Challenging Assumptions about Well-Being in Black Communities - with Dr. Yasser Payne

Dr. Yasser Arafat Payne is a full Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Dr. Payne completed his doctoral work at the Graduate Center-City University of New York where he was trained as a social-personality psychologist. Also, Dr. Payne completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH-NIDA) whereby he worked on a re-entry, and intervention-based research project in New York City’s largest jail, Rikers Island—a project designed to reduce: (1) recidivism, (2) drug use, and (3) other risky behavior leading to HIV/AIDS. Dr. Payne's latest Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR) project is entitled: The People's Report: The Link between Structural Violence and Crime in Wilmington, Delaware. This community-based study trained fifteen people (20-48) formerly involved with The Streets and/or the criminal justice system as participatory action researchers to empirically document the impact of community violence in the Eastside and Southbridge neighborhoods of Wilmington, Delaware. This research indicated that, particularly in the black community, there are several incorrect assumptions about Dr. Payne and Dr. Daniels will discuss that there is diversity in our perceptions of well-being; thus, assumptions about what “feels safe” need to be challenged. Feelings about safety and well-being can differ based on the person and community they are part of.