Eliminating the Racial Gap in Infant Mortality Rates
A new report from the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development provides information on the racial gap in infant mortality and offers strategies that may be employed to eliminate the disparity.
Doctoral Awards at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
National Science Foundation data shows that historically Black colleges and universities awarded 432 doctorates in 2016. This was 0.8 percent of all doctorates awarded in the United States. Howard University leads the list with 93 doctoral awards.
Study Examines How Tuition Hikes Impact Campus Diversity
A new study authored by Drew Allen of Princeton University and Gregory C. Wolniak of New York University found that a $1,000 tuition increase at 4-year, non-selective public institutions is associated with a 4.5 percent drop in campus diversity among full-time freshmen.
North Carolina State University Project to Address Perceived Bias in Engineering Education
The new study aims to develop a set of best practices which can be implemented by universities to reduce perceived bias in graduate engineering programs, and possibly for other STEM graduate programs.
The Persisting Racial Gap in Doctoral Degree Awards
African Americans earned 6.6 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded to students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents of this country. Thus, African Americans earned about one half the number of doctorates that would be the case if racial parity with the U.S. Black population prevailed.
New Study Establishes a Link Between Discrimination and High Blood Pressure
A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine finds that Black and Latino adults who reported they had been victims or discrimination were more likely to have high blood pressure than their peers who had experienced less incidents of discrimination.
New Federal Data Show Racial Disparities in Adherence to Safe Sleep Guidelines for Babies
A new federal report finds significant racial disparities in safe-sleeping procedures for babies. For instance, 22 percent of all parents do not place babies on their back to sleep. But the rate for Whites is 16 percent compared to 38 percent for African Americans.
Do Black Male Student Althletes Graduate at a Higher Rate Than All Black Male...
There is the general impression that the Black athletes we see on the college football field or basketball court are doing better academically than their Black peers who do not compete in intercollegiate athletics. But a new study says this is not true at the powerhouses of collegiate sports.
Report Shows Lack of Diversity in Faculty and Administrators in California Higher Education
The study by the Campaign for College Opportunity finds that 69 percent of all undergraduate students in California are from non-White ethnic groups. Yet, more than 60 percent of college faculty and senior administrative leadership posts are held by Whites.
Studying Air Pollution in a High-Traffic Area Near a Historically Black University
Air pollution has been shown to produce a greater risk of cardiovascular and other diseases. Many historically Black colleges and universities are located in the urban areas that may have high levels of air pollution, due largely from motor vehicle exhaust.
Researchers Find Instructor Bias Creeps into Online Education
The researchers created fake accounts for students in 124 massive open online courses. The names associated with the accounts were designed to give a strong indication that students were either White, Black, Indian, or Chinese. White males were the most likely to get responses from instructors.
African Americans Making Little Progress in College Sports Administration
According to a new report by Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, Blacks are 44 percent of the football players in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I but only 7.7 percent of the head football coaches.
UCLA Reports Examines Racial Diversity in Hollywood
The report found that films with casts made up of 21 to 30 percent minority actors enjoyed the highest median global box office ticket sales and the highest median return on investment. Films with the most racially homogenous casts were the poorest financial performers.
New Report Examines the Persisting Racial Wealth Gap Among U.S. Households
A new report from the Center for American Progress finds that in 2016 the median wealth of Black households led by a person who was at least 25 years old was $13,460. For similar White households the median wealth was $142,180.
The Racial Gap in High School Completion and Dropout Rates
A new report from the U.S. Department of Education finds that in 2014 7.4 percent of all Blacks ages 16 through 24 were not enrolled in school and did not have a high school diploma or equivalent certificate. For Whites the figure was 5.2 percent.
Academic Study Finds a Large Racial Gap in Trust of Public Water Supplies
The study, led by an assistant professor at Penn State, found that only 38 percent of Black adults drank tap water daily compared to 61 percent of White adults. Also, 46 percent of Black adults consumed bottle water every day compared to 26 percent of White adults.
Study Finds That Police Are More Likely to Use Force Against Higher Income Black...
The study showed that for Black men, the lower their income the more likely they were to be the subject of police force. But just the opposite was true for Black women.
Race Determined to Be a Major Factor for Employment of Breast Cancer Survivors
In a study conducted at Washington University in St. Louis, the data showed that African-American patients were four times more likely to leave the workforce despite fighting a cancer with high survival rates than was the case for White patients of the same age.
