Health Sciences 1002A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Racialization, Syphilis, White Privilege
25 Oct 2016
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Lesson 12 - the social construction of race. A lot of health research focuses on racial inequities. Not identifying the meaning of race may naturalize differences that are produced by social structures which may encourage systems of oppression. Some patterns of health are systematic, but does not mean that they exist because of a biological factor in a particular group. Race is not biological or a genetic trait. Not always, but usually based on physical characteristics. It is distinct from ethnicity in the sense that ethnicity refers to shared cultural backgrounds, customs, languages. Race as a way of categorizing human difference. Enables us to question how we assign social meaning to physical differences and the effects that it has. The meanings we ascribe to people through the language of race can be used to discriminate against people. Through social exclusion/inclusion differences in health are produced. There is no one gene locus that codes for a particular race.
