February 2024 DEI Results: Black History Month

*15 people participated in the survey.  All 15 were from Athens Campus.

*Results were 8 students, 2 faculty members and 5 staff members participated in the survey.

2023 Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision

While the public has broadly positive views on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling to end the use of race and ethnicity in admission decisions for most universities, Black Americans’ reactions are about evenly split, masking sharp generational differences. The slight majority of Black adults, overall, consider the ruling “mostly a good thing” (52%), while 48% call it “mostly a bad thing.” However, Black adults aged 40 and older mostly view the decision negatively (56%), while a larger majority of younger Black adults, aged 18 to 39, view it positively (62%).

Read the article

What impact do you think the Supreme Court's decision ending the use of race or ethnicity in college and university admissions will have on educational opportunities for each of the following groups -- Black or African Americans?

*Results were 12 people believed it was a mostly/significantly negative impact, 2 people said there was no impact at all and 2 said it would be a mostly/slightly positive impact.

In the article, Representations of Race and Skin Tone in Medical Textbook Imagery , states that many of today's textbooks do not properly represent skin tone.

How well does your program's resources represent diversity in skin tones?

*Results were: 0 people said Excellent, 4 said Good, 3 said Fair, 4 said Poorly and 1 person said it was not applicable.

• I am in the last semester of the RN-BSN program. There were frequent assignments that included research on health disparities of race. I think this program does a good job of incorporating racial disparities in health care and bringing awareness to them.
• In terms of learned material, excellent exposure to African American health is assured but physically not much. I hope this program can establish numerous onsite community health nursing programs and services so we get to experience firsthand what we are being taught in the books.
• We have talked a lot about how the zip code in which you live has the largest impact on your overall health. We have looked at breakdowns of maps across the US and have found more health disparities in those communities that are largely black and brown communities. We then learned how that was leading to higher rates of stroke and heart disease in these communities d/t healthcare access and quality.
• So far in my studies, we have talked a little about healthcare inequities and disparities among other races.  There have not been any "deep dives" and there should be since we are a healthcare college.  Many classes that are offered through course offerings that would allow students to learn more about African American health care issues and other races, in general, are never being taught.  They are listed but the classes are not available.

Sickle Cell Disease

• Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders.
• Healthy red blood cells are round and they move through small blood vessels carrying oxygen to all parts of the body.
• In SCD, the red blood cells become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle”.
• Sickle cells die early, which causes a constant shortage of red blood cells.
• Sickle cells can get stuck in small blood vessels and block the flow of blood and oxygen to organs in the body. These blockages cause repeated episodes of severe pain, organ damage, serious infections, or even stroke.

• It is estimated that SCD affects 90,000 to 100,000 people in the United States, mainly Blacks or African Americans.
• The disease occurs among about 1 of every 500 Black or African-American births and among about 1 out of every 36,000 Hispanic-American births.
• SCD affects millions of people throughout the world and is particularly common among those whose ancestors come from sub-Saharan Africa; regions in the Western Hemisphere (South America, the Caribbean, and Central America); Saudi Arabia; India; and Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

What Health Problems Does Sickle Cell Disease Cause?

• “Pain Episode” or “Crisis”: Sickle cells don’t move easily through small blood vessels and can get stuck and clog blood flow. This causes pain that can start suddenly, be mild to severe, and last for any length of time.
• Infection: People with SCD, especially infants and children, are more likely to experience harmful infections such as flu, meningitis, and hepatitis.
• Hand-Foot Syndrome: Swelling in the hands and feet, often along with a fever, is caused by the sickle cells getting stuck in the blood vessels and blocking the blood from flowing freely through the hands and feet.
• Eye Disease: SCD can affect the blood vessels in the eye and lead to long-term damage.
• Acute Chest Syndrome (ACS): Blockage of the flow of blood to the lungs can cause acute chest syndrome. ACS is similar to pneumonia; symptoms include chest pain, coughing, difficulty breathing, and fever. It can be life-threatening and should be treated in a hospital. 
• Stroke: Sickle cells can clog blood flow to the brain and cause 

*Results were 4 people were very knowledgeable and 8 were slightly knowledgeable.

*Results were 10 people were and 2 people were not organ donors.

In the United States, Black people are four times as likely to develop kidney failure as White people, but they are much less likely to receive a lifesaving kidney transplant. Black people also experience the highest rates of heart failure but receive heart transplants at lower rates than their White counterparts. These are tragic inequities.  What do you think needs to be done to improve these transplantation inequities?

• I think the reason behind why the back community is more likely to need kidney and heart transplants needs to be determined. If we can find the and fix the things that are leading to this community having worse health outcomes in the first place, we can provide better preventative care to this community it may decrease the need for transplant. As for those who do need an organ, maybe making the ones in charge of deciding who gets what organ should be blinded to race/ethnicity. I also thought that you can pay to get yourself higher on the transplant list. So this leaves those with higher SES further up on the list then those who simply can’t afford to do that.
• Every human being should receive the same exact health care. No one particular race or ethnicity group should be at a disadvantage.
• Every human being should receive the same exact health care. No one particular race or ethnicity group should be at a disadvantage.
• One can make some assumptions that the cost of healthcare, and refusal to treat people who don't have sufficient or any insurance are the main problems. It could be that more Black Americans are still of a lower SES, and therefore do not have the insurance or money to get adequate treatment in this country. As many of us know, this would require a complete overhaul of our healthcare system so that every single person  can get the treatment deemed necessary, and even the diagnosis needed to ensue treatment. Like everything in this country, money speaks more than anything else, and that has got to change.

Donate Blood for Sickle Cell

3 Tips Every Emergency Provider Needs to Know about Sickle Cell Disease

Get Involved with the National Kidney Foundation

Become an Organ Donor

How our organ transplant systems fails people of color

Community Health Workers and Chronic Kidney Disease

Myths and Facts about Affirmative Action  (ACLU)

Understanding race & eGFR

Waiting time adjustment approved for kidney transplant candidates affected by race-based calculation