Racism & Health

White people who visit hospital emergency departments with pain are 26% more likely than Black people to be given opioid pain medications such as morphine. This was a key finding from our recent study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. We also found that Black patients were…

Article discussing how new research shows that although racism might not be the most common type of discrimination, it had the greatest impact on teens. For Black kids, that stress is often caused by racism that comes in school settings: from peers, teachers, or administrators

Racism as a Public Health Crisis Statements (RPHCs) acknowledge the reality that racism must be eradicated to ensure health justice: a fair and just opportunity for all individuals to be healthy. Scholars of critical race theory (CRT) have expressed doubt when it comes to the capacity of law-related…

Article about how the chronic stress of structural racism and discrimination damages brain circuits and mental health.

As a legacy of African enslavement, structural racism affects both population and individual health in three interrelated domains: redlining and racialized residential segregation, mass incarceration and police violence, and unequal medical care. These examples, among others, share certain cardinal…

The social unrest of the past several months highlights the importance of ensuring that science and fact-based objectivity align with the public discourse. A deepening body of literature makes clear the historical association of bias, discrimination, and injustice on Black, indigenous, and people of…

What makes an individual racist? Carl Bell, MD,3 described these individuals having a psychopathological defect/narcissistic personality disorder which allows for dehumanization of others. Other psychiatrists have opined that racism may meet the criteria for a full psychotic…

The history of American psychiatry and the history of Black Americans is the history of slavery and segregation in America for over 200 years, right on through the end of the Civil War; the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which included a provision for equal…

A new review takes a broad look at hows and whys of racism in American society.  

American racism is alive and well. In this essay, we amass a large body of classic and contemporary research across multiple areas of psychology (e.g., cognitive, developmental, social), as well as the broader social sciences (e.g., sociology, communication studies, public policy), and humanities…

5 minute video in which Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation.

Bibliography table of Contents from conference hosted by Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee and Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice.  

Is a psychological diagnosis a useful way to view racism—or does it merely absolve the racist of blame? After looking at the long history of psychology’s approach to racism, Gilman has come to the conclusion that we’ve gone around in circles. “There’s been a lot of discussion lately of ‘baskets…

Dr. Kira Hudson Banks discusses The Psychology of Race.  This video focuses on how an individual may think about race, racial identity or ethnicity based upon conditioning and experiences. Download the Facilitator Guide (http://spr.ly/6184Bn59n) and Participant Booklet…

Defining institutional racism in terms of self-perpetuating barriers to blacks' participation as equals in all areas of psychiatry, the authors review the influence of white racism on the image of the black patient, neglected problem areas, treatment accessibility, community mental health, research,…