April 5, 2018
Margaret Hicken’s work on the link between constant vigilance & obesity was featured in the Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily profiled Margaret Hicken‘s study on the effects of constant vigilance on black women’s health. Hicken defines vigilance as the constant stress of worry, “That burden of not being seen as an individual but being just seen as a member of your race & I argue that that results in people of those marginalized groups, like Black Americans, having to be careful about what they say, be careful about how they dress and appear, and take care of where they go and how they socialize, and just kind of prepare themselves on a daily basis for things that might or might not happen.”
The profile, University researcher links obesity to individual effects of discrimination, is available online.
The study, The weight of racism: Vigilance and racial inequalities in weight-related measures, was published in Social Science & Medicine.