IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v77y2018i3-4p1113-1152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial Disparities in Health Status and Access to Healthcare: The Continuation of Inequality in the United States Due to Structural Racism

Author

Listed:
  • Ruqaiijah Yearby

Abstract

During the Jim Crow era of 1877 to 1954, the federal government sponsored and supported the racially separate and unequal distribution of resources, including, but not limited to, education, housing, employment, and healthcare. On May 14, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate and unequal education violated the Constitution because separate is inherently unequal. Many believed that this ruling, the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would put an end to the unequal treatment of African Americans in the United States. However, inequalities still exist today because the ruling and the laws did not change the structures of the United States. Specifically, structural racism prevents African Americans from obtaining equal access to resources such as wealth, employment, income, and healthcare, resulting in racial disparities in health. Because racial disparities between African Americans and Caucasians are the most studied in the United States, this article will focus exclusively on how structural racism continues and causes racial inequalities between African Americans and Caucasians in wealth, employment, income, and healthcare, which lead to racial disparities in access to healthcare and health status.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruqaiijah Yearby, 2018. "Racial Disparities in Health Status and Access to Healthcare: The Continuation of Inequality in the United States Due to Structural Racism," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3-4), pages 1113-1152, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:77:y:2018:i:3-4:p:1113-1152
    DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12230
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12230
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajes.12230?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Giuliano & David I. Levine & Jonathan Leonard, 2009. "Manager Race and the Race of New Hires," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(4), pages 589-631, October.
    2. Williams, D.R. & Neighbors, H.W. & Jackson, J.S., 2003. "Racial/ethnic discrimination and health: Findings from community studies," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 200-208.
    3. Krieger, Nancy, 1990. "Racial and gender discrimination: Risk factors for high blood pressure?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 1273-1281, January.
    4. Pager, Devah & Western, Bruce & Bonikowski, Bart, 2009. "Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 4469, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    6. van Ryn, Michelle & Burke, Jane, 2000. "The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 813-828, March.
    7. Diez Roux, A.V., 2001. "Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(11), pages 1783-1789.
    8. Collins Jr., J.W. & David, R.J. & Handler, A. & Wall, S. & Andes, S., 2004. "Very low birthweight in African American infants: The role of maternal exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(12), pages 2132-2138.
    9. Shariff-Marco, S. & Klassen, A.C. & Bowie, J.V., 2010. "Racial/ethnic differences in self-reported racism and Its association with cancer-related health behaviors," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(2), pages 364-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Kaixin Liu & Jiwei Zhou & Junda Wang, 2023. "Can the Black Lives Matter Movement Reduce Racial Disparities? Evidence from Medical Crowdfunding," Papers 2310.14590, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    2. Paul Delgado & Dulcie Kermah & Paul Archibald & Mopileola T. Adewumi & Caryn N. Bell & Roland J. Thorpe, 2023. "Difference in All-Cause Mortality between Unemployed and Employed Black Men: Analysis Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-7, January.
    3. Anuli Njoku & Marian Evans, 2022. "Black Women Faculty and Administrators Navigating COVID-19, Social Unrest, and Academia: Challenges and Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Kar, Armita & Carrel, Andre L. & Miller, Harvey J. & Le, Huyen T. K., 2021. "Reducing public transit compounds social vulnerabilities during COVID-19," OSF Preprints 5xerm, Center for Open Science.
    5. Meng-Jung Wen & Martha Maurer & Luke Schwerer & Nassim Sarkarati & Ugboaku Maryann Egbujor & Jenna Nordin & Sharon D. Williams & Yao Liu & Olayinka O. Shiyanbola, 2022. "Perspectives on a Novel Culturally Tailored Diabetes Self-Management Program for African Americans: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Professionals and Organizational Leaders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Dee Warmath & Genevieve Elizabeth O'Connor & Nancy Wong & Casey Newmeyer, 2022. "The role of social psychological factors in vulnerability to financial hardship," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1148-1177, September.
