Deck 10: Health Inequalities, Environmental Racism, and Environmental Justice

Question 1

Involuntary experimentation on Blacks continued well into the twentieth century.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Latinxs are more likely than any other racial group to die at every age.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

In the early to mid-twentieth century, thousands of Black women who went to the doctor for reasons, such as an appendectomy, would later discover that they had been sterilized without their permission.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Health disparities show no connection to socioeconomic status.

Question 5

Whereas the disparities among White women, Asian women, Native American women, and Latina women narrow with higher levels of education, the gap actually expands for Black women.

Question 6

Blacks with college degrees were less likely than Whites, Hispanics, and Asians with less than a high school education to have low-birthweight babies.

Question 7

African American coping strategies for dealing with the stress of individual racism protect them from poor physical health.

Question 8

Immigrants often have better health than their native-born counterparts.

Question 9

The adoption of the Nuremberg Code successfully brought an era of involuntary experimentation on Blacks to an end.

Question 10

The United States and much of Western Europe attempt to dump their toxic waste in Africa and the Caribbean.

Question 11

In the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, poor Black men with syphilis were left untreated in order to understand the progression of the disease.

Question 12

Immigrants tend to have better health outcomes the longer they stay in the United States.

Question 13

A primary motive for seeking genetic explanations for health disparities is profit potential.

Question 14

Black children are equally likely as White children to have lead poisoning.

Question 15

Environmental cleanups of hazardous waste produced by industrialized nations like the United States can often lead to pollution in Latin America, the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Question 16

In addition to disparities in wealth, housing, and education, systematic racism has significantly impacted non-Whites':

A) family size
B) media consumption patterns
C) life expectancy
D) driving habits

Question 17

American doctors such as James Marion Sims used Black slaves to conduct:

A) brutal medical experiments
B) research on racial disparities
C) intelligence testing
D) craniometry studies

Question 18

In the nineteenth century, from where did doctors at the Medical College of Georgia acquire the bodies they used for medical dissection?

A) Native American reservations
B) African American hospital morgues
C) Burial sites for Chinese laborers who died while constructing railroads
D) African American burial grounds

Question 19

Involuntary experimentation on Blacks, such as Ebb Cade, were conducted well into the twentieth century. The adoption of the _________ in 1953 made involuntary experimentation illegal; however, these practices continued.

A) the Civil Rights Act
B) Nuremberg Code
C) Anti-Abuse Act
D) Medical Ethics Code

Question 20

In the early to mid-twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of Black women were subjected to involuntary sterilization on the basis that:

A) Blacks were physically weak and unfit
B) sterilization would end interracial marriage
C) sterilization would lead to better mental health
D) Blacks were too strong to be controlled by Whites after emancipation

Question 21

Even today, Native American, Latina, and Black women are more likely to be sterilized than White women. Thomas Volscho suggests that this disparity is due to:

A) poor physical health
B) higher rates of postpartum depression
C) proximity to toxic waste facilities
D) sterilization racism

Question 22

Gains in income and wealth translate into an increased likelihood of having good health, showing a clear link between health and socioeconomic status. What evidence has been found that demonstrates how these factors work in different ways across racial and ethnic lines?

A) Women from Cambodia experience the highest level of health gains due to socioeconomic status increases
B) Increases in socioeconomic status do not result in the same level of health gains for African Americans as they do for Whites
C) Women are much more likely than men to experience health gains as a result of increased socioeconomic status
D) Increases in socioeconomic status result in higher health gains for Asians and Native Americans than any other group

Question 23

Which group is the most likely to have low-birthweight babies?

A) Blacks
B) Whites
C) Asians
D) Hispanics

Question 24

According to David Williams and Chiquita Collins, what is the primary cause of Black/White health disparities?

A) discrimination by healthcare professionals
B) higher crime rates in Black neighborhoods
C) racial residential segregation
D) microaggressions

Question 25

What aspects of non-Whites' living conditions contribute to their poor health outcomes?

