LibGuides: Pharmacy: Resources on Structural Racism

List of Research Articles and Sources on Structural Racism

Structural Racism and Health Inequities
The structural forms of racism and their relationship to health inequities remain under-studied. This article reviews several ways of conceptualizing structural racism, with a focus on social segregation, immigration policy, and intergenerational effects. Studies of disparities should more seriously consider the multiple dimensions of structural racism as fundamental causes of health disparities.The references list is a great list of articles.
How Structural Racism Works — Racist Policies as a Root Cause of U.S. Racial Health Inequities
Article on structural racism and how racist policies affect health inequities among Black Indigenous and People of Color communities.
Black/African-American Health and Anti-Racist Resources
The National Library of Medicine has created a list of resources relating to African-American mental health, anti-racist reading materials, cultural competency, NLM African American and race history, racism in science, and PubMed Central articles about police brutality and African American health.
Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander American Health Information Resources
There are a list of research articles at the bottom of this webpage that concern structural racism and the health and mental health within Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander American communities.

Aspen Institute of Roundtable on Community Change. 2004. "Structural Racism and Community Building." Keith Lawrence, Stacey Sutton, Anne Kubisch, Gretchen Susi, and Karen Fullbright-Anderson, authors. Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute.
A PDF on structural racism history and resources, includes statistics, charts, and other references.

Call to Action: Structural Racism as a Fundamental Driver of Health Disparities: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
An article from the the American Heart Association addressing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk and disparities among racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and the role that structural racism plays as a fundamental cause of poor health and disparities in cardiovascular disease. This presidential advisory reviews the historical context, current state, and potential solutions to address structural racism in the United States.
Covid-19 resources on Health Equity
Demographic data and statistics on states with reported Covid-19 cases, breakdown by race, age, gender, and other resources on health equity.

The Black Mortality Gap and a Document Written in 1910
A New York Times article outlining the Flexner Report and its effects on African Americans within the medical field.

Racial Differences and Disparities in Cancer Care and Outcomes: Where’s the Rub?
An article reviewing black-white differences in cancer outcomes, exploring potential mechanisms underlying these differences, and identifying patient- and health care system-factors that may account for persistent racial disparities in cancer care.
American Medical Association's search for Health equity articles
American Medical Association has open-access articles on health equity topics.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care: Historical and Contemporary Issues
A conference on the racial disparities exploring the historical and contemporary issues in health inequity. W. Michael Byrd, Director, Institute for Optimizing Health and Health Care Inc.; Health Policy Researcher, Harvard School of Public Health; Health Policy Instructor, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School; Adjunct Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Meharry Medical College

Linda A. Clayton, Co-Director, Institute for Optimizing Health and Health Care Inc.; Health Policy Researcher, Harvard School of Public Health; Health Policy Instructor, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School; Adjunct Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Meharry Medical College.

Resources on Search Terms and Definitions

Possible Search Terms:
United States policy / policies
health equity
legal epidemiology

11 terms you should know to better understand structural racism

Key Concepts and Definitions in understanding science and perception: Recent research in psychology, neuroscience, and the social sciences has made huge strides in understanding how automatic processes in the brain shape our perceptions, our actions and our decision-making. Research also gives us insights into how we can override our biases to bring them more in line with our conscious values.

Racial Equity Tools
A list of articles and important keywords to use (if you scroll to the bottom of the page) when searching for resources on Structural Racism and Racial Equity.

Structural Racism in Law Resources

Developing a Database of Structural Racism–Related State Laws for Health Equity Research and Practice in the United States
Article in which authors are in the process of creating a database providing comprehensive, detailed data on structural racism–related state laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia over time. The database will provide public health researchers, social scientists, policy makers, and advocates with rigorous evidence to assess states’ racial equity climates and evaluate and address their effect on racial/ethnic health inequities in the United States. The article has a list of research articles and tables and charts.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
A selection of 410 oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Structural Racism in Employment Resources

Human Rights The Impact of Structural Racism in Employment and Wages on Minority Women’s Health
An article on structural racism and the impact of employment and wages on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) women.
Structural Racism in the workplace: Does perception matter for health inequalities?
Structural racism has been linked to racial health inequalities and may operate through an unequal labor market that results in inequalities in psychosocial workplace environments (PWE). This article analyzes experiences of the PWE that may be a critical but understudied source of racial health disparities as most adults spend a large portion of their lives in the workplace, and work-related stress affects health outcomes.

