Health Disparities By Race And Class: Why Both Matter

TLDR

Racial health disparities are debated as either biologically rooted, driven by socioeconomic class, or as a distinct social construct similar to caste. In this essay we examine three competing causal interpretations of racial disparities in health. We point to historical, political, and ideological obstacles that have hindered the analysis of race and class as codeterminants of disparities in health.

Abstract

In this essay we examine three competing causal interpretations of racial disparities in health. The first approach views race as a biologically meaningful category and racial disparities in health as reflecting inherited susceptibility to disease. The second approach treats race as a proxy for class and views socioeconomic stratification as the real culprit behind racial disparities. The third approach treats race as neither a biological category nor a proxy for class, but as a distinct construct, akin to caste. We point to historical, political, and ideological obstacles that have hindered the analysis of race and class as codeterminants of disparities in health.