17 Decenter Whiteness

“There is power in naming racism for what it is, in shining a bright light on it, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes us acknowledge it. Confront it.”~ Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award Winner for Fiction (2011)

As discussed in the introduction, racism and oppression can be explained through the concept of “targets” and “agents” of oppression. Targets and agents are defined by the roles that individuals (or groups) hold in systems of oppression. Each (target and agent) must be present for the other to exist and for oppression to thrive. Structural systems in the United States are built on the foundation of white supremacy, where white individuals act as agents, defining norms, practices, and policies that oppress people of color. White cultural norms provide the benchmark by which everyone is judged and serve to restrict access to power and resources. Rooted in white supremacy, whiteness is pervasive in the United States. To reach racial equity, whiteness must be acknowledged and mitigated, and we must reframe our thinking to decenter whiteness and promote equitable multicultural practices.

The correlation of race and biology has negatively impacted the health of minorities in the United States. “The biologization of race threatens the validity of health disparities of research by leading researchers off the mark when research questions are conceived, study populations are defined, study methods are developed, and data are collected, analyzed, and interpreted…Although science is among the most important tools we have to reduce health disparities, its operationalization in our research enterprise disadvantages racial and ethnic minority children and their families by de-emphasizing the role of structural racism and contextual factors as causes of health disparities. Until we recast the research that is focused on minority health and disparities so that its explicit premise is that race and ethnicity are social (not biological) constructs, we will see little progress. To this end, we are advocating for an antiracist research framework, which is the only path by which racial and ethnic health disparities can be shrunk.”^[1]

The National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities has set forth features of an antiracist research agenda. They include:

• Capacity building by training scientists from marginalized populations
• Engaging the community affected by the health condition
• Prioritizing the funding of institutions that have a track record of promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity^[2]

When researchers consider their work through an equity lens, they help ensure that research practices and results don’t further harm or marginalize people of color. Doing so helps prioritize justice and equity, ensuring that outcomes are generalizable, unbiased, and inclusive. However, centering racial equity to drive more equitable research outcomes requires intentional effort. Because racial equity cannot be achieved in a single step, equity frameworks emphasize the importance of ongoing monitoring and assessment. Examples of such equity frameworks are discussed in the next chapter.