Feds Paid Nearly $1.2 Million to Study If Poor Sleep Among People of Color Is Caused by Racism. Thoughts?

[Physics-Man]

From the article:

The National Institutes of Health has issued more than a million dollars via taxpayer-funded medical research grants to find evidence that racism is to blame for poor sleep in minority communities.

The funding was appropriated to Dr. Alexander Tsai, an associate professor at Harvard University who is conducting the research through Massachusetts General Hospital, where he works as a psychiatrist.

The studies are based on the hypothesis that the disparity in sleep health in the black community is “thought to be explained partially by experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination.”

“This application focuses on police use of deadly force on unarmed black Americans as a cardinal manifestation of structural racism,” reads the grant summary in the NIH database. “The central hypothesis is that police use of deadly force on unarmed black Americans leads to unhealthy sleep among other black Americans in the general U. S. population. This hypothesis has been formulated on the basis of strong preliminary data showing that police use of deadly force on unarmed black Americans leads to poor mental health among other black Americans in the general U. S. population.”

NIH awarded $460,656 to Tsai in 2020, $439,970 in 2021, and $273,625 in 2022 for the research project, titled “Racial disparities in police use of deadly force as a cause of racial disparities in sleep health across the life course.”

That totals nearly $1.2 million over three years.

Critics told The Center Square that the research is based on false assumptions and don’t account for other factors.

• https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/feds-paid-nearly-1-2-million-to-study-if-poor-sleep-is-caused-by-racism/article_1e5a53bc-5ac4-11ed-8b57-afa1954c3cb8.html

[normalice]

Well, the fact is that the average black person has less income than the average white person. There are two possible base explanations for this: 1) something is wrong with black people 2) literally anything else.

It is the definition of racism to assume (1) and so it makes sense to explore (2) if we have any intention of doing something about it. And a lack of sleep can certianly result in a bad attitude, poor work ethic, and a short attention span (or at least it does for me) which are the main stereotypes pushed by right wing media. There was briefly a push to "defund the police" but people quickly realized that was the wrong approach. Alternatively, what if we expanded the police by funding crime prevention initiatives? And what if those worked out so well, for cheaper, that we ended up not needing so many police? That's basically what things like this are, after so many steps..

[cth96190]

Look up the published figures on racial differences in intelligence.
The answer will become self evident.
* Herrnstein & Murray (1994) The Bell Curve, Simon & Schuster, New York.

[normalice]

Look up the Dove Couterbalance Intelligence Test. The fact that public schools are underfunded in black neighborhoods is all the explanation needed for disproportionate test results.

[crmoore]

Very ridiculous. We're well passed the "as the government, we're going to take your money whether you like it or not, we're going to use it for things you don't consent to, you're not going to be able to vote to change it, and if you try to do anything else about it, we're going to lock you up" mark. So much for "government is by and for the people."

[purplepoppy]

Complete bollocks, probably just someone lining their own pockets. Poor sleep can be caused by a whole range of cross-race it issues, eg worry about finances, drugs, worrying the police will kick your door in at 4am, neighbour banging his girlfriend at 3am etc. There's umpteen causes to look at first before racism.

[FunnyGiy]

Oh for sure. They waste money on all kinds of things dude. If you seen Rand Paul’s reports. They waste money on even wilder stuff like UFO’s and Bigfoot and Santa Claus. You can’t even make this stuff up.

[AviatorTom]

Typical waste of federal taxpayers' money. Someone at NIH did a great job of writing a request for a useless study, and getting it approved.

[exitseven]

that money could have provided relief for a lot of veterans.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Seems like a viable hypothesis.

Even though there are countless variables for poor sleep and the resulting health problems, so its really hard to pinpoint structural racism as the main factor.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Poor sleep is caused by poverty and illness.

[joeldalton]

seems completely rational and a good use of taxpayer money.

[bean2k21]

I don't know about y'all but I be up late thinking about some white booty

[inhua]

what a waste of money

[cth96190]

Lunacy.

[ArtemisSilver]

🤡 world.

[jimmy2]

That is ridiculous