Applying Psychological Science, Benefiting Society
They say, “Black boys turn blue in the moonlight”. In the Oscar winning movie Moonlight, the story follows character Chiron as he develops into a man. What’s interesting about Chiron’s story is that it mirrors that of countless other African American men. Chiron is simply not allowed to “be” – he’s bullied for being “Little,” beaten because of his demeanor, and denied the opportunity to safely and freely explore his sexuality. It is indeed under this distress that Black boys turn blue.
By Leo Rennie, MPA (Senior Legislative & Federal Affairs Officer, APA Public Interest) February 7th marked the annual observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The day is an opportunity to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS and to promote HIV testing in the Black community. Sadly, 35 years into the HIV epidemic the need […]
By Dawn X. Henderson, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychology, Winston-Salem State University) Some of the lines in the classic 1982 song, Mad World, capture the lived experience of many black and brown children in the public school system in the United States. When people run in circles, it’s a very very mad world… Children waiting for […]
Welcome back to In Case You Missed It (our weekly roundup of articles touching on psychology, health, mental health and social justice issues from multiple news and commentary websites). This week, we address the advances over a decade of sexual orientation research, the impact of post-Katrina recovery policies on Black women in public housing, an end to solitary […]
In this week’s In Case You Missed It (a roundup of articles related to psychology, health, mental health and social justice collated from multiple news and commentary websites) we cover the racial double standard in media coverage of the Waco shooting compared with Baltimore, launching of a new Police Data Initiative, the sharp increase in suicide rates among […]
Welcome to In Case You Missed It, a weekly roundup of news articles related to issues of psychology, health and mental health, social justice and the public interest that you may be interested in. We collate these articles from multiple news and commentary websites. This week we look at stories covering new research on mixed-income housing, […]
By Terrinieka Williams Powell, PhD (Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health) The CDC notes that African Americans have the most severe burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Despite accounting for less than 15% of the U.S. population, African Americans account for nearly half of all new […]
By Efua Andoh (Public Interest Communications Staff) This is our 150th post and given that it is the end of the year, we would like to reflect on our blogging journey so far. When Public Interest began this venture in March 2013, we were total novices to blogging. We’ve come a long way since then […]
By Cendrine Robinson, MS (Doctoral Candidate in Medical and Clinical Psychology) Chicago native, rapper Chief Keef’s song Hate Being Sober (Cozart, Jackson, Thomaz & Pittman, 2012) has over 10 million views on YouTube. While some may not be familiar with the rapper, his YouTube views suggest that his music resonates with many of today’s youth. At […]
By Alfiee Breland-Noble, PhD, MHSc (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center) Karyn Washington’s unfortunate and untimely passing offers an opportunity for us to reflect on African American women, depression and suicide. In early April 2014, Ms. Karyn Washington took her life after what appears to be a long standing battle with depression. This […]
Psychology Benefits Society 