Public Health and a President’s Racism
This chapter addresses how racism presents a clear threat to the health of populations. In 2018, President Donald Trump made racist comments toward countries with predominantly nonwhite populations. Why did the president’s racism matter for the health of the public? To answer this question, one needs to understand where health comes from. Health is the product of the social, economic, and cultural context in which people live. This context is also shaped by social norms that do much to determine people’s behaviors and their consequences. Changing these norms can produce both positive and negative health effects. On the positive side, changing norms can promote health, by making unacceptable unhealthy conditions and behaviors that were once common, even celebrated. On the negative side, changing norms for the worse can empower elements of hate in society. When a president promotes hate, it shifts norms, suggesting that hate does in fact have a place in the country and the world. This opens the door to more hate crimes, more exclusion of minority groups from salutary resources, and little to no effort to address racial health gaps.