Attitudes and Actions Related to Racism: the Anti-RaCism (ARC) Survey Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Racism negatively impacts health and well-being. Members of the medical community must intervene to address racism. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether attitudes about the impact of racism on health or society are associated with intervening around racism. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of a large department of medicine in an urban academic setting. PARTICIPANTS: Interns, residents, fellows, and faculty. MAIN MEASURES: The primary outcome was the likelihood of intervening around an observed racist encounter or a racist policy. Predictor variables included age, gender identity, race/ethnicity, and attitudes about racism. KEY RESULTS: Although the majority of the 948 respondents endorsed the impact of racism on health and other societal effects, levels of endorsement were lower among older individuals, or those reporting male gender identity or selecting other race. Higher endorsement of the impact of racism on health was associated with increased odds of speaking up about a racist encounter or racist policy, with odds ratios from 1.18 to 1.30 across scenarios. Likelihood of speaking up about racism did not differ by racial or ethnic group, but older individuals were generally more likely to speak up and individuals between 20 and 29 years of age were more likely to speak with someone other than leadership or the source of a racist encounter. CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of the effects of racism on health is associated with increased likelihood of intervening when a racist encounter is observed or a racist policy is noted. Including information on the impact of racism on health and creating safe spaces to discuss racism may increase the likelihood of bystander intervention in antiracism strategies.

DARE Training: Teaching Educators How to Revise Internal Medicine Residency Lectures by Using an Anti-racism Framework

“…Our participants reflected the limited diversity of faculty, which was consistent with other academic medical centers. 29 Diverse participation would have brought a greater breadth of experiences to participant responses and workshop discussion. However, as participation in the training was voluntary, focused recruitment of participants identifying as underrepresented in medicine (UiM) risked exacerbating the minority tax, wherein UiM faculty and residents have additional diversity-related responsibilities that often do not lead to academic promotion.…”

Mapping the distribution of health equity research and practice across a university: a network analysis

“…Academics lack an optimal recognition and understanding of racism and have an under-developed vocabulary to communicate about it [ 31 , 32 ]. In addition, academics usually under-recognize [ 33 ] the importance of race and racism and address them as external to their institution [ 5 ]. In our study, two groups of respondents who were involved in interventional research and in social/administrative activities had little overlap, while individuals who were involved in education had significant overlap with both.…”

Promoting anti-racism in the legal system: an application of the STYLE framework

“…In efforts toward effective anti-racism work and systemic change, self-examination and critical self-reflection are crucial in the areas of individual experiences of oppression and privilege, individually held biases, and personal reasons for inaction ( Lai et al, 2014 , 2016 ; Forscher et al, 2019 ; Burnett-Bowie et al, 2022 ). To accomplish this, individuals must raise their critical consciousness and strength and resilience to counter oppression ( French et al, 2020 ).…”