Justice and the racial dimensions of health inequalities: A view from COVID-19

Abstract

In this paper, we take up the call to further examine structural injustice in health, and racial inequalities in particular. We examine the many facets of racism: structural, interpersonal and institutional as they appeared in the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, and emphasize the relevance of their systemic character. We suggest that such inequalities were entirely foreseeable, for their causal mechanisms are deeply ingrained in our social structures. It is by recognising the conventional, unextraordinary nature of racism within social systems that we can begin to address socially mediated health inequalities.

Rights

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Cite as

Downloadable citations

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13010

Repository URI

https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/3f1a4ee2-bae2-4ec7-aa21-e243474e01e7