This study explores whether police officers are especially likely to stop and investigate young Black males traveling in parties of two or more. Our analysis is guided by social psychological theory and research suggesting that racial stereotypes about criminality are applied with greater intensity to Black people encountered in groups. Investigatory stop data for Philadelphia indicate that relative to young White men, young Black men are about five times more likely to be pulled over in the company of other young men of the same race (n = 41,633). Using the veil-of-darkness test, we show that this disparity cannot be easily explained by racial differences in motorist behavior (such as carpooling). Our analyses reveal that young Black men in groups experience a significantly elevated probability of being stopped for traffic violations when daylight visibility facilitates officer discernment of vehicle passengers from afar. Previous studies have left this dynamic unexplored, implicitly assuming that multi-occupant vehicle stops are equally distributed across racial categories and/or that having a lone young Black male driver would produce a ceiling effect in the level of disparate scrutiny and selective traffic enforcement. We find that while young Black males traveling alone are disadvantaged in inter-racial comparisons, intra-racially they are less likely to be targeted than young Black males in groups. Overall, our results suggest that beyond a present-versus-absent dichotomy, the presence of additional young Black men in a vehicle increases the likelihood of being selected for a pretextual traffic stop.
This study examined the interaction between Work Setting (Onsite, Remote, or Hybrid) and employee Race (White or People of Color; POC) and occupational stress. Occupational stress was measured using the Indicator Tool. This questionnaire examines perceptions of stress in six different dimensions: Demands, Support, Relationships, Control, Role, and Change. Two hundred eighty-five participants representative of the United States population in terms of race, age, and gender completed a Qualtrics survey consisting of demographic questions and the Indicator Tool. A significant main effect of Work Setting on stress was found. Onsite participants experienced significantly less stress than Remote participants, in terms of Demands and Control. Onsite participants experienced significantly greater stress than Remote participants in terms of Support, and greater stress than both Remote and Hybrid participants in terms of Change. Results also demonstrated a significant interaction between Work Setting and Race; for POC, those working Remotely experienced the highest stress related to Demands, Roles, and Relationships, whereas among White participants, Remote workers did not experience the highest stress in any of the stress categories. Findings suggest that organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts should explicitly consider Remote workers, to ensure Remote employees of color have access to the information, resources, and support they need to do their job effectively.
Background: Perceived discrimination is an established social determinant of health, but existing evidence typically examines one setting at a time, in regional samples or in data collected before 2020. This study estimates racial disparities in perceived lifetime discrimination across seven institutional settings within a single nationally representative sample, and tests whether the association between educational attainment and perceived discrimination differs for Black and White Americans. Methods: Data were drawn from the 2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Social Determinants of Health supplement (N = 8,080). The seven items record whether a respondent has ever experienced discrimination in a given setting and do not ask respondents to attribute that treatment to race or to any other characteristic. Multivariable logistic regression models estimated Black–White differences in perceived discrimination across seven sectors. Intersectional race-by-education interaction terms evaluated whether protective returns to education vary by race. Results: Black respondents reported significantly higher odds of perceived discrimination across all domains, peaking in commercial (AOR = 10.09) and policing environments (AOR = 9.57). Interaction terms revealed an education paradox concentrated among Black respondents. Among White respondents, education was positively associated with perceived discrimination in the workplace and job application domains and showed no significant association in the remaining five settings; among Black respondents, the association was significantly more positive. Significant race-by-education interactions were observed in the policing, healthcare, job application, housing, and retail sectors, but not in the workplace or public and social services, indicating that the racial gap widens with educational attainment in five of the seven settings examined. Conclusion: The association between educational attainment and perceived discrimination is positive among Black respondents and either flat or absent among White respondents in most settings, so the racial gap widens with education in five of the seven domains examined. This pattern is consistent with exposure- and appraisal-based accounts, including Minorities’ Diminished Returns, but the present design does not measure these mechanisms and cannot distinguish among them. The findings indicate that individual educational advancement does not offset institutional disparities, and point to the need for sector-specific structural reform.
Although increasing attention has been paid to the sociopolitical development (SPD) of Black emerging adult women, relatively little research has explored the role of cultural ideologies and spatial context in this process. This study operationalizes a transactional and ecological frame, the Socioecological Transactional framework for the study of Religiosity and Spirituality (SET-RS Urban), and asks: To what extent are individual factors, religiosity, spirituality, and urban place associated with SPD (measured by critical reflection, critical agency and critical action) among Black emerging adult women? Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with Black emerging adult women (n=221) to examine the link between perceptions of urban place, religiosity and spirituality, and SPD. Regarding perceptions of place, perceiving one’s urban neighborhood as safe for children to play was positively associated with critical reflection and critical agency. This may suggest that child-specific safety cues function as distinct sociopolitical signals shaping SPD. Regarding religiosity and spirituality, subjective religiosity and spirituality were positively associated with critical reflection and agency but negatively associated with critical action, whereas organizational involvement (e.g., online religious service viewing) showed the opposite pattern. These findings support key tenets of SET-RS Urban, demonstrating that spatial, religious, and spiritual frames operate as distinct but interconnected sociopolitical signals in Black women’s SPD. This nuanced understanding of place-based and religio-spiritual cues points to the need for interventions and future research that account for the specific, rather than general, contextual markers shaping SPD in this population.
Racial and ethnic disparities in access to essential resources predate COVID-19 but intensified during the pandemic. Prior work has largely examined single resource domains in isolation rather than how they co-occur within individuals. We examined (1) what profiles of resource access characterize each racial group; (2) whether disability, chronic conditions, and mental health symptoms predict membership in lower-resource profiles; and (3) whether a novel subgroup would emerge combining preserved access in one domain with deprivation in others. Using the 2021 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; N = 28,709 adults identifying as African American, Asian, Hispanic, or White), we modeled eight resource domains. Finite mixture models were estimated separately by race. Furthermore, associations with health indicators were tested via R3STEP regressions. Four-class solutions best fit African American, Hispanic, and White adults, while a single-class solution emerged for Asian adults. Consistent with our third question, a Below Average with Preserved Food Security profile emerged among African American and Hispanic adults, in which food security was maintained at each group’s typical level while income, education, and homeownership remained depleted. Contrary to expectation, a similar profile emerged among White adults (9.9
