IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2009.186445_2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The myth of meritocracy and African American health

Author

Listed:
  • Kwate, N.O.A.
  • Meyer, L.H.

Abstract

Recent theoretical and empirical studies of the social determinants of health inequities have shown that economic deprivation, multiple levels of racism, and neighborhood context limit African American health chances and that African Americans' poor health status is predicated on unequal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. President Obama's election has been touted as a demonstration of American meritocracy-the belief that all may obtain the American Dream-and has instilled hope in African Americans. However, we argue that in the context of racism and other barriers to success, meritocratic ideology may act as a negative health determinant for African Americans.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwate, N.O.A. & Meyer, L.H., 2010. "The myth of meritocracy and African American health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(10), pages 1831-1834.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2009.186445_2
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.186445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2009.186445
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2009.186445?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Efird, Caroline R. & Barrington, Clare & Metzl, Jonathan M. & Muessig, Kathryn E. & Matthews, Derrick D. & Lightfoot, Alexandra F., 2023. "“We grew up in the church”: A critical discourse analysis of Black and White rural residents’ perceptions of mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    2. Carmen H Logie & Jesse I R Jenkinson & Valerie Earnshaw & Wangari Tharao & Mona R Loutfy, 2016. "A Structural Equation Model of HIV-Related Stigma, Racial Discrimination, Housing Insecurity and Wellbeing among African and Caribbean Black Women Living with HIV in Ontario, Canada," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Efird, Caroline R. & Lightfoot, Alexandra F., 2020. "Missing Mayberry: How whiteness shapes perceptions of health among white Americans in a rural Southern community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    4. Malat, Jennifer & Mayorga-Gallo, Sarah & Williams, David R., 2018. "The effects of whiteness on the health of whites in the USA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 148-156.
    5. Audrey Simons & Daniëlle Groffen & Hans Bosma, 2013. "Income-related health inequalities: does perceived discrimination matter?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(4), pages 513-520, August.
    6. Came, Heather & Griffith, Derek, 2018. "Tackling racism as a “wicked” public health problem: Enabling allies in anti-racism praxis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 181-188.
    7. Neighbors, Harold W. & Mattingly, Delvon T. & Johnson, Janay & Morse, Kayla, 2023. "The contribution of research to racial health equity? Blame and responsibility in navigating the status quo of anti-black systemic racism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2009.186445_2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.