Racism may harm your health

A new study by Rice University finds 18% of blacks and 4% of whites report emotional and/or physical distress due to racial discrimination.


Unlike most of the research on this topic, Bratter and co-author and sociologist Bridget Gorman’s study examines the health risks of discrimination among both whites and blacks, as opposed to just blacks.

“This racially comparative focus is important because we examine whether discrimination is equally harmful to the health status of black and white adults—or whether experiencing discrimination is disproportionately harmful to either black or white adults,” Gorman says.Their analysis was based on data from the 2004 wave of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an ongoing collaborative project between U.S. states and territories and the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“For example, since, on average, black adults typically experience more health risks in their social and personal environment than white adults (including higher poverty and lower-quality medical insurance), they may be especially vulnerable to negative health effects as a result of racial discrimination.”

A greater number of blacks report poor health due to discrimination, and the study did find that black-white disparities in health are shaped in part by the differential exposure of blacks to the harmful effects of discrimination.