Race, Methodology, and Social Construction in the Genomic Era

Zuberi, Tukufu; Patterson, Evelyn J.; Stewart, Quincy Thomas

doi:10.1177/0002716215589718

Cited by 23 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Despite an increased focused on health disparities in the United States by research and policymakers ( US Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People, 2010 ; Williams and Jackson, 2005 ), the sources of black-white disparities and the ways they might be ameliorated remain poorly understood. Here, we argue that progress toward this goal has been impeded by the problematic tendency among researchers to treat racial self- identification as a proxy for other potentially significant dimensions of race that may drive differences in lived outcomes ( Saperstein, 2013 ; Stewart, 2008 ; Zuberi, Patterson and Stewart, 2015 ), and extend this reasoning to racial health disparities. Moreover, we contend that race is a multidimensional marker of difference that not only includes how individuals describe themselves, but also how they are perceived by others ( Campbell & Troyer, 2007 ; Harris, 2002 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of “race” in health disparities research

Cobb

Thomas

Pirtle

et al. 2016

SSM - Population Health

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Despite a general acceptance of “race” as a social, rather than biological construct in the social sciences, racial health disparities research has given less consideration to the dimensions of race that may be most important for shaping persistent disparities in adult physical health status. In this study, we incorporate the social constructionist view that race is multidimensional to evaluate the health significance of two measures of race, racial self-identification and the socially perceived skin tone of black Americans, in a sample of black and white adults in the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N=1186). First, we use the approach most common in disparities research—comparing group differences in an outcome—to consider self-identified racial differences in allostatic load (AL), a cumulative biological indicator of physical dysregulation. Second, we examine intragroup variations in AL among blacks by skin tone (i.e. light, brown, or dark skin). Third, we assess whether the magnitude of black-white disparities are equal across black skin tone subgroups. Consistent with prior research, we find significantly higher rates of dysregulation among blacks. However, our results also show that racial differences in AL vary by blacks’ skin tone; AL disparities are largest between whites and dark-skinned blacks and smallest between whites and light-skinned blacks. This study highlights the importance of blacks’ skin tone as a marker of socially-assigned race for shaping intragroup and intergroup variations in adult physiological dysregulation. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing multiple dimensions of race in disparities research, as this approach may better capture the various mechanisms by which “race” continues to shape health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of “race” in health disparities research

Cobb

Thomas

Pirtle

et al. 2016

SSM - Population Health

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“…In 2011, for example, mortality data show that a black newborn is 2.3 times more likely to die in the first year of life and 1.5 times more likely to die before the age of 65 than their white counterpart (Arias 2015). Although socioeconomic status (SES) covaries with these disparities in vital functions, the responsible social and biological mechanisms remain poorly understood (Zuberi, Patterson, and Stewart 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

The color of death: race, observed skin tone, and all-cause mortality in the United States

2018

Self Cite

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Objective This paper examines how mortality covaries with observed skin tone among blacks and in relation to whites. Additionally, the study analyzes the extent to which social factors such as socioeconomic status affect this relationship. Design This study uses data from the 1982 General Social Survey (N = 1,689) data linked to the National Death Index until 2008. We use this data to examine the links between race, observed skin tone among blacks, and all-cause mortality. Piecewise exponential hazard modeling was used to estimate disparities in skin tone mortality among blacks, and relative to whites. The multivariate models control for age, education, gender, region, metropolitan statistical area, marital status, labor force status, and household income. Results Observed skin tone is a significant determinant of mortality among blacks and in relation to whites. Light skinned blacks had the lowest mortality hazards among blacks, while respondents with medium and dark brown skin experienced significantly higher mortality. The observed skin tone mortality disparities covaried with education; there are significant mortality disparities across observed skin tone groups among black respondents with high school or more education, and nonsignificant disparities among those with less education. Conclusion It is crucial to identify the social processes driving racial disparities in health and mortality. The findings reveal that the nuanced social experiences of blacks with different observed skin tones markedly change the experience of racial inequality. Research on the nuanced social processes and biological mechanisms that connect differences in observed skin tone to mortality outcomes promises to better illuminate the experience of racial inequality and policy mechanisms we can use to undermine it.

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“…In this study I adopt the assumption that human genetic diversity does not align with existing racial typologies (Morning 2014;Graves 2015;Hughey and Byrd 2015;Zuberi et al 2015). This means that racial identities such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, African or Black, Asian, South Asian, and European or White, as well as multiracial identities such as Eurasian and Black & White, cannot be causally associated with health for genotypic reasons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black, White, Black and White: mixed race and health in Canada

Veenstra

2017

Ethnicity & Health

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Canadians who identify as both Black and White fall between Black Canadians and White Canadians in regards to self-rated overall health, report the worst self-rated mental health of the three populations, and, with White Canadians, are the least likely to report hypertension. These heterogeneous findings are indicative of a range of diverse processes operative in the production of Black-White health inequalities in Canada.

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Race, Methodology, and Social Construction in the Genomic Era

Cited by 23 publications

References 58 publications

Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of “race” in health disparities research

Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of “race” in health disparities research

The color of death: race, observed skin tone, and all-cause mortality in the United States

Black, White, Black and White: mixed race and health in Canada

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