Improving the Measurement of Structural Racism

An MPC and CARHE Barnraising

This event took place in March of 2022 and was co-hosted by the Minnesota Population Center (MPC)  and Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE).

Structural racism is complex and multidimensional, but too often measurements of racism are simplistic and one dimensional. This enables the continued false narrative that race, rather than racism, is the cause of racial inequities. This workshop brought together researchers and data users from across the country to foster dynamic conversations on how to create and utilize multidimensional measures of structural racism. 

This was a 1.5 day workshop.

Event Highlights

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Expert Panel Discussion: Structural Racism Measurements

Monday, March 14th  |  10:45 AM  - 12:00 PM Central Time

Anderson Library and publicly available on Zoom 

Register here to attend virtually

Join us as our invited panelists discuss where they see the needs and progress. There will also be time for open discussion. 

Moderator: Rachel Hardeman, PhD, MPH, Director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity at the University of Minnesota

Panelists: 

  • Paris Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH, Research Associate at Johns Hopkins University
  • Roland Thorpe Jr., PhD, MS, Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Diversity, Johns Hopkins University and Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 
  • Tyson Brown, PhD, Director of the Center on Health & Society and Associate Professor of Sociology at Duke University

Working Groups

Working groups will be broken up into two different sessions. Participants will be able to attend two working groups in total. 

  • How can IPUMS data help us measure the intersectionality of structural discrimination?
  • What data/datasets do we need to measure structural racism?
  • How do we accurately measure structural racism?
  • What do community stakeholders need from measures of structural racism?

Agenda

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Monday, March 14th

Introductions

9:00 - 9:30 AM Central Time  |  120 Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus - West Bank

Time to introduce to each other and get to know the people we’ll be working with for the next day and a half.

Our Charge to the Group

9:30 - 10:30 AM Central Time  |  120 Elmer L. Andersen Library

In this time, we’ll lay out the charge we are presenting the workshop attendees and what we hope to achieve

 

Expert Panel Discussion

Monday, March 14th  |  10:45 AM  - 12:00 PM Central Time

120 Elmer L. Andersen Library and available on Zoom 

Register here to attend virtually

Join us as our invited panelists discuss where they see the needs and progress. There will also be time for open discussion. 

Moderator: Rachel Hardeman, PhD, MPH, Director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity at the University of Minnesota

Panelists: 

  • Paris Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH, Research Associate at Johns Hopkins University
  • Roland Thorpe Jr., PhD, MS, Associate Vice Provost of Faculty Diversity, Johns Hopkins University and Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 
  • Tyson Brown, PhD, Director of the Center on Health & Society and Associate Professor of Sociology at Duke University

Lunch Mixer

12:00 PM  - 1:00 PM Central Time  |  120 Elmer L. Andersen Library,

Working Group Meeting 1

1:15 - 2:30 PM Central Time 

Half of the group will be in 120 Elmer L. Andersen Library the other half will be in the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation seminar room in Willey Hall

Participants will be placed based on their preferences into one of the working groups. 

  • How can IPUMS data help us measure the intersectionality of structural discrimination?
  • What data/datasets do we need to measure structural racism?
  • How do we accurately measure structural racism?
  • What do community stakeholders need from measures of structural racism?

Working Group Meeting 2

2:45 - 4:00 PM Central Time 

Half of the group will be in 120 Elmer L. Andersen Library the other half will be in the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation seminar room in Willey Hall

Participants will be placed based on their preferences into one of the working groups. 

  • How can IPUMS data help us measure the intersectionality of structural discrimination?
  • What data/datasets do we need to measure structural racism?
  • How do we accurately measure structural racism?
  • What do community stakeholders need from measures of structural racism?

Tuesday, March 15th

Working Group Report and Discussion

9:00 AM - 11:15 AM Central Time  |  Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation seminar room in 50 Willey Hall

Open to the public on Zoom. 

Register here to attend virtually

The small working groups report back to the larger group and we discuss all together what ideas, thoughts, and solutions they came up with.

Next Steps/Wrap Up

11:30 AM  - 12:00 PM Central Time  |  Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation seminar room in 50 Willey Hall

Where do we go from here? 

Final Conversation Lunch

12:00 - 1:00 PM Central Time  |  Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation seminar room in 50 Willey Hall

A last opportunity to have lunch together, socialize, and join in conversation

Funding Acknowledgement
This event was made possible by our funders, particularly the NICHD (Grant IDs P2C HD041023 and U01HD108779), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. The opinions and products of this event will be solely our responsibility and do not necessarily represent the official views of these organizations, but we gratefully acknowledge their support and their contributions to open and honest discourse on these topics.