CHAPTER TWELVE: HEALTH
INEQUALITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL
RACISM, AND ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE
BY TANYA MARIA GOLASH-BOZA
HEALTH DISPARITIES BY RACE ARE
NOTHING NEW
Involuntary experimentation occurred on
African Americans. The research included
gynecology and even radiation. Some of
the radiation experiments happened after
the Nuremberg code (regulations on
experiments using persons as test
subjects).
Dr. James Marion
Sims carried out
horrific
operations on
enslaved women
such as Anarcha,
pictured here,
without their
consent.
HEALTH DISPARITIES BY RACE ARE NOTHING NEW
-The label “insane” was given to many free blacks to
make it appear that they were better off as slaves.
Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness
described by American physician Samuel A.
Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee
captivity
-Sterilization racism impacted many groups.
HEALTH DISPARITIES TODAY
For many groups, a higher level of wealth means higher
levels of health but not for African Americans as a
group—even with higher levels of income and
education.
African American women experience giving birth to lowbirth-weight babies and also experience higher levels
of post-partum depression than whites. African
Americans as a community experience higher rates of
disease and shorter life spans of their members.
LOW BIRTH WEIGHT AMONG MOTHERS 20 YEARS OF AGE
OR OLDER, BY RACE/ETHNICITY AND EDUCATION OF MOTHER,
2008
EXPLANATIONS FOR HEALTH INEQUALITIES
-Segregation and health—limits to
available choices for healthy living
-Experiences of individual racism—
stressors cause wear and tear on the body
Residents of East
Harlem shop at a
newly opened
grocery store.
Availability of
healthy food is one
way that
segregation can
affect health
outcomes such as
the prevalence of
diabetes and
obesity.
AGE-ADJUSTED DEATH RATE BY
RACE/ETHNICITY, 2009
EXPLANATIONS FOR HEALTH INEQUALITIES
Life Course Perspectives
-Cumulative disadvantage
-Weathering perspectives due to
“sustained stressors” across time
EXPLANATIONS FOR HEALTH INEQUALITIES
-Structural violence—larger systemic oppression
-Environmental racism—unhealthy environments
caused by industrial pollution and lack of
amenities that disproportionately locate in
communities of color
PERCENTAGES OF PEOPLE OF COLOR LIVING IN
NEIGHBORHOODS WITH AND WITHOUT TOXIC WASTE
FACILITIES, IN STATES WITH THE LARGEST DISCREPANCIES,
2007
CULTURE AND HEALTH
Hispanic Paradox—Latino immigrants have
better health upon arrival and then it
disintegrates over time when living in the
United States
Acculturation—is associated with good
health, but also bad health in terms of the
discrimination and racism in U.S. society
GENETICS
Some recent studies assert that certain
medications are targeted to certain racial
groups. However, the real reason that
medications may work is not on a racial
basis, but on some other characteristic.
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AND HEALTH
Environmental injustices span a range of issues:
-The destruction of a community’s land and water by
corporate siting of polluting industries and landfills
-Lead paint contamination in older homes
-Air pollution’s contribution to children’s asthma
-Hunting and fishing rights of Native communities
-Lack of community infrastructure
-Pesticide usage in agriculture
Residents of Hyde Park
near Augusta, Georgia,
faced a long struggle
for environmental
justice as factories and
junkyards polluted their
community.
CONCLUSION
Racialized health disparities are an important topic
to analyze.
Racism of different kinds must be included in the
discussion of health disparities.
Environmental racism is another form of racism that
has a deep impact.
Communities of color have worked to fight
environmental racism through environmental
justice organizing.