Abstract
Abstract
This chapter introduces the themes, concepts, and terms that are at the foundation of Black Americans’ health. This introduction helps readers attain a basic working knowledge of ideas like social determinants of health, biological and social understandings of race, different types of racism, and the White supremacist origins of the relationship between race and medicine. This chapter also introduces readers to the term “racial disparities in health” and their social and political origins, including their racist origins. This working knowledge helps readers to better engage with the core chapters, which are on the topics of birth and pregnancy, pain, sleep, and cardiovascular disease. This chapter also uses COVID-19 as an example of how inequities in social determinants can contribute to increased morbidity and mortality.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
Reference290 articles.
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