NIH Gives Public University $5 Mil to Study if its Racial Equity Consciousness Institute Works

A public university in Pennsylvania is getting $5 million from American taxpayers to research the effectiveness of a special center it launched in 2021 to address systemic racism. It is called the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute (RECI) and its founders at the University of Pittsburgh claim it is essential because “systemic racism is an endemic public health crisis in the United States that has a profoundly negative impact on the mental and physical health of millions of people—focally, people of color.” Furthermore, racism is a “social virus” that metastasizes through a web of systems that sustains a reinforcing preponderance of racial inequities across multiple sectors of society, according to RECI.

Since it was launched by Ron Idoko, who previously worked at the school’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, RECI has worked to eradicate systemic racism by developing a critical understanding of the complex and pervasive ways it operates and establishing strategies to foster racial equity. The institute claims to teach individuals about the racial equity consciousness framework by using narrative guides, videos, articles, open discussion and collaborative activities. To develop racial equity consciousness the institute teaches how to recognize racial oppression and advance racial liberation, examine racial identities and address racial biases, embrace racial diversity, and grow racial literacy, build racial empathy, and enhance racial stamina, acknowledge racial trauma, and foster racial healing, and gauge racial inequities and champion racial justice. This helps recognize histories and impacts of racial inequity, embraces the inclusion of all racial identity groups, builds compassionate connections across racial differences, and acknowledges emotional, mental, and physical impacts of racial oppression, among other things.

The institute uses “structured cognitive behavioral training” (SCBT) to address and determine thoughts, feelings and behaviors toward racial equity and justice. This is described as an instructional, process-oriented derivative of cognitive behavioral therapy that provides an empowering tool and approach to consciously address and assert one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward racial equity and justice. The program is designed to help individuals and communities actively develop and embody distinct cognitive behavioral traits toward racial equity through structured learning and practice. “Learners” are encouraged to reflect on and address systemic factors that contribute to racial disparities and develop systemic processes toward racial equity. “Through this approach, we can understand how to take the transformation within ourselves and bring it into a world of structures and systems, transforming them in the process,” according to the RECI website. “Thus, every person committed to antiracism becomes a source of positive change that radiates out into the world.”

Sounds fantastic but there is no concrete evidence that it is working. The research funded by the NIH will focus on identifying the effectiveness of RECI training as well as other bias drills on diversity and attitudes that perpetuate systemic racism in healthcare outcomes, especially among marginalized communities. Outcomes of the intervention will be measured through questionnaires and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that looks for structural brain changes before and after the program. The randomized trial will involve participants from over two dozen schools. One of the University of Pittsburgh researchers says she is excited about the possibility of generating evidence of the effectiveness of RECI because so far, the center relies on people claiming it has changed their life. The institute’s founder claims he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from hundreds of participants and has also seen behavioral changes firsthand, but again, no material evidence.

So, Uncle Sam will dole out millions to see if the institute actually helps combat the public health crisis of systemic racism. “These inequities are perpetuated through normative, and often unconscious, biases and behaviors,” the Pittsburgh researchers write in their NIH grant document. “In recent years, academic institutions have devised new policies and initiatives to promote inclusive excellence, and in doing so have put a greater burden on underrepresented (UR) faculty to lead these efforts. Yet, many UR faculty are continuing to disproportionately leave the academy, indicating that academic institutions have not succeeded in their goal of dismantling systemic inequities and making academia more inclusive.”