Dr. Tyson Brown, Duke University, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Director of the Center on Health & Society
Title of Talk: Structural Racism and Health Stratification in the U.S.: Connecting Theory to Measurement
Abstract:
Despite the centrality of structural explanations for understanding racialized inequality, less than one percent of studies on the link between race and health have focused on structural racism. Moreover, there has often been a disconnect between the conceptualization of structural racism in the race theory literature and the measurement strategies used in population health research. This study advances the field by 1) synthesizing literatures on macro-level structural racism and population health to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the links between them, 2) measuring macro-level structural racism in U.S. states across multiple domains, including political participation, education, economics, housing, and the judicial system, and 3) quantifying the effects of structural racism on multiple health outcomes among middle-aged and older Blacks and Whites. We use administrative data measuring state-level racial stratification linked to geocoded individual-level demographic and health data from the HRS and BRFSS. Results show that structural racism is associated with worse health for Blacks but not Whites. By distilling the central tenets of structural racism theories and concretizing them in a way that improves our ability to measure structural racism, this study demonstrates the utility of macro-level approaches to understanding the deleterious impact of racism on health.
A reminder that all participants need to register in order to participate in the fall seminar series. The link to the registration is here: https://osu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwqc-6hqj8pHNNLvJoQiEIkYeLs8tuoakuR
