How Should Health Equity Researchers Consider Intersections of Race and Ethnicity in Afro-Latino Communities?
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Although Afro-Latinos, or Black Hispanics, bear inequitable burden of disease risks, drivers of health inequity among members of this large Latino subgroup in the United States are understudied.This article proposes avenues for more rigorous research on how racial diversity within Latino populations is key to generating better understandings of mechanisms and causes of racial health inequity in US Latino communities.Case Mr V and Mr R have known each other from childhood in Gaunabo, a seaside area of Havana, and emigrated from Cuba to pursue lives in the United States.Both men's skin color influenced their ethno-racial identity formation and assimilation experiences over time.Mr V has light skin, self-identifies as White, resides in a suburban neighborhood, and draws steady income from a job that fuels his upward social mobility in the American middle class.Mr R has dark skin, self-identifies as Afro-Latino and Black, and lives in a community that he and his neighbors regard as a refuge from racial discrimination.1 Living with other Black community members has enabled his learning of a vocabulary that helps him forge meaning from painful, routine experiences of racial discrimination in the United States. CommentaryThis story of divergence is not rare for Latinos.In a race-conscious society like the United States, racism and colorism 2 have profound effects on Latinos' life chances and health.This article discusses potential mechanisms and causes of health inequities within the US Latino population.Key to understanding experiences of discrimination and patterns of minoritization that arise within or between Latino communities, influence individual and community identify formation, and shape individual and community assimilation experiences is the distinction between first-person and third-person perceptions and identifications of membership in racial and ethnic groups.First, public health researchers use the terms Hispanics, Latinos/Latinas, and Latinx to refer to Spanish-speaking persons with Latin American and Caribbean origins.For the sake of consistency, this article uses the term Latinos to refer to individuals who, though viewed by some as a monolithic group in the United States, express heterogeneity (eg, in
Source: The AMA Journal of Ethic
Author: Adolfo G. Cuevas
Institution: Tufts University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4223437896