Addressing Structural Racism, Bias, and Health Communication as Foundational Drivers of Obesity Proceedings of a Workshop Series (2022) / Chapter Skim
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3 The Intersection of Structural Racism and Obesity
3 The Intersection of Structural Racism and Obesity
Pages 15-24
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From page 15... ...
• Opportunities to reduce housing disparities include improving housing affordability for people of color, providing people of color with thriving wages, investing in underresourced com munities based on residents' intentionally solicited input on how best to make such investments, and forming cross-sector partnerships to facilitate health equity in housing and com munities. (Thorpe)
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From page 16... ...
Silvera explained two lenses through which she views issues of structural inequality: large "P" policy, which includes broad federal, state, and local laws that may or may not be specific to health (e.g., voting rights, housing, education, and health care) ; and small "p" policy, which includes organizational practices and policies that influence human behaviors, as well as large "P" policy, through funding availability, enforcement, intention, and equitability of policy application.
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From page 17... ...
Other times we need racial data to confirm something we already seem to know."1 From Thorpe's perspective, this quote inspires conversation about the broader systems that influence reality and also highlights that sometimes sufficient data exist to confirm a problem, which in turn propels action toward solutions. Thorpe described pathways through which housing discrimination operates and through which structural racism influences housing disparities.
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From page 18... ...
Not only does racial segregation lead to differential environmental and social risk exposures that exist within a long-standing system of structural racism, but other discriminatory practices, such as redlining, have perpetuated housing disparities. Thorpe highlighted the Homeowners Loan Act of 1933, whose objective was to help refinance nonfarm home mortgages at risk of foreclosure.
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From page 19... ...
He ended his presentation by listing four opportunities for achieving greater equity in health and health care for vulnerable populations, with an emphasis on reducing housing disparities. The first is improving housing affordability for people of color, perhaps through zero-interest loans.
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was a turning point, according to Navarro, because the Supreme Court ruled that district courts can use three powerful tools to influence school district policies: (1) racial quotas can be used as a starting point for the development of integration plans; (2)
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This was the first time a plaintiff had attempted to link segregation with housing policies, he pointed out, and the district court agreed that policies influencing geographic and residential housing patterns had contributed to school segregation. The district court ordered Detroit schools and 53 adjacent suburban school districts to desegregate, Navarro said, which was realistically achievable only by busing suburban children into the city and vice versa because of the way housing patterns had developed.
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From page 22... ...
The Supreme Court agreed that because the school district had complied with the original desegregation plan and the vestiges of de jure segregation had been removed, schools did not need to continue with court-mandated desegregation plans. According to Navarro, the ruling effectively communicated that school segregation based on racialized housing patterns was legal.
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From page 23... ...
These conditions were initially bolstered by Jim Crow–era policies, he added, and have been fueled more recently by policies that privilege private capital, private development, and urban renewal programs that he asserted are aimed at affluent populations and seek to protect White sensibilities regarding "who gets to live where." Finally, Navarro shared his belief that school reform alone is a dead end. He contended that such programs as schools of choice, voucher programs, and charter schools fail to address the root problem, characterizing them as conservative, "pseudo free market approaches" to public education.
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From page 24... ...
In terms of obesity solutions, he mentioned building grocery stores in food deserts as a way to both address food insecurity and provide employment for community residents, as well as using government or corporate capital to fund schools in establishing urban gardens that can be used to teach students while producing fresh produce for the community. Silvera underscored her belief that all policy is health policy given the multisectoral influences on health, and that all politics are local, which is the level at which she said policy has a direct impact on individuals and communities.
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