NIH Awards Close To 4 Million To Two Public Universities In Order To Explore ‘Structural Racism’ And Its Effect on Aging

According to a report by Campus Reform, “The National Institutes of Health or NIH has awarded nearly $4 million” to two public universities to study “the effects of structural racism on cognitive aging.”

Specifically, according to Campus Reform, Michigan State University in Lansing and Rutgers University in New Jersey were awarded $3.7 million in grants from The NIH’s National Institute of Aging.

This is clearly absurd and a waste of spending, and another opportunity to spend taxpayer dollars on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs,  but it is what we have come to expect from the Biden-Harris administration.

Both Rutgers Associate Professor Danielle Beatty Moody and Assistant Professor Richard Sadler will lead the research.

According to a press release from The Rutgers School of Social Work, “The researchers said this examination is essential for developing appropriate strategies to address racial inequities in accelerated aging, particularly in communities where Black Americans live and desire to age in place.”

When asked about the significance of this project Beatty Moody and Sadler shared, “collectively, our work seeks to call out and disentangle the vast array of tools used to entrench structural racism in the neighborhood environment – past, present, and future. One drum we have been beating is that ‘it’s not just redlining and it’s not just segregation.’ The patterns of racist discriminatory practices in the landscape go far deeper and are more insidious than these singular practices. We need to comprehensively document what the full constellation of tools, tactics, and strategies look like in our urban landscapes to better contextualize why racial inequities emerge and persist across numerous health endpoints, for which all Americans ultimately suffer, but for which Black Americans consistently take the largest hits.”

These researchers are expected to study 800 Black and White men and women who live in Baltimore between the ages of 30 to 64.

Baltimore was selected due to its majority Black population.

Both Beatty Moody and Sadler serve in ‘unique’ roles at their respective institutions.

Beatty Moody serves as “Chancellor’s Scholar for Inclusive Excellence in Multilevel Racism and Life Span Health and Aging.”

Her bio states, “Dr. Beatty Moody is a health equity scholar; her expertise is in the study of racism as a key social determinant of accelerated and disparate health inequities in the African American community across the lifespan.”

Sadler is involved “in the recognition of historical processes of discrimination which has exacerbated spatial and health inequalities.