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- Title
PUBLIC HEALTH CRITICAL RACE PRAXIS: AN INTRODUCTION, AN INTERVENTION, AND THREE POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION.
- Authors
FORD, CHANDRA L.
- Abstract
The field of Public Health has a progressive history of working with vulnerable communities to promote the health of all their residents, but it also has a complicated and problematic relationship to race. Its roles in racializing populations and disease as well as promoting scientific racism are well documented. At the same time, anti-racism resistance has always operated within the field, challenging it and influencing the contributions Public Health makes to society. The field appears ready for a new anti-racism movement. Researchers increasingly draw on the tools available to them within this multidisciplinary field to conduct studies that might explain and challenge the fundamental ways in which racial stratification contributes to health inequities. Some health interventionists focus their efforts on helping communities raise racial consciousness or build community capacity to challenge racialized power differentials. All of these efforts occur within a context where the need for an anti-racism movement is palpable within and beyond the field. In this essay, I explore ongoing anti-racism efforts within the field of Public Health. I briefly introduce the Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP), which is an iterative, empirical approach that while grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) is designed for Public Health research, and I discuss its potential to help advance an anti-racism health equity movement. I conclude with three key points for consideration, which are relevant both to the expansion of critical race empiricism within Public Health and to the potential of PHCRP to inform CRT more broadly. The first consideration reflects my concern that expanded uptake of PHCRP maintain fidelity to CRT, even though it must adapt to the needs of Public Health. The second consideration is a simple question: is the purpose of critical race empiricism merely to document? If so, what are the implications of this? The third consideration, which pertains to the critical race concept of voice as it is relevant to Public Health, highlights the need for those of us in Public Health to engage in dynamic de-centering within and outside the academy to reduce the possibility of privileging our perspectives over those of the communities within which and for which we work.
- Subjects
PUBLIC health laws; HEALTH promotion; RACISM laws; ANTI-racism; CRITICAL race theory
- Publication
Wisconsin Law Review, 2016, Vol 2016, Issue 3, p477
- ISSN
0043-650X
- Publication type
Essay