On Foreign Language AP Tests, the Racial Scoring Gap Is Small
For all Advanced Placement tests combined in 2017, the average score for Blacks was 2.03, compared to the average White score of 3.02. But Black students do better in relationship to Whites on some AP tests, particular foreign language tests.
Academic Study Finds That Hip-Hop Music Encourages Black Youth to Try Ecstasy
The study notes that lyrics in popular Hip-Hop music glorify the use of the drug. The authors interviewed a group of ecstasy users and found that 82 percent said that Hip-Hop music had influenced their decision to use the drug.
MIT Scholar Finds Racial Bias in Commercial Facial Analysis Programs
The study found that commercially available face analysis programs had a very low error rate when determining the gender of light-skinned men. For women who had the darkest skin, the systems failed to accurately determine their gender nearly half the time.
New Research Verifies Glass Was Manufactured in Africa Before the Arrival of Europeans
Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, a visiting fellow at Harvard University with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Rice University in Houston, finds that that glass was being produced in sub-Saharan Africa as early as the 11th century, well before the arrival of Europeans.
Study by Ohio State University Economists Shows Black Politicians Matter
A new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Trevon Logan, a professor of economics at Ohio State University, finds that when Blacks hold political power their economic status rises. But when they lose political power, their economic fortunes dwindle.
Confronting the Problem of Teachers’ Low Expectations for Black Students
The results showed that mathematics teachers had lower expectations for children from underrepresented groups and for White girls. And the students who were not expected to do well by their teachers did not fare well academically.
The Racial Gap in Advancement Placement Test Scores
The average score on Advanced Placement examinations for African American students in 2017 was 2.03. On the AP scoring system of 5 to 1, a score of 2 is equivalent to a grade of D in a college-level course. For White students the average score on all AP tests was 3.02, roughly equivalent to a letter grade of C.
Will Eliminating Hunger Boost Academic Performance of African American College Students?
A new study is being conducted by the University of Houston to see if a program that will provide food to Black and Latino/a students at Houston Community College will result in better academic performance and increase retention rates.
The Large Racial Gap in Medical School Faculty
Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges show that in 2016 there were 5,075 Black or African American faculty at U.S. medical schools. They made up just 3 percent of all faculty members at medical schools. Blacks made up just 1.6 percent of all full professors at U.S. medical schools in 2016.
Number of Hate Groups Has Stalled While Hate Incidents Have Increased
A new analysis by David Cunningham, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, finds that the growth of hate groups in the United States has slowed since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. However, the number of hate incidents has increased.
The College Graduation Rates of African American Student Athletes
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 59 percent of Black students entering college in 2010 on athletic scholarships at a group of the nation's largest universities earned their diplomas within six years. This is 13 percentage points higher than the rate for Black students as a whole at these universities.
Blacks in STEM Jobs Report High Levels of Workplace Discrimination
A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that 62 percent of Blacks who hold jobs in STEM fields say that they have faced discrimination in the workplace. In non-STEM jobs, 50 percent of Black workers reported that they had experienced discrimination at work.
New Report Examines the Racial Gap in Degree Attainments in the United States
According to a new report from the Department of Education, during the 2015-16 academic year, African Americans earned 570,354 degrees and certificates at degree-granting institutions in the United States. This was 11.7 percent of all awards.
The Nationwide Racial Gap in College Graduation Rates
The Black student college graduation rate of 46 percent was 23 percentage points lower than the rate for Whites and 31 percentage points below the rate for Asian Americans. The Black student graduation rate trailed the rates for Hispanics by 14 percentage points.
African Immigrants Give a Huge Boost to the American Economy
Some 40 percent of sub-Sharan African immigrants are college educated. This is a higher percentage than the White adult population of the United States. A third of African immigrants with a college education have a degree in a STEM field.
Report Finds Persisting Racial Discrimination in the Car-Buying Process
A new report from the National Fair Housing Alliance finds that on average, non-White car buyers would have paid $2,662.56 more over the life of the financing period than White car buyers who were less qualified for car loans.
University Study Examines the Racial Gap in Hollywood Director’s Chairs
The data shows that of 100 top grossing films each year during the 2007-to-2017 period, only 64 were directed by African Americans. And only four of those were directed by Black women.
Does a College Education Lead to Future Long-Term Health Problems for Some Blacks?
College graduates enjoy healthier, longer lives compared with individuals who do not graduate from college. But a new study finds that the health benefit of educational attainment is not as great for Blacks as it is for Whites.
