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ON STICKS AND STONES AND BROKEN BONES

Stereotypes and African American Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2011

Naa Oyo A. Kwate  and
Ilan H. Meyer
Naa Oyo A. Kwate*
Affiliation:
Departments of Human Ecology and Africana Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Ilan H. Meyer
Affiliation:
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
*
Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Department of Human Ecology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 55 Dudley Road, Cook Office Building, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520. E-mail: nokwate@rci.rutgers.edu
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Abstract

Deeply embedded in everyday discourse, social interactions, and institutional practices, racism negatively affects the health and well-being of Black people in the United States. Theory and empirical research on the impact of racism on health have focused on stressful events and individual perceptions of racism, although racism is not expressed only as racist acts. Racism subordinates people and diminishes their importance; stereotyping is one of the most insidious forms of such subordination. The stereotypes that underlie social discourse about race influence how others perceive Black people and, to some extent, how Black people perceive themselves. Thus stereotypes help maintain and promote racism. Despite the importance of stereotypes in understanding racism and its effects on Black people, little attention has been paid to the impact of stereotypes on health. This paper explores the adverse effects of stereotypes on African American health, focusing on the psychological and structural pathways through which stereotyping operates. Psychological pathways are salient for these reasons: stereotyping constitutes a form of racism that may be experienced vicariously; stereotypes induce vigilance and rumination as people caricatured by them anticipate their use and spend time trying to disconfirm them; stereotypes may be internalized. Structural pathways occur because stereotypes that portray Black people as deviant, undeserving, and ultimately less human negatively affect opportunity structures and physical environments.

Keywords

RacismDiscriminationStereotypesBlackAfrican AmericanHealth
Type
Unpacking Racism and its Health Consequences
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 8 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Racial Inequality and Health , Spring 2011 , pp. 191 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2011

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