Health and Race

Abstract Race interacts with health just as it does with other life‐determining, sociodemographic factors like class, gender, and age. Race is best understood as a shared set of cultural and social experiences common to people of the same skin color. Research has shown that the notion of distinct biological races is misleading because often more genetic variation exists within a defined “race” than between them. Race is a social construction rather than a “true” biological distinction. Yet, the manner in which it influences social relationships suggests that race is a construct with “real” repercussions. The entry looks into some of the ways in which race and racisms influence health today.