Thread by @APA

Welcome to today’s #APA2020 Virtual main stage event, The Science of Racism, hosted by @lollybowean.

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took the podium at APA’s annual convention and asked psychologists to rise to the challenge of stopping racism and work toward a more equitable future. Have we met his call? #APA2020

“We’ve done a lot of writing and a lot of research, but not a lot of action. I believe that image of seeing George Floyd with that knee on his neck made my white friends and colleagues begin to understand what Dr. King was calling on us to do.” -- 2019 APA President @TigerBingham

“I find myself often thinking if science can be misused to affirm white supremacy, can it also be used to right that wrong? Can we lean on science and research as a tool to combat racism and eliminate its harmful residue?” -- @lollybowean #APA2020

“Now, many of us are declaring ourselves anti-racist. We are reading the books, we are adopting the language, but what will it really take to get us to equity and equality?” -- @lollybowean #APA2020

Our first speaker, @dralfiee, founded the @AAKOMAProject to help diverse teenagers and their families achieve optimal mental health. Today she joins us to discuss the importance of culturally-relevant science. #APA2020

“There’s a message that I always share with people - and that message is that I wish you lots of love, lots of light, and I hope both are always informed by good culturally-relevant science.” -- @dralfiee #APA2020

.@dralfiee: How do we move closer to social justice for all of us? By “calling a thing a thing”. We have to acknowledge that racism is real and that it is a part of the lived experience of many people of color. #APA2020

“There were many years in my career where racial trauma and racial stressors were not concepts we talked about. But there were people who continued to do the work, even though they had to do it in the shadows, sometimes where they couldn’t get it published.” -- @dralfiee #APA2020

“Culturally relevant science doesn’t just happen, it is something that we have to engage in in an active and strategic way.” -- @dralfiee #APA2020

“Through our work with the @AAKOMAProject, we work actively with young people, we work actively with community advocates. Because at the end of the day, the people who are going to inform you the best are the people who have those lived experiences.” -- @dralfiee #APA2020

“What I want to wish for you is something that I always wish as I close — I want to wish you lots of love, I want to wish you lots of light, and I always hope that both of those are informed by good, culturally-relevant science.” -- @dralfiee #APA2020

Next up we have a panel conversation led by APA CEO @ArthurCEvans. Welcome @PhDodson, @CalvinKLai, and @D_R_Williams1 to the #APA2020 Virtual Main Stage!

“Over fifty years ago, Martin Luther King challenged psychologists to tell it like it is, to help change a society poisoned to its soul by racism. The question is for us, fifty years later - have we done that? How can we do that?” -- @ArthurCEvans #APA2020

.@ArthurCEvans: What do we know from psychological research that the public may not know or understand as we address issues of race and racism? #APA2020

“There are more than 100 published studies of everyday discrimination and health. Higher levels of discrimination leads to depressive and anxiety symptoms, DSM-defined psychiatric disorders, and a broad range of negative physical health outcomes.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

“We have a responsibility to raise awareness levels, to let others know the weight of the evidence, and how important it is as a society to address racism in order to improve the health of all.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

.@CalvinKLai: Research shows that hidden, spontaneous, or maybe even unconscious biases pervade how we treat others on the basis of race. So one “obvious solution” is maybe we could reduce the underlying biases directly. Studies show that’s actually hard to do. #APA2020

“Given that it’s difficult to dislodge these implicit biases, research shows the most effective approaches are interventions that can prevent or circumvent the influence of implicit bias on behavior.” -- @CalvinKLai #APA2020

“Building relationships with community members and organizations is the key to sharing psychological science. The easiest way to do that, before I bring in the research and the findings, is to just listen.” -- @PhDodson #APA2020

.@ArthurCEvans: In twenty years of policy work, I often saw colleagues in the government struggling with issues for which there was already a body of knowledge. How can we connect that knowledge with people working on these issues? #APA2020

“We need to communicate the urgency with which we need to approach the topic of racism and its effects on health. It’s not just ‘sticks and stones may break my bones’, it’s really hurting us and killing people prematurely.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

“Research shows that Black children are three times more likely than White children in America to lose a mother by age 10. Black adults are twice as likely compared to White adults to lose a child by age 30, and a spouse by age 60.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

