Week 3_1 Race, Ethnicity, and Racism Flashcards
DuBois Contribution to race and health? (Book)
The Philadelphia Negro (1899)
foundational book on Black-White differences in health in the U.S.
DuBois Contribution to race and health? (Content)
Rejected biological determinism
Biological determinism posited that differences in mortality and morbidity were attributable to biological inferiority
instead, explanations were living conditions,
dwellings, poor sanitation, jobs, and food… (in
addition to “neglect to take medical advice” and
“ignorance of laws of health”)
Foundational book on Black-White differences in health in
the U.S. “The Philadelphia Negro”
Williams and Sternthal (2010)
4 contributions of sociologists to the study of health and race
- Problematized the biological understanding of race
- Emphasized the primacy of social structure and context
- Contributed to understanding multiple ways in which
racism affects health - (Enhanced understanding in which migration history and
status can affect health)
Williams and Sternthal (2010)
1. Problematized the biological understanding of race
- “Race is not objective, but it is also
not an illusion.” - Socially-meaningful, categorical,
fundamental construct - Racial classification systems are
largely arbitrary and evolved from
systems of stratification, power, and
ideology
State-Imposed Classification System
Visible Minority: “Persons,
other than Aboriginal peoples,
who are non-Caucasian in race
or non-white in colour”
The visible minority population
consists mainly of the following
groups: South Asian, Chinese,
Black, Filipino, Latin American,
Arab, Southeast Asian, West
Asian, Korean and Japanese.”
What are the two senses in which race becomes biology?
1 our broader environments affect how our genes function
-especially related to stress levels
-social reality of race and racism have biological consequences
2 racial inequalities in health reinforce public understanding of race as biology
-social inequalities shape the biology of racialized groups, and embodied
inequalities perpetuate a racialized view of human biology
Weathering Theory
(Geronimus 1992)
Allostatic load – “wear and
tear on the body” (McEwen
& Stellar 1993), the
cumulative, biological toll of chronic stress
- Measured using biomarkers
for blood pressure,
cholesterol, triglycerides,
creatine, C-reactive protein, amino acids. - Related to the body’s ability to regulate and stabilize
internal (primarily in the
brain) responses to stimuli
Williams and Sternthal (2010)
how can we make sense of race and health with the help of SES and FCT?
1 SES as fundamental cause
multiple dimensions
* 4 metamechanisms
* Persistent across time
2 Racial gaps in wealth &
savings, occupational
hazards, neighborhood
exposures – all
sociohistorical byproducts of inequality
Williams and Sternthal (2010)
- Contributed to understanding multiple ways in which
racism affects health
Racism is a multilevel system premised on
the categorization and ranking of social
groups that then devalues,
disempowers, and differentially
allocates resources and opportunities,
based on an ideology of inferiority of one
or more groups
(Williams and
Mohammed 2014)
What are the mechanisms between
racism and health?
(Williams and Mohammed 2014)
INSTITUTIONAL
RACISM
Policies and procedures
that have reduced
access to resources
(e.g., segregation,
incarceration)
CULTURAL
RACISM
Negative prejudices
and stereotypes that
shape policy and
discrimination
EXPERIENCES OF
DISCRIMINATION
Psychosocial stressor
à adverse changes in
health status and
health behavior
Racism as a fundemntal cause
Venn Diagram
*systemic racism combines the above 3
-through multiple replaceable mechanisms effects racial differences in flexible resources (independent of SES) and flexible resources and racial differences in socioeconomic status
-dont completely overlap, so its not all SES, race does act as fundamental cause -then through multiple replaceable mechanisms race creates differences in health
