John Yang:
In 2013, the National Football League agreed to a landmark settlement to compensate former players who suffered brain injuries. When Henry applied and took a neurological exam, he was rejected.
In a lawsuit, Henry said it was because the raw exam results were adjusted to account for race, a practice called race-norming. Scientists say race-norming was intended primarily to prevent healthy African Americans and members of other socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups from being mistakenly classified as having brain disorders because of those social factors.
It was relatively commonplace for decades, but now is increasingly being reexamined. Based on psychological research, scientists say, it establishes a lower cognitive baseline for Blacks than for whites. As a consequence, to qualify for compensation, Black players have to perform worse on cognitive tests than white players.