A call for epidemiology and thanatology to address the dying, death, and grief pipeline among Blacks in the United States.

Dying, death, and grief are significant events that impact individuals, families, and communities. In the United States, Blacks historically have higher morbidity and mortality rates than other racial-ethnic groups. While death is a normal and natural phase of the life-course process, high incidents of infant mortality, premature death, and preventable death are not. The disproportionate burden of dying, death and grief among Blacks have detrimental consequences which demand interdisciplinary interventions from public health and death study researchers. This manuscript explores dying, death and grief from three distinct fields of study: (1) epidemiology of death, (2) social epidemiology of death, and (3) thanatology.

Cultural responses to loss and grief among Black Americans: Theory and practice implications for clinicians.

Dying, death, and grief are universal human experiences that are impacted by cultural values and beliefs. We provide service providers a context from which to consider the importance of spirituality and religiosity in the grief process and the variances in grief practices that exist within the Black community. This knowledge can serve as a catalyst for developing culturally appropriate interventions for Black people aimed at helping them to more effectively cope with grief and further enabling them to thrive rather than merely survive a sociopolitical US climate that is laden with grief producing experiences.

Six feet apart or six feet under: The impact of COVID-19 on the Black community.

To date, 110,000+ people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors will discuss COVID-19 relative to Black people and their overrepresentation among those who are infected and died from the disease. Their dying, death, and grief experiences are explored through a cultural and spiritual lens. The physical distancing, social isolation, misinformation, and restrictive burials and cremations now elicited by this unprecedented pandemic have had diminished familial, cultural, emotional, and economic impacts on the Black community. Implications for public health and Black peoples' involvement in the political process are also addressed.

A Historical Analysis of Racism Within the US Presidency: Implications for African Americans and the Political Process.

This article examines the history of racism in the American presidency and the implications that it has had for Black residents of this country. The paper begins with a discussion of President Trump's racist rhetoric towards Blacks but notes that a history of racism is woven into the US presidency. We employ critical race theory as a theoretical framework to demonstrate why institutional racism has always been pervasive in the American presidency. Using a case study analysis, the authors conduct a comparative study of the history of racism of American presidents with the presidency of former president Donald J. Trump. The authors conclude that for most of the nation's history, racism and indifference to African Americans permeated the US presidency. It has only been since the advent of the second half of the twentieth century, for the most part, that there have been meaningful efforts by US presidents to address the concerns of African Americans.

A Pragmatic Epidemiological Approach to Confronting the Genocidal Death Effect of Homicide and Suicide among Young Black Males in the United States.

Genocide is a dehumanizing crime that threatens the welfare of any civilized society. Yet, before the annihilation of any targeted human group, the collective outcomes of the genocidal process (e.g., systemic desecrations) and genocidal death effect (e.g., years of mass deaths and death disparities) have often gone undetected, underestimated, or ignored by public health and human rights advocates. From1950-2010, the mass homicide-suicide killings engendering the premature deaths of Black males, ages15-24 years, corroborate that aspects of the genocidal process and genocidal death effect are happening in America. The mass killings of young Black males from these preventable homicide and suicide deaths are ethically alarming, and the determinants of death impacting their premature deaths command immediate primordial prevention and reinforced prevention efforts. An epidemiological genocide prevention matrix is explored as an innovative approach to address, prevent, and research premature deaths resulting from homicide and suicide, and genocidal death effect of young Black males. Undergirded by the Theory of Epidemiologic Transition, this article also examines the mass killings of young Black males through the genocidal and pragmatic lens. Death disparities, determinants of death, and genocidal death effect definitions are operationalized, and the Genocidal Death Effect Conceptual Framework is debuted in this article.

Black Male Mental Health and the Black Church: Advancing a Collaborative Partnership and Research Agenda.

This article explores the role the Black Church could play in facilitating spiritually sensitive, culturally relevant and gender-specific services to address the mental health and well-being of Black males. The help-seeking behaviors of Black men are examined as the authors offer two theories: the body, mind, spirit, environment, social, transcendent, and health, illness, men, and masculinities that may assist the Black Church in functioning as an effective support networks for healthy Black male mental health. Next, the authors discuss implications for practice, research, and education, and lastly, eight recommendations for Black Church leadership, social workers, and mental health professionals are also discussed.