A) Non-Whites are more likely to live far from supermarkets with healthy produce.
B) Non-Whites are more likely to live in areas where crime is higher, making it less safe to walk around the neighborhood.
C) Non-Whites are more likely to live near hazardous waste facilities.
D) All of the above.

Question 26

Michael is a 60 year old African American male living in Alabama. While walking down the street, someone shouts a racial slur at him as they drive by. Hearing the slur causes Michael stress, which increases his blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure can lead to heart disease. This scenario demonstrates:

A) how African Americans have poor coping strategies
B) how individual racism negatively influences African American health outcomes
C) how African Americans experience more individual racism than Latinxs
D) how people in the South are much more likely to engage in overt racist behavior

Question 27

The cumulative disadvantage perspective and the weathering hypothesis are two of the most accepted _________, which attempt to explain health disparities.

A) life-course perspectives
B) Neoliberal ideologies
C) acculturation theories
D) assimilation perspectives

Question 28

The _________focuses on the long-term exposure to unhealthy conditions, whereas the ________ focuses on the buildup of stressors over the life course.

A) cumulative disadvantage perspective; weathering hypothesis
B) persistent risk theory; snowball effect
C) weathering hypothesis; cumulative disadvantage perspective
D) snowball effect; persistent risk theory

Question 29

Even though Latinxs have, on average, a lower socioeconomic status than Whites, they have comparable health outcomes to Whites. This phenomenon is known as the:

A) "Latino Privilege"
B) "Hispanic Paradox"
C) "Racial Inoculation"
D) "Latino Enigma"

Question 30

African Americans have higher rates of poor _______ health and lower rates of poor_____ health.

A) spiritual; mental
B) mental; physical
C) mental; spiritual
D) physical; mental

Question 31

How does Edna Viruell-Fuentes explain the difference in health outcomes between Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants?

A) Mexican Americans are more likely to live near hazardous waste plants, exposing them to contaminated water.
B) Mexican Americans have higher levels of education.
C) Mexican immigrants are more likely to live in ethnic enclaves, which help to shelter them from the stress of discrimination.
D) Mexican immigrants are less likely to seek medical treatment.

Question 32

The 2007 report on toxic waste and race found what about hazardous waste facilities?

A) They are more likely to be located near predominantly non-White neighborhoods.
B) After the environmental justice movement, these facilities have drastically reduced their contamination levels out of fear of lawsuit.
C) Surrounding neighborhoods only showed contamination when those neighborhoods were Latinx.
D) All of the above.

Question 33

Scientists who continue to look for genetic reasons behind health disparities are primarily motivated by:

A) the desire to prove that the results of craniometry studies were correct
B) government subsidies for research on White superiority
C) profit potential and myths of "Black" diseases
D) ingrained racist ideologies

Question 34

________ is institutional policies and practices that differentially affect the health outcomes or living conditions of people and communities based on race or color.

A) Sterilization racism
B) Acculturation
C) Healthcare disadvantage
D) Environmental racism

Question 35

Efforts to ensure the right to live in nontoxic neighborhoods, regardless of race is called:

A) environmental anti-racism.
B) environmental justice.
C) environmental activism.
D) environmental fairness.

Question 36

The prevailing racial ideologies of the early 1900s resulted in severe mistreatment of African Americans. One famous case of medical mistreatment was the:

A) Freedom Rides
B) massive deportation of the 1930s
C) Black internment
D) Tuskegee syphilis experiment

Question 37

How does racial residential segregation lead to poor health outcomes for African Americans in under-resourced neighborhoods?

A) Exposure to crime
B) Lack of sidewalks and other conditions that make it difficult to exercise
C) Limited access to stores with fresh produce
D) All of the above

Question 38

What is the primary reason that the Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians of southern Arizona have extremely high rates of diabetes?

A) Genetic predisposition
B) The government cut off their irrigation water supply, preventing them from growing their own food
C) Long-held cultural traditions of eating unhealthy food
D) All of the above

Question 39

Researchers have found that acculturation has ___________ effects in terms of health behaviors, but ___________ effects in terms of health care usage and access.

