Complete Solutions
/. Terminology - Answer-- Black Americans began labeling them-selves publicly as a
group most noticeably in the 1960s, with the expression "Black is beautiful"
- term African American came about in the 1980s
/.demographics - Answer-- African Americans make up approximately 12.6% (38.9
million) of the U.S. population
- population has grown by over 12% since year 2000
- The Black population has slightly more females (52.3%) than males (47.7%), with
nearly 26% of the population under 18 years and only 9.7% over 65 years
- The Black population has slightly more females (52.3%) than males (47.7%), with
nearly 26% of the population under 18 years and only 9.7% over 65 year
- Of those 98,304 African immigrants, 13,097 were from Ethiopia; 10,265 came from
Ghana; 6,123 identified Kenya as their country of origin; 13,840 were Nigerian; and 59
were from South Sudan
- large numbers of Black Caribbean immigrants came to the United States primarily
from three countries: Haiti (20,351), Jamaica (19,400), and Trinidad and Tobago
(4,724). To this list of countries we must add and consider Haitians coming from the
Dominican Republic (41,311)
- Black immigrants to the United States are outnumbered by non-Black Latino/a and
Asian immigrants, the Black immigrant population has more than quadrupled, from
816,000 in 1980 to 3,793,000 in 2013
- poverty rate for African Americans remains nearly 3 times higher than that of White
Americans (27.2% vs. 9.6%
- the unemployment rate for African Americans remains twice as high as that of White
Americans (13.1% vs. 6.5%
- Blacks are incarcerated at a rate 5 times higher than Whites
- 20.8% of Blacks are college graduates from 4-year universities, as opposed to 43.3%
of Whites
- African Americans have the lowest high school graduation rate
/.African American History - Answer-- Europeans were responsible for the categorical
system based on race, the darker one's skin and the further an individual's features
were from the European standard, the lower was the status of the individual in society
- Racial categories were always hierarchical, with the darkest individuals compared to
animals and the lightest individuals considered to be made in "God's image."
- the more White blood slaves had, the more privileges they had over their darker
counterparts. Lighter skinned slaves were able to work in the slave owner's house, and
darker skinned slaves had to work outdoors all day
- first Africans arrived in the United States in 1619 as indentured servants
, - From the mid-1600s through 1965, laws were used to justify the physical, mental, and
spiritual abuse of African Americans. Early models of mental health pathologized
Africans
- Laws considered slaves to be one tenth of a human being.
- Black families are not strictly nuclear, and Black children are often raised by their close
biological relatives and extended family
- African Americans are less likely to use mental health counseling services and are
more likely to be misdiagnosed
/.scientific racism - Answer-an unethical practice initiated during the middle of the 18th
century through the beginning of the 20th century whereby pseudoscientists played an
integral role in promulgating myths that indigenous non-Whites were racially inferior
/.one-drop rule - Answer-states that having one drop of Black blood makes one Black
/.colorism - Answer-where African Americans with lighter skin are often perceived as
having an easier time than African Americans with darker skin
- a form of internalized racism, wherein lighter skin is sometimes more valued than
darker skin in the African-American community
- skin color can be related to self-esteem, body image issues, and feelings of
attractiveness
- Those with "black skin" do not all have the same culture
/.drapetomania - Answer-was said to be a noted mental illness of slaves who tried to
escape from their owners
/.Post-civil war reconstruction - Answer-- the brief historical period between the end of
enslavement in 1865 and the beginning of the Jim crow era in 1877
/.Jim crow laws - Answer-maintained and supported segregationist policies that
governed the lives of Blacks in America
- These racist policies were enforced by legal institutions such as the police and
courthouses through the 1960s.
- Blacks have been seen as a "problem people," a people to be hated and feared, and a
threat
/.Black Racial Identity - Answer-- Black identity can have negative implications for
mental health issues and self-esteem
- a positive racial identity serves a protective function for individuals of African descent
shielding them from negative societal messages about being Black
- African-American adolescents who received affirming cultural socialization messages
within schools were less likely to experience adverse consequences
/.Cross Model of Racial Identity (1971) - Answer-- is a prominent framework for
understanding Black racial identity