.@CalvinKLai: One of the challenges is this phenomenon called the bias blind spot...even when people are educated about biases their impulse is to think they are “above average” at being unbiased. Statistically, that’s not possible. #APA2020

.@CalvinKLai: One of the things I would recommend to any administrator is to track very specifically where the inequalities are within your organization. This tells you where to focus your energy and makes it so you can’t just sit in your bias blind spot. #APA2020

“We need to have very real and authentic conversations with folks outside the field saying that colorblind racial approaches and colorblind racial attitudes are having a very real impact on health and are literally killing people.” -- @PhDodson #APA2020

“It’s really important to normalize that multiculturalism in conversations about social justice is not a destination to arrive at, but something that needs to be woven into all conversations and into the beautiful tapestry that is humanity.” -- @PhDodson #APA2020

“Organizations like APA, like universities, need to raise awareness levels. Most Americans are unaware of the degree of racial inequities that exist in health and in other domains.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

“For every dollar of household income White households receive in the U.S., Black households earn 59 cents. That is identical to the racial gap in income in 1978. Most of my students think we’ve made much more remarkable progress.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

“Raising awareness and changing levels of empathy is a prerequisite to effective systemic change. What we are seeing over the past ten years is evidence of attitudinal changes that coincide with the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement here in the U.S.” -- @CalvinKLai #APA2020

“When people are looking for motivation we need to say ‘Hey, let me first hear where you are coming from'...because sometimes appealing to folks’ empathy is only as good as their structural knowledge or their systemic knowledge.” -- @PhDodson #APA2020

“We have an amazing body of knowledge that points us in the right directions. So really developing strategies that can make the tools and knowledge that are available more accessible to individuals and to policymakers...I think that is a huge priority.” -- @D_R_Williams1 #APA2020

“The racist inequalities that we see today have historical and systemic roots. Addressing racism may mean cultivating a better moral counter about it, but it also means actually taking action and advocating for system level policy changes.” -- @CalvinKLai #APA2020

“We really have to prioritize the healing and the hearing of folks who have been historically disenfranchised. As a psychologist I may have the training, but I never assume that I know somebody else’s life better than they themselves.” -- @PhDodson #APA2020

Today’s final speaker is former @PublicHealth president and anti-racism activist @CamaraJones. Welcome to the #APA2020 Virtual Main Stage!

.@CamaraJones explains how as a student, a late-night trip to a local diner inspired an allegory for understanding racism and privilege in America. The sign read “OPEN” for those inside, but “CLOSED” for hungry customers outside. #APA2020

“That is when I realized that racism structures Open/Closed signs in our society. For those sitting inside the restaurant, they don’t even recognize the two-sided sign because it’s hard for any of us to recognize a system of inequity that privileges us.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“Those on the outside are very aware that there’s a two-sided sign going on because it proclaims closed to them but they can look through the window and see people inside eating.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“It’s an empowering thing to name racism. It doesn’t even compel you to act, but it does equip you to act.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

.@CamaraJones: Once you know the sign is two-sided, you can tell the restaurant owner to let them in, or pass food through the window, or even break down the door. But what you won’t be doing is sitting back saying “I wonder why those people don’t come in and eat.” #APA2020

“If we just say a thing, six months from now we might forget why we said that thing. But if we start acting, not just to tear down the sign but to undo the lock, to take the door off the hinges, we will not forget why we acted.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“We have to recognize that it’s not just that #BlackLivesMatter. Black lives are precious, Black lives are genius, they are leadership, they are creativity, they are generosity and love.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“Racism is not a miasma or a cloud that we can’t get a handle on, it is a system with identifiable and addressable mechanisms which are in our structures, policies, practices, norms, and values.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“There are many ways to deny racism. One is to say ‘I don’t think racism exists’ but another is to never say the word racism because if you never say the word racism in the context of widespread denial, you are complicit with that denial.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“All of us are in a bubble of experience and many of us do not know that just across town, there are people who are just as kind, funny, generous, hardworking, and smart as we are who are living in very different circumstances.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

“The most important impacts of racism these days happen without prejudice. They happen because of lack of action, inaction in the face of need.” -- @CamaraJones #APA2020

Thank you for joining us for today’s #APA2020 Virtual Main Stage event.

It’s not too late to register for year-long access to all of our scheduled and on-demand content: on.apa.org/2YPVv0C