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What an incredibly sad thing.  A new study has found that a sample of mostly white American children from ages seven to 10 believe  that black children feel less pain than white children. Our research shows that a potentially very harmful bias in adults emerges during middle childhood, and appears to develop across childhood,” said the study’s lead investigator, Rebecca Dore, a Ph.D. candidate in developmental psychology at U.Va., at newswise.com. Dore noted that this finding is important "because many kinds of explicit biases emerge in early childhood – such as children wanting to play with friends of their own race – but those types of biases often decline in later childhood." But, she points out, the racial bias in children’s perceptions of others’ pain appears to strengthen from early to late childhood. The researchers found no evidence of a racial bias among their study participants at the age of five, but the bias began showing up among participants at the age o...

Two new depressing studies: racism may make you die sooner, and kids who move out of their poverty-stricken neighborhoods and upwards don't fare as well, healthwise, as kids who don't. Maybe the Jeffersons shouldn't have moved on up. latina.com reports that, " According to  Fusion , medical studies have shown that racial bias can lead to chronic stress problems for the victim, which can lead to a change in how our brains function and respond to germs."  In addition, reports have found that racism can also bring on anxiety, depression and cardiovascular health issues. It's long been known that Hispanics and blacks have more health complications, and shorter lives, than Caucasians.  Theories abound but again, it's most likely the chronic stress that many live under. On the same sad subject, Gregory E. Miller, Edith Chen and Gene H. Brody write that upward mobility may cause some to slide backwards.  In The New York Times, they say, " Those who...

I've been thinking a lot about Trayvon.  But it really didn't hit home until a friend posted on Facebook that she didn't want to have to worry about her two black boys as they grow up. I know those boys.  The older was a friend of my son's when they were younger.  The younger I know only as a baby, and what a beautiful one.  To think of these precious children at risk just because they're boys, and black, stopped my heart for a minute. But that's what all this is really about.  The stigma and dread black boys and men live with every day of their lives.  As President Obama said yesterday, he, too, has been followed in department stores and heard locks click on cars when he was walking by. How can you live this way?  Yet we expect members of the black race to endure this, no, expect this, when they go out into the world.  President Obama also gave voice to the fact that very often, it's black men who are committing the crimes.  But how e...