Thursday, May 15. Health Disparities Seminar - Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class -

NOTE:  For all.  

         Have you attempted to obtain a new physician?

           Are any physicians in your community accepting new patients?

           How far ahead do you have to schedule an appointment for your annual physical?

           Is the problem with the entire industry, and not just for minorities?

           Although disparity for health care is increased for blacks, other minorities and others of lower income

NIH Health Disparities Seminar - Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class - Thursday, May 15

PRESENTATION:

Forging a Research Program on the Health of the Black Middle Class

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Kris Marsh, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

Rashawn Ray, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

DATE/TIME:

Thursday, May 15, 2014

3:00 - 4:30 P.M.

LOCATION:

NIH Campus

Natcher Conference Center, Building 45, Conference Rooms E1 & E2   

45 Center Drive

Bethesda, MD

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW:

The black middle class is viewed as an example of racial progress. Yet, the health outcomes of middle-class blacks fall dismally behind those of middle-class whites. In this regard, the health outcomes among middle-class blacks stall this alleged progress because middle-class status does not seem to provide the same health benefits to blacks as it does to whites. Without a better understanding of racial differences among the middle class, we cannot devise effective policy solutions to combat health disparities among the most underserved of our population. In their presentations, Dr. Kris Marsh and Dr. Rashawn Ray will provide an overview of a research agenda centered on psychological distress, physical activity, and aging among the black middle class. Using U.S. census and national data, as well as a unique data set on middle-class blacks and whites, they will document how health disparities among the middle class are very much centered on the experiences of black women. They will focus on how the stigma of being single affects the mental health and wealth decisions of middle-class black women as they age and show how the structure of neighborhoods and the social construction of bodies are privileged to support other raced and gendered groups leading to lower levels of physical activity and higher levels of obesity among middle-class black women. Drawing upon the intersectionality framework, they will discuss how the interactive effect of race and gender can be costly for middle-class black women.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Dr. Marsh is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and affiliate faculty of the Maryland Population Research Center, Department of Women's Studies, and African American Studies Department. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Marsh has combined her interests of the black middle class, demography, racial residential segregation, and education to develop a research agenda. This agenda is divided into three broad areas: the black middle class, the intersection of educational attainment and racial identification, and intra-racial health disparities. The common theme in her work is decomposing what it means to be black in America by focusing on intra-group variability in class, space, identity and educational achievement. Dr. Marsh has published work on the demographic shift in the black middle class with the emergence of single and living alone (SALA) households and the residential segregation patterns and trends of black and white SALA households. She received a doctoral degree from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Ray is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley/University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ray’s research addresses the mechanisms that manufacture and maintain racial and social inequality. His work also speaks to ways that inequality may be attenuated through racial uplift activism and social policy. Dr. Ray is the editor of Race and Ethnic Relations in the Twenty-first Century: History, Theory, Institutions, and Policy. His work has appeared in Ethnic and Racial Studies, American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Journal of Higher Education, and Journal of African American Studies. He received a doctoral degree in sociology from Indiana University.  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

There is limited parking on the NIH campus.  The closest Metro is Medical Center. Please allow adequate time for security check.  

The seminar will be video cast and made available in the NIH Video archives and on the NIMHD website after the seminar.  

Sign Language Interpreters will be provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations to participate should contact Edgar Dews at (301) 402-1366 or the Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339.