviews were conducted by telephone, in person or via videoconference. They explored respondents' observations of racism within their institutions, reflections on their own role in reproducing it, and their assessments of existing structures and further needs for effectively addressing racism in healthcare. Data were analyzed using the documentary method. Twenty-one healthcare professionals were interviewed for this study. The analysis shows that implicit forms of racism remain pervasive, yet respondents displayed varying degrees of reflexivity and awareness about how racism is reproduced in everyday practice, including recognition of their own roles within these processes. Even participants engaged in antiracist efforts frequently relied on culturalizing discourses and essentialist explanatory models. While some respondents critically examined their own positionality and used their professional privilege to intervene in racist situations, such actions were typically ad hoc and lacked structural support. Many respondents expressed uncertainty about how to define or analyze racism, underscoring the need for a broader public dialogue on the issue. Moreover, during their training, healthcare professionals are exposed to not only the formal curriculum but also a hidden curriculum, which subtly conveys implicit lessons about professional conduct, social hierarchies, and attitudes toward racialized patient groups. Not least, the data demonstrate the lack of institutional infrastructure to support healthcare professionals commitment to dismantle racism. Because meaningful change requires structural interventions, there is a clear need for measures that enable all healthcare professionals to contribute effectively to dismantling racism.
Disasters create a fertile context for the scapegoating of minority groups, yet the discursive strategies used to legitimize this hostility remain understudied. This study addresses this gap by analysing how anti-refugee sentiment is discursively justified on social media during a crisis. We investigated how language on social media is used to legitimize hostility against refugees during disasters. Using a critical discursive psychology (CDP) approach, we analysed 345 posts on X that targeted Afghan refugees during the devastating July 2021 wildfires in Türkiye. Our analysis identifies three key discursive strategies that function to justify exclusion while avoiding charges of anti-refugee hostility and racism: (1) constructing refugees as a catastrophic threat akin to disasters; (2) circulating conspiracy theories that blame refugees for causing the crisis; and (3) delegitimizing refugees through categorization practices that question their moral worth and right to belong. Rather than relying on overtly racist language, these strategies draw on rational-seeming arguments about security, resource competition and cultural difference to build a warrant for exclusion. Our research expands the literature on the interplay between discourse and racism by demonstrating how racist verbal strategies are leveraged during disasters to legitimize hostility against refugees, thereby reinforcing social hierarchies and naturalizing exclusionary policies.