    7. Awad, Mohamed Hassan & Sanchez, Mabel & Abikenari, Matthew A., 2022. "The values work of restorative ventures: The role of founders’ embodied embeddedness with at-risk social groups," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    8. Sarah E. Roth & Diana J. Govier & Katherine Marsi & Hannah Cohen-Cline, 2022. "Differences in Outpatient Health Care Utilization 12 Months after COVID-19 Infection by Race/Ethnicity and Community Social Vulnerability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Caryn N. Bell & Jordan Kerr & Jessica L. Young, 2019. "Associations between Obesity, Obesogenic Environments, and Structural Racism Vary by County-Level Racial Composition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Anuli Njoku & Marcelin Joseph & Rochelle Felix, 2021. "Changing the Narrative: Structural Barriers and Racial and Ethnic Inequities in COVID-19 Vaccination," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Simon K. Medcalfe & Catherine P. Slade & Wendy Habegger, 2023. "Religion as a social determinant of women's cancer screening: Evidence from state level data for policy and resource allocation," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 82(3), pages 263-279, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anthony Edo & Nicolas Jacquemet & Constantine Yannelis, 2019. "Language skills and homophilous hiring discrimination: Evidence from gender and racially differentiated applications," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 349-376, March.
    2. Letian Zhang, 2019. "Who Loses When a Team Wins? Better Performance Increases Racial Bias," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 40-50, February.
    3. Dovidio, John F. & Penner, Louis A. & Albrecht, Terrance L. & Norton, Wynne E. & Gaertner, Samuel L. & Shelton, J. Nicole, 2008. "Disparities and distrust: The implications of psychological processes for understanding racial disparities in health and health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 478-486, August.
    4. Harris, Ricci & Tobias, Martin & Jeffreys, Mona & Waldegrave, Kiri & Karlsen, Saffron & Nazroo, James, 2006. "Racism and health: The relationship between experience of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1428-1441, September.
    5. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Ooi, Evarn & Slonim, Robert, 2017. "Racial discrimination and white first name adoption: a field experiment in the Australian labour market," Working Papers 2017-15, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    6. Morten Størling Hedegaard & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2018. "The Price of Prejudice," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 40-63, January.
    7. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    8. Eva O. Arceo-Gomez & Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez, 2014. "Race and Marriage in the Labor Market: A Discrimination Correspondence Study in a Developing Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 376-380, May.
    9. Jacquemet, Nicolas & Yannelis, Constantine, 2012. "Indiscriminate discrimination: A correspondence test for ethnic homophily in the Chicago labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 824-832.
    10. Patricia Funjika & Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2020. "Social mobility and inequality between groups," WIDER Working Paper Series wp2020-12, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Mahmood Arai & Moa Bursell & Lena Nekby, 2011. "The Reverse Gender Gap in Ethnic Discrimination: Employer Priors against Men and Women with Arabic Names," DULBEA Working Papers 11-09, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Andreas Leibbrandt & John A. List, 2018. "Do Equal Employment Opportunity Statements Backfire? Evidence From A Natural Field Experiment On Job-Entry Decisions," NBER Working Papers 25035, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Laura Giuliano & Michael R Ransom, 2013. "Manager Ethnicity and Employment Segregation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(2), pages 346-379, April.
    14. Abigail Weitzman & Dalton Conley, 2014. "From Assortative to Ashortative Coupling: Men's Height, Height Heterogamy, and Relationship Dynamics in the United States," NBER Working Papers 20402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Fujishiro, Kaori & Xu, Jun & Gong, Fang, 2010. "What does "occupation" represent as an indicator of socioeconomic status?: Exploring occupational prestige and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2100-2107, December.
    16. Karla Hoff, 2016. "Behavioral Economics and Social Exclusion: Can Interventions Overcome Prejudice?," International Economic Association Series, in: Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, chapter 6, pages 172-200, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Tjaden, Jasper Dag & Schwemmer, Carsten & Khadjavi, Menusch, 2018. "Ride with Me - Ethnic Discrimination, Social Markets and the Sharing Economy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 418-432.
    18. Melissa Herman, 2022. "Doctors’ Perceptions of Multiracial Adolescents," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, March.
    19. Michael Rochlitz & Evgeniya Mitrokhina & Irina Nizovkina, 2020. "Bureaucratic Discrimination in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: Experimental Evidence from Russia," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2010, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    20. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Dana R Carney & Kevin W Smith & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Elmer Freeman & Beverley Russell & Gisele Thornhill & Kristin M, 2011. "Exposing Racial Discrimination: Implicit & Explicit Measures–The My Body, My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black & White Community Health Center Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-24, November.

    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:bla:ajecsc:v:77:y:2018:i:3-4:p:1113-1152. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    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.