Introduction to Special Issue on Advancing Health Equity Among Black Communities

Abstract

The current paper serves as an introduction to this special issue, Advancing Health Equity among Black Communities, in which we provide an overview of the papers included. Specifically, we summarize the papers covered in the special issue and highlight some of the common themes. The impetus for this special issue originated from a culmination of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued murders of Black people by police officers, and an unsettling political climate (e.g., Galea & Abdalla, 2020). While the impact of individual racism has been studied extensively, the insidious and pervasive impact of structural racism is less understood. Structural racism is a system in which embedded values, practices and policies facilitate and perpetrate the continued differential treatment of people based on race and becomes an almost hidden influence on the way an institution functions. For this special issue, prevention scientists were invited to submit conceptual and empirical research reflecting their understandings of structural racism as it operates in U.S. systems (e.g., education, justice, housing, workforce) and contributes to health inequities in the lives of Black Americans. The submissions also demonstrate how prevention scientists can leverage translational science to impact policies, practices, and procedures to promote equitable and sustainable change for Black communities.