A) Negative; positive
B) Positive; negative
C) No; positive
D) Positive; no

Question 40

According to most scholars, why do Black and Latinx children tend to have higher rates of asthma than White children?

A) White children are more likely to get early health interventions to avoid asthma
B) Black and Latinx children are genetically predisposed to asthma
C) Black and Latinx children are more likely to live in polluted areas
D) All of the above

Question 41

Why is sickle cell disease more common among African Americans than Whites?

A) Because the ancestors of many African Americans were from parts of Africa where malaria is common
B) Because Black people are genetically predisposed to the disease
C) Because sickle cell disease is found only in Africa and is found in every part of the continent
D) Because White children have higher rates of vaccination against the disease

Question 42

Which of the following is an example of an environmental justice movement?

A) African Americans' fights for lead screening
B) Chicano and Filipino struggles against the use of pesticides in agriculture
C) The Standing Rock protests to protect water from oil drilling
D) All of the above

Question 43

What was the primary cause of the Flint water crisis?

A) Pollution in Lake Huron
B) Water-supply decisions made by city officials
C) General Motors dumping corroded car parts in the water supply
D) All of the above

Question 44

What is the problem with conflating racial differences in health with genetic factors?

A) When prescribing drugs, race is always a stand-in for a more precise explanation. Therefore, racial dosing and racial prescribing are imprecise and potentially harmful.
B) By blaming race and genetics for health problems, researchers are ignoring structural inequalities.
C) Genetic motivations tend to be profit-oriented.
D) All of the above

Question 45

Which of the following is an example of environmental racism in the United States?

A) The placement of hazardous waste facilities near poor communities of color.
B) Scientific experimentation on former slaves without their consent.
C) The forced sterilization of women of color.
D) Long-term exposure to individual-level discrimination.

Question 46

Discuss how the cases of John Brown and the Ebb Cade illustrate the effects of racial ideology on medical research.

Question 47

What is the Nuremberg Code and how was it shaped by racial ideology?

Question 48

The 1840 U.S. Census indicated that enslaved Blacks had better mental health than free Blacks. Despite the fact that statisticians found statistical errors in the census, the figures were declared error-free. Use the concept of racial ideology to explain why these statistical errors were ignored by the U.S. government.

Question 49

Explain Thomas Volscho's argument that Native American, Latina, and Black women are subject to sterilization racism.

Question 50

Is it correct to state that African Americans experience the same health gains as Whites when their socioeconomic status and education level increases? Why or why not?

Question 51

On a range of measures, African Americans experience worse health than their White counterparts. Use the concept of "pathogenic residential conditions" to explain this racial disparity in health.

Question 52

African Americans have higher rates of physical illness than Whites, yet lower rates of mental illness. Explain how this pattern might be the result of individual racism.

Question 53

Compare the weight-related beliefs of White women to those of Black women. How does the difference in these beliefs explain higher rates of obesity in African American women?

Question 54

Do the cumulative disadvantage perspective and weathering hypothesis adequately explain the health outcomes of Mexican Americans? Why or why not?

Question 55

What is the "Hispanic Paradox"? Compare and contrast the two competing explanations of this paradox. Which explanation do you think is more accurate? Why?

Question 56

Most social scientists agree that there is no biological basis for separating people into racial groups, yet medical researchers still attempt to identify genetic causes of racial disparities in health. Explain the argument that race, in this medical research, is a proxy for genetics. Why are medical researches motivated to make race a proxy for genetics?

Question 57

Numerous studies find that as African Americans age, they get progressively unhealthier than their White counterparts and are more likely to have a premature death. How does the cumulative disadvantage perspective explain this pattern? How does the weathering hypothesis explain the same pattern? Which explanation do you find most persuasive? Why?

Question 58

What were the causes of the Flint water crisis? Which groups were responsible for this crisis and who was most impacted by it?

Question 59

African Americans have an average life expectancy six years shorter than Whites, have a 32 percent higher age-adjusted death rate than Whites, and more likely than Whites to contract a host of medical illnesses. Compare and contrast the following theoretical explanations of these health disparities: socioeconomic status, segregation, individual racism, and life-course.