Dismantling “race” in health research
Date
2022
Authors
Dordunoo, Dzifa
Abernethy, Paivi
Kayuni, Jenipher
McConkey, Stephanie
Aviles-G, Martha L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Journal of Nursing Research
Abstract
In this era of confronting racism in public space, it is critical to keep addressing the covert systemic racism in the healthcare system. We want to bring attention to the continued unscientific practice of race-based medicine and the absurdity of treating race as a biological indicator in the 21st century. We believe race is a social construct that does not qualify as a scientific biological indicator for predicting health outcomes. In this paper, we first present arguments for inappropriate use of race in health research and then discuss alternative explanations for health disparity findings that use race as a predictor. Our main concern centers on two specific aspects of the concept of "race": (1) its fundamental lack of scientific basis as a predictor for health outcomes, (2) the misguided narrative that the term creates, placing the onus of racial discrimination on the victim, instead of highlighting the act of discrimination and the role researchers play in actively reinforcing racism when using "race" as a variable. We conclude by proposing that "race" be replaced by the variable "racism" in health.
Description
Keywords
race, racism, health outcomes, social construct, Centre for Global Studies
Citation
Dordunoo, D., Abernethy, P., Kayuni, J., McConkey, S., & Aviles-G, M. L. (2022). “Dismantling ‘race’ in health research.” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08445621221074849