First-of-its-kind study on structural racism to be led by Michigan State, Rutgers

Researchers at Michigan State University and Rutgers University say they will conduct the first nationally funded study on the effects of structural racism on housing, aging and health.

The research — funded by an expected $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging — will examine the impact that “racist and discriminatory” policies over the past 100 years have had on a cohort of 800 black and white people. from Baltimore. based adults.

Most previous research has had an “almost singular focus” on residential segregation or historical redlining. This report will look at how factors such as redlining, gentrification, predatory lending, urban renewal, highway construction, segregation, and more have shaped the neighborhoods, homes, schools, and stores that Black residents engage with and how this has contributed to racial inequities, according to researcher Dick Sadler, associate professor at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.

Leading researchers argue that lifelong exposure to structural racism – the policies and processes that cause race-based inequalities – are the main drivers of health disparities and accelerated aging for Black people.

Previous research has found that Black residents are more likely to experience earlier onset and higher rates of aging-related cognitive decline, physical function and frailty compared to other racial and ethnic groups in the US.

Researchers say they will also look at how systemic racism affects other racial and ethnic groups living in these disinvested environments.

Understanding how disinvestment and discrimination happen “is critical to developing strategies to end racial inequities in communities,” according to the study announcement.

“We need to comprehensively document what the entire constellation of tools, tactics, and strategies looks like across our urban landscapes to better contextualize why racial inequities emerge and persist across multiple health care settings, for which all Americans end up suffering, but for which Black Americans consistently take the biggest hits,” Sadler and Danielle Beatty Moody, associate professor at Rutgers University’s School of Social Work, said in the announcement.

The researchers hope the study can support advocacy and policy efforts to address such inequities.

The study comes as a majority of Americans — 65% — say racism perpetrated by individuals is a bigger problem than racism in laws when it comes to discrimination against black people in the U.S. today, according to a poll by 2022 from the Pew Research Center. . About a quarter – 23% – say racism in US laws is the biggest problem.

However, Pew found that more than half of black adults – 52% – say racism in US laws is the biggest problem, with 43% arguing that racism on the part of individuals is the biggest problem.