In 2019, an APHA Press publication named racism a public health problem and spotlighted its continuing influence on U.S. institutions and health policy.
The new second edition of “Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional” — now available — explores ways to solve racism through a process focused on equity.
In the more than five years since the popular first edition, America has endured a pandemic that drew attention to health inequities for people of color and experienced the rise of social justice movements following the police murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. The new edition, published in October, brings insights and context while offering strategies to reduce the physical and mental health impacts of racism.
The 524-page book takes a close look at how racism impacts the health and well-being of racial and ethnic minority populations and serves as a tool to address racism, according to co-editor Chandra Ford, PhD, MPH, MLIS. Leading scholars in the field share tools and recommendations that professionals can use in work settings and communities.
From left, Derek Griffith and Chandra Ford meet fans and sign the APHA Press book “Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional, 2nd edition” at APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo in Minneapolis in October
Photo by Michele Late
The book acknowledges that the playing field is not level when it comes to health and opportunity. Structural racism often conveys advantages to white people while discriminating against people of other races and ethnicities, the editors note.
Ignoring the impact of structural racism “limits people’s ability to consider why (racism) persists over time and space,” Derek Griffith, PhD, co-editor of the book, told The Nation’s Health. “It limits the ability to understand what the factors are and forces us to look at (racism) through a much more limited lens of individual motivation, behavior and attitudes.”
Griffith, a professor of health equity at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, co-authored a chapter that explores the historical and legal context for the recent surge of policies restricting discussions of race and racism in schools, which suggest structural racism does not exist.
The denial refuses to “recognize how the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and other ways in which existing structures and norms worked to subordinate racially minoritized people,” Griffith and co-authors write.
While some gains in health equity and diversity work were made during the Biden administration, the Trump administration has quickly dialed them back. Executive orders have ended federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and fired staff who work on the issues.
The rollback included reversing President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark executive order to prevent discrimination among government employees and broaden racial equity. Some major U.S. corporations have pulled back or ended their DEI programs, including Target, Google, Meta and Amazon.
The speed and ferocity of the Trump administration’s actions caught some off guard, but Ford said the actions were predictable.
“People miscalculated how strong the resistance was going to be,” she told The Nation’s Health. “But you should not be surprised that people are pushing back.”
The APHA Press book also offers a reminder that the ability to sustain effective advocacy against racism also means taking care of personal mental and physical health.
“You are not alone,” said Ford, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “We do have resources, we do have options, we do have strategies. There are people that you can turn to, groups you can turn to to realize the vision you have for what America needs to be.”
For more information on “Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional,2nd edition,” which is also available as an e-book, visit www.aphabookstore.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
