What is the purpose? This living document offers guidance and recommendations for applying antiracism principles to social care research. Antiracism in research refers to a deliberate approach to conducting research that actively identifies, examines, and aims to dismantle racism within a given field of study. If social care researchers do not directly identify and address racism and racial health inequities in social care research, instead of building racial health equity, their work is likely to perpetuate or even worsen racial health equity.
How were the recommendations formed? Both the antiracism principles and the specific recommendations in this document were first synthesized from decades of anti-racism scholarship and then reviewed and refined by experts-by-profession whose work sits at the intersection of racial health equity and social care. This is a living document; we hope you will send us your feedback so that we can continue iterating on content, information, and resources over time.
How do I access/use the recommendations? Below we describe four key antiracism principles and go on to explain how they can be applied to the research process. We invite you to navigate to a stage of research (e.g., research funding, research data analysis, research dissemination) where you’ll find specific recommendations across the antiracism principles alongside resources and references for further information/examples. This guide is intended to support you and your research team. Ideally it will help you to open conversations about both past and future research decision-making. While you may not be able to integrate all of the recommendations, our hope is that you can reflect on them and identify where to begin making changes that are feasible and can be built upon. Please reach out to us to discuss or connect around your experience using this resource – we look forward to learning alongside you.
This principle speaks to the necessity for conceptual clarity when thinking about race or racism. At minimum, this means not attributing biological explanations to racial differences. That is, it is exposure to racism, not the color of one’s skin (or race), through both biological and non-biological mechanisms, that increases the risk of harm and poor health. This key principle encourages the development of a nuanced understanding of how racism at multiple levels both acts upstream of, and directly impacts, your social care research.
We acknowledge and embrace our social identities and intersectionality, such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, immigration status, language, religion, ability status, socioeconomic status, and professional roles. We also understand how multiple social identities can interact to increase an individual’s marginalization (‘intersectionality’). Ongoing reflection on how we may be privileged or oppressed in certain situations or with respect to people with other social identities allows us to better understand when our perspective may be limited.
The people most impacted by a problem are the experts of their lived experience and should play an active role in designing solutions. Similar to scholars, many community members and CBOs have deep expertise in organizing, problem-solving, coalition-building, etc., and have been successfully fighting for justice for generations. As researchers, we should hold ourselves accountable to making space for, actively listening to, and taking direction from the lived experiences and expertise of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the communities we serve.
Rather than building for each research project, we build for the goal of our collective liberation in mind. Decisions we make should enrich the communities involved in a regenerative or reparative process, rather than extractive.
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Boyd R, Lindo E, Weeks L, & McLemore M. On Racism: A New Standard For Publishing On Racial Health Inequities. Health Affairs. 2020.
Brown S, Kijakazi K, Runes C, & Austin Turner M. Confronting Structural Racism in Research and Policy Analysis. Urban Institute. 2019.
Cené CW, Viswanathan M, Fichtenberg CM, et al. Racial Health Equity and Social Needs Interventions: A Review of a Scoping Review. JAMA Netw Open. 2023.
Fleming PJ, Stone LC, Creary MS, et al. Antiracism and Community-Based Participatory Research: Synergies, Challenges, and Opportunities. Am J Public Health. 2023.
Ford C & Airhihenbuwa C. Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis. Am J Public Health. 2010.
Hardeman R & Karbeah J. Examining racism in health services research: A disciplinary self‐critique. HSR. 2020.
Le V. Content creators, here’s an Equity Screen to use as you work on your next blog post, book, podcast, or video. Nonprofit AF blog. 2019.
Lett E, Adekunle D, McMurray P, et al. Health Equity Tourism: Ravaging the Justice Landscape. Journal of Medical Systems. 2022.
Nong P, Lopez W, Fleming P, et al. Structural Racism Is Not An Exemption From Accountability. Health Affairs Blog. 2021.
Peek M. Racism and health: A call to action for health services research. Health Services Research. 2021.
Ponce N. Creating Community Criteria for Research Participation at Community Health Centers. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community. 2014.
Vasan A, Dalembert G, Garg A. An Antiracist Approach to Social Care Integration. Pediatrics. 2023.
Click here to view these recommendations in PDF format.
University of San Francisco California