Anti-Racism Resources - April 2025
[Image description: On an aqua to lime green gradient background is an illustration of three raised fists signifying people of color. Above the main image is the text “Anti-Racism Resources April 2025” and below is the text “The Intersections of Race & Aging.]
Each month, we feature educational resources in the NAAFA Newsletter to support our community in working to dismantle systemic racism. These resources are also shared on our social media, blog, and website. Resources vary from month to month, and may include historical information, tools for personal reflection, or information about how to get involved and make change. Many of the resources we suggest will be introductory resources, and this information is never intended to be full coverage on the complex and nuanced topics that are chosen each month. We encourage you to continue learning, and we especially hope you will seek out and support scholars, artists, creators, and activists who represent the communities most impacted by the topic of the month.
This month we invite you to join us in exploring resources about the Intersections of Race and Aging.
Aging While Black: The Crisis Among Black Americans as They Grow Old - This article addresses the numerous health and income disparities between Black Americans and white counterparts, showing how this increasingly impacts outcomes for elder Black folks, especially Black women.
To these Black retirees, federal civil service now under attack was a path to middle class - Federal service has been a path to the middle class and comfortable retirements for many Black professionals who have otherwise been denied access to good jobs and generational wealth. Recent attacks on the government workers will have many terrible consequences, including decreasing opportunities for workers of color to access jobs with pensions and other benefits that can keep them safe and healthy while aging.
How Racism Might Be Accelerating Aging and Menopause - This episode of Scientific American’s “Science Quickly” podcast makes a distinction between general aging and “weathering,” the way that chronic stress (in particular from racism) wears down the body. The episode also discusses how racism promotes all the other disparities in health and aging.
How poverty and racism 'weather' the body, accelerating aging and disease - The source of the term “weathering” (public health researcher Arline Geronimus) - explaining how Black people and other People of Color and those living in poverty have worse health outcomes and accelerated aging.
Understanding Intersectionality: Exploring the Connection of Ageism, Equity, and Law - There are already so many barriers to legal protections for People of Color and adding aging to the mix just increases the difficulty. This research paper touches on some of those barriers and the lack of good data in aging populations to help create better laws to protect older adults.
House passes bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections - One of the mainstays of democracy is the right to vote. On April 10, 2025, the House of Representatives approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. This act will require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. At a glance you would think this was good. But according to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, it "will make voting more difficult for the most vulnerable populations, including those Black Americans who do not have a passport and Black women who changed their last name and can no longer use their birth certificate or Social Security card to verify their citizenship. The order also disqualifies mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, which could force college students, rural voters, and elderly and disabled voters to vote in-person and face long lines." Passage of the Senate Bill S.128 would codify the systemic discrimination of millions of eligible voters and set us back to before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