Keywords and Search Terms to use:
Structural Racism AND employ* OR job* OR work*

work* = work, workplace, working-class, work-related stress
employ* = employed, employee, employer, employment, etc
job* = job, jobs, job-related stress, etc

Feel free to choose different/specific variations in your searches. The truncation allows for multiple variations to come up but sometimes you might want a specific term to come up in your search results.

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey
The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, persons not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics.

Structural Racism in Education Resources

Integrating Ole Miss: A Civil Rights Milestone
JFK Presidential Library presents a series of primary source materials relating to the 1962 integration of University of Mississippi.
Booker T. Washington Resources
The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Booker T. Washington, including manuscripts, photographs, and books. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to Booker T. Washington that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on Booker T. Washington and a bibliography containing selected works for both general and younger readers.
Brown vs. Board of Education Archive
This archive contains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present. The archive is divided into four main areas of interest: Supreme Court cases; busing and school integration efforts in northern urban areas; school integration in the Ann Arbor Public School District; and recent resegregation trends in American schools.

structural racism AND
educat* OR school* OR universit*

Structural Racism in Housing/HomeOwnership

Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
Mapping Inequality offers a window into the New Deal era housing policies that helped set the course for contemporary America. This project provides visitors with a new view, and perhaps even a new language, for describing the relationship between wealth and poverty in America.

Census Bureau's Residential Vacancies and Home Ownership Statistics,second quarter 2021
The Census Bureau provides current statistics on residential vacancies and home ownership for the second quarter of 2021.

Closing the African American Homeownership Gap
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development published an article discussing the state of African American Home ownership in the U.S.
[This original article has been removed by the US government and has been replaced with a George Washington University article on the same subject]

Key Words and Search Terms:

redlining
blockbusting
racial steering
structural racism

Structural Racism in Environmental Exposure to Pollution

The Flint Water Crisis, KWA and Strategic-Structural Racism, 2016. Peter J. Hammer, author.
Article discussing the role of structural and strategic racism in the Flint Water Crisis of 2014-2019.

Examining the Impact of Structural Racism on Food Insecurity: Implications for Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities
An article addressing the impact of structural racism on access to adequate and safe food sources.
Environmental Health Perspectives
Federal environmental organization that publishes articles relating to new studies; searching for articles on structural racism and/or air pollution for minority populations.

structural racism AND
air pollution OR environ* OR asthma OR water pollut*

Structural Racism in Incarceration/Criminal Justice

13th Documentary
Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay highlighting the criminalization of African Americans and the racism and injustice within the U.S. prison system. Now also available for free viewing on YouTube.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI website provides access to annual crime data statistics.
Prison Policy Initiative
The Prison Policy Initiative's research and advocacy is at the center of the national conversation about criminal justice reform and over-criminalization. Because essential national and state level data is often completely inaccessible, the Prison Policy Initiative's insightful data analysis and powerful graphics help fill these gaps to bring in new supporters and help other movement leaders achieve their goals.
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project promotes effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice.

structural racism or racial disparities AND
criminal justice or incarceration or capital punishment or prosecution or discrimination

Structural Racism in Medical Research

Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Impact of Racism on our Nation's Health
Resources and articles on the CDC's website on various topics of structural racism and health equity.
The Tuskegee Experiment Timeline
The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control Timeline on the Public Health Service Syphilis Study at the Tuskegee Institute.
National Archives and Records Administration's primary sources on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Administration Records
A collection of digitized primary sources from the National Archives and Records Administration on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, an ethically abusive study conducted by the Tuskegee Institute and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Public Health Service overy 40 years between 1932 and 1972. In the study, 600African American men (399 with latent syphilis and 201 without as the control group) were promised free medical care to treat "bad blood" but were not given treatment despite penicillin being widely available by 1943. The purpose of the study was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis.
Honoring Henrietta: The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks
Johns Hopkins' webpage outlining the medical significance and bio ethical issues concerning the use of Henrietta Lacks' cells to advance medical research. The story portrayed in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks points to several important bioethical issues, including informed consent, medical records privacy, and communication with tissue donors and research participants.

Keywords to use/Search Terms:

health equity
structural racism
health disparities
medical research
medicine
health inequities

Remember: Putting * will bring up variations of that word. Health disparit* = health disparity, health disparities etc

Projects - Class of 2023

The Well-Being of Pharmacy Students
Team 5a project.