Thread by @RheaBoydMD

The bar to publish on racial health inequities is too low.

So @mclemoremr @EdwinLindo @Lachelle_Dawn and I set a new bar in @Health_Affairs.

Rule 1. NEVER reify biological race (it is not a thing)

Rule 2. Examine racism as a cause of health inequities

bit.ly/31B2Suv

We open this paper with Strange Fruit, a poem by Abel Meeropol, popularized by Billie Holiday, one of our greatest voices.

We do so because "racism remains a bloodying force, structuring every facet of [American] life."

To examine racial health inequities, we must begin here.

We cite recent articles that made troubling errors in analyzing racial health inequities.

The point is to confront the racist analytical frames that pass right under our noses. That readers see but don't catch. Or catch, but don't challenge.

We are challenging them, publicly.

We also take on "patient mistrust" as a potential cause of racial health inequities.

Because "while patient trust shapes [health utilization], incessant racial health inequities reveal less about what patients have failed to feel and more about what systems have failed to do."

And we explicitly name the alarming ways authors evade racism and its impacts on health and health care. The result is published scholarship often centers white scholars reflections *on* inequities at the expense of a rigorous investigation of solutions to inequities.

And we close the article with recommendations, for journal editors, authors, and reviewers. Our intention is also to outline a rigorous standard that readers will also use when evaluating the scholarship on racial health inequities.

The article is free to read and download.

We draw from and cite incredible scholars:
@zinzinator @RRHDr @CamaraJones @D_R_Williams1 Bruce Link, Jo Phelan, Frederick Rivara, Laurence Finberg, @DrMaryTBassett, Nancy Krieger, WEB DuBois, @DorothyERoberts, Darshali Vyas, @ruha9, Britt Russert, Onyebuchi Arah, Judith Kaplan

Arline Geronimus, Chandra Ford, Collins Airhihenbuwa and young scholars in training @NoorChadha @bernielim @madeleine_kane @browland10

Thank you all for laying the ground for the recommendations we put forth, which stem directly from your recommendations and work you created.

Lastly, we say this with LOVE.

Because we WELCOME scholarship on racial health inequities. And every article we highlight, even those we challenge, we do so because we must, as a field, look at our work collectively and DO BETTER. That includes us, as authors and readers.