Hedwig Lee, Professor of Sociology, Washington University, St. Louis, presents, “Understanding historical legacies of racial violence and its population health consequences”
Research on the social determinants of health has begun to interrogate the role of multiple forms of structural racism in health. However, this research has largely failed to incorporate socio-historical features of structural racism. Meanwhile, a burgeoning body of research establishes the importance of historical racial violence, such as lynching and enslavement, in analyses of current social problems – including, but not limited to, police violence, homicide, crime policy, and political polarization. We extend this body of literature by exploring the association between historical racial violence (measured by lynching) and contemporary racial patterning of opioid related deaths. This examination serves to further interrogate our understanding of histories of racial violence against African Americans as a social determinant of health.
Zoom Seminar. Please contact laura.satterfield@duke.edu to obtain Seminar Link