Racial Bias and Offensive Study

Hey, someone needed to make it public. So I did in support of my sister and all African American women. 

Hi, I wanted to bring to your attention the racism and bias that I believe a portion of your research is encouraging. 

Under the Choline guide it has a study titled: Micronutrient Intake Is Inadequate for a Sample of Pregnant African-American Women - 2017

I am strongly encouraging that this be removed because no other race has studies specifically on them. Why the African American woman? From Henrietta Lacks to the Tuskegee Airmen the African American community has been manipulated to participate in studies that produce results that show them as inadequate. So again, what is the reasoning for this on your site? Is the African American woman who you are solely marketing to? I don't think so. Unless, you are going to include studies that state the Indian American, European American, Asian American, or Hispanic American woman simply remove the study. For far too long any data associated with the African American community portrays inadequacy or inferiority, which we all know to be extremely false and again racist. 

Racism involves being in a position of power that allows one to exert control of thought through perception by alluding to the fact that another race or culture is inferior. In Ritual's case this would be for financial gain. There is another research study by the same researcher that is titled: Longitudinal assessment of micronutrient intake among African-American and white girls: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study.

I see a very big problem with this information and this researcher. I need the following to take place:

1. This email needs to be forwarded to the founders and senior level executives of Ritual, immediately.

2. The research article needs to removed immediately.

3. I need to be contacted by someone at the management level to explain why they felt as though having such information on their site was appropriate. In addition since Choline is connected to the Brain and Central Nervous System is Ritual alluding that African American women and children are mentally inadequate?

4. Is there a diversity department with Ritual? Is there a single African American doctor that is apart of the founders of Ritual? I don't see anyone and that is problematic. There needs to be a diversity department headed by an African American doctor within the Ritual senior executive level.

5. I will be sending out this exact email along with both articles to highlight the hidden racism in the researcher and the negligence of the company.

When words such as inadequate and African American are used in the same sentence there is an issue. Even bigger is the fact that no one on the Ritual staff viewed that article as problematic. I look forward to hearing from someone. My deepest desire is that a real look is taken at the company and you may have won people over with your marketing, but it is time for the African American to be identified properly. There is no other evidence based research on any other race on your site. I am tired of the African American woman being used and abused by companies who simply know how to do good marketing. I am glad I dug deeper and I plead with the women copied to this email to share Ritual's lackluster way of providing research to their consumers. Choose your researchers more wisely next time, and fire whomever thought that article was acceptable. Stop the disrespect.

In addition, I sent my initial e-mail on April 8, 2019, and due to no response and the article is still up I realize I needed to escalate further because maybe my request was not clear. Hopefully, we can get this study removed and move forward. If not, shame on you and someone needs to make sure this bias is public knowledge.

Mrs. Elizabeth Clyde