Diverse kids holding hands

How to Talk to Our Kids about the Tragic Shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas

Families around the country are coming together to talk about the officer-involved shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota, and the ambush of police officers in Dallas, Texas. These events come shortly after the violence in Orlando. In fact, it seems that acts of violence are in the news on a regular basis. How do we begin to explain all of this to our children when we, as adults, are having our own difficulties with what is occurring?

Health and Healthcare Injustice: Why We Really Should Care About HIV Disparities

By Alyssa Arentoft, PhD (California State University, Northridge) & Monica Rivera Mindt, PhD (Fordham University & Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Perhaps nowhere are health and healthcare inequities so glaring as in HIV. […]

Congregants wearing AIDS ribbons at Black church service

5 Ways Black Churches are Engaging in HIV Prevention

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 […]

Congressman John Lewis

Speak Up and Speak Out: Why Psychologists Should Take Up John Lewis’ Call for Immigration Reform

By Melba J. T. Vasquez, PhD, ABPP (2011 Past-President of the American Psychological Association) “You must speak up, you must speak out, you must get in the way.” These were the impassioned words spoken by Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) after receiving a Presidential Citation from APA President Nadine Kaslow, PhD, urging psychologists to become involved in […]

Young people gather around the Michael Brown memorial in Ferguson, MO

Close to Home: A Psychologist Reflects on Providing Crisis Counseling in Ferguson

This is part of our ongoing series of blog posts about race, racism and law enforcement in communities of color. By Jameca Falconer, PhD (Counseling Psychologist, Logan University) After watching the horrors in Ferguson, Missouri, unfold only a few miles away from where I live, I began looking closely at social justice strategies as a way to heal […]

Riot police

Teachable Moments About Policing from Ferguson, Missouri

This is part of our ongoing series of blog posts about race, racism and law enforcement in communities of color. By Tom Tyler, PhD (Professor of Law and Psychology, Yale Law School) Ferguson represents another step in the escalating failure of the “broken windows” view of crime that has gained ascendancy during the past generation.  Under this approach, the […]

Handcuffs on top of the American flag

Race, Racism and Law Enforcement in Communities of Color: A Call to Action

By Gwendolyn P. Keita, PhD (Executive Director, APA Public Interest Directorate)  The shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, at the hands of a police officer has led to outrage and continuing civil unrest in Ferguson, MO. These events are emblematic of the fraught and often problematic interactions that communities of color have […]

LGBT discrimination

Why ENDA Should Matter to Psychologists

By J. Judd Harbin, PhD (Arkansas) and Melissa J. Grey, PhD (Michigan), APA Division 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues) Public Policy Committee Members Working matters. In his classic 1974 work titled Working, Studs Terkel observed that, despite the stresses of one’s job duties, working provides a person […]