An official website of the United States government
On June 12, 2016, a shooter entered the Pulse club in Orlando, Florida, and fatally shot 49 people. Pulse was a barwhere lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and otherwise queer identifying (LGBTQ+) people regularly gathered, and the shooting occurred on Latin night, disproportionally impacting people at the intersection of being LGBTQ+, Black, and Latinx. Afterthe shooting, organizations focusing on LGBTQ+ people of color, including undocumented queer people, emerged and mobilized for improved political protections, economic rights, criminal justice reform, and representation of LGBTQ+ people of color insocial justice organizations. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork that began in 2016, this presentation summarizes findings from an ongoing study examining the impacts of social justice mobilizing after gun violencethat targeted queer people of color. It reports findings from participant observation experiences with LGBTQ+ Latinx organizations and interviews with social justice organization members (n=52), local legislators (n=8), health providers (n=3), law enforcement officers (n=3), and national organization leaders (n=3). Findings highlight how the Pulse shooting sparked an intersectional social justice movement workingto dismantle structural racism, xenophobia,and homophobia from within multiple settings. Using theories of biopolitics and frameworks of legal, political, and queer mobilization, I argue that the movement forged out of the Pulse shooting works to advance what I call “an assertive politics of belonging” that pervades multiple social spaces, including within local and state government, law enforcement agencies, and social justice organizations. Situating this movement in a broader US context of deep political polarization and persistent white supremacy, findings from this study underscore the tensions that emerge in challenging structural racism by asserting claims of belonging for people at the intersection of multiple minoritized identities.
more »
« less
Addressing Structural Racism as a Root Causes of COVID - 19 Inequality and Advancing Intersectional LGBTQ+ Racial Justice: Examples from Community - Based Participatory Research in Central Florida
Background: Structural racism is a root cause of health inequality . R esponding to structural racism requires interventions to address systemic inequalit ies that structure poor health , particularly for people with intersecting Black , Latinx , and LGBTQ+ identities . However, l ittl e is known about successful strategies to combat structural racism . Using in - depth , qualitative, community - based participatory research methods, we describe two community interventions in Central Florida that responded to structural racism during the Summ er of 2020. Methods: Findings draw from ongoing qualitative , community - based research that began in 2016 . Data collected include in - depth interviews with leaders and members of community - based organization s that advance intersectional racial and gender justice (n= 54); state legislators (n=2); and clinical service providers (n=4). During the summer of 2020 , community organization leaders created two efforts to combat systemic racism : the “LGBTQ+ Relief Fund” and the “All Black Lives Fund.” The LGBTQ+ Reli ef Fund responded to economic inequality structuring high rates of COVID - 19 among Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ identifying people, and the All Black Lives Fund responded to political and economic disparities in funding Black - led LGBTQ+ organizations. Results: C ommunity interventions resulted in over 800 LGBTQ+ individuals receiving financial assistance during the COVID - 19 pandemic, including LGBTQ+ people who were excluded from statewide interventions such as undocumented immigrants . The All Black Lives Fund d istributed $100,000 to three Black - led LGBTQ+ social movement organizations. Discussion : The se efforts provide examples of community - based approaches to respond to systemic racism as a root cause of poor health. Findings also demonstrate the importance of intersectionality and in - depth qualitative research in public health
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1918247
- PAR ID:
- 10477875
- Publisher / Repository:
- NA
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Public Health Association annual meeting
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Structural racism is a root cause of poor health in the United States and underlies COVID-19–related disparities for Black and Latinx populations. We describe how one community-based organization responded to structural racism and COVID-19 in Florida. Informed by the literature on how public health practice changed from emphasizing prevention (Public Health 1.0) to collaboration between governmental and public health agencies (Public Health 2.0) and examining social determinants of health (Public Health 3.0), we call for a politically engaged Public Health 4.0. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(S3):S201–S203. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306408 )more » « less
-
During the COVID - 19 pandemic, the United States (US) operated a patchwork response of varying closures and restrictions that depended on individual states. At the federal level, efforts to address COVID - 19 risk focused primarily on elderly populations and largely ignored the disproportionately high risk of COVID - 19 exposure among Black , Latin x, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and otherwise queer - identifying (LGBTQ+) populations . These groups have elevated risk of COVID - 1 9 exposure due to social, political, and economic vulnerabilities that structure poor health. In this paper, I describe how a grassroots racial, sexual, and gender justice organization responded to state failings in meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ Black and Latinx populations during the COVID - 19 pandemic. Drawing from ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in Orlando, Florida, that began in 2016 following the Pulse shooting, I describe how a social justice organization advanced a notion of intersectional belonging in response to the absence of health and social services during the COVID - 19 pandemic. Specifically, I show how one organization, the Contigo Fund, created an LGBTQ+ COVID - 19 relief effort that provided financial assistance to Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ populations when the state of Florida failed to marshal resources for its most marginalized communities . The state’s failure is just one of many ways the state has historically refused to meet the needs of populations with intersecting queer and racial minority identities , reproducing longstanding health and social inequities. Overall, I argue that the Contigo Fund’s response demonstrates how grassroots mobilization can challenge the necropolitcs of state - sponsored neglect and advance health equitymore » « less
-
Global protests and civil unrest in 2020 has renewed the world’s interest in addressing injustice due to structural racism and oppression toward Black and Latinx people in all aspects of society, including computing. In this article, we argue that to address and repair the harm created by institutions, policies, and practices that have systematically excluded Black and Latina girls from computer science, an intersectional, transformative justice approach must be taken. Leveraging testimonial authority, we share our past 8 years of experience designing, implementing, and studying Digital Youth Divas, a programmatic and systemic approach to encouraging middle school Black and Latina girls to participate in STEM. Specifically, we propose three principles to counter structural racism and oppression embedded in society and computing education: computing education must (1) address local histories of injustice by engaging community members; (2) counter negative stereotypes perpetuated in computer science by creating inclusive safe spaces and counter-narratives; and (3) build sustainable, computational capacity in communities. To illustrate each principle, we provide specific examples of the harm created by racist policies and systems and their effect on a specific community. We then describe our attempt to create counter structures and the subsequent outcomes for the girls, their families, and the community. This work contributes a framework for STEM and computing educators to integrate transformative justice as a method of repairing the harm that both society and the field of computing has and continues to cause Black and Latinx communities. We charge policy makers, educators, researchers, and community leaders to examine histories of oppression in their communities and to adopt holistic, transformative approaches that counter structural oppression at the individual and system level.more » « less
-
Across various domains of social life, organizational reliance on personal data and exposure to unanticipated financial hardship have transformed Americans’ life chances and access to opportunities. This article examines an area where they intersect: the hardship caused by breakdowns in information systems. I focus on the case of identity theft, showing how that event—experienced by tens of millions of Americans annually—contributes to economic insecurity. To do so, I first develop a theory of insecurity that links feelings of precariousness to breaches of trust at three levels: interpersonal, organizational, and systemic. Drawing on an original qualitative study of identity theft resolution, I find that most victims worried about their financial lives because they could no longer count on certain people, organizations, or systems. Beneath this commonality, race and class informed feelings of insecurity and associated coping strategies following identity theft. Low-income people and people of color tended to direct suspicion at personal networks and report ending relationships and informal assistance. In contrast, middle- and upper-income and White individuals disproportionately blamed organizations and demanded their protection. These findings—along with the trust-based theory that helped make them visible—have important implications for the study of insecurity, inequality, and trust in the information age.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
