Magazine Cover: Harvard Public Health (magazine name). Headline reads: Sick from the system and getting worse" in white text on a bright red background. Subhead reads:How structural racism affects health—and what people are doing about it.

Issue

Fall 2022Structural Racism

How structural racism affects health—and what people are doing about it.

Close-up of the Gettysburg address at the Lincoln Memorial

Essay

Reparations will save Black lives

Mary Bassett, New York state health commissioner, examines the close ties between wealth and health in America. It's time, she says, for the U.S. government to pay its debt to Black Americans.

Read Now

An exterior photo of a corner story in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe park neighborhood. “Bill the butcher” is in large red letters on top of white paneling, and a white corner marquee also reads “bill the butcher” in blue writing. A green EBT sign, and beer and cigarette advertisements are paneled on the building. A man wearing a t-shirt, straw sunhat, holds a bag, and walks with a cane in the foreground.

Feature

Metcalfe Park: Inside structural racism’s invisible net

Living in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood is bad for your health. It’s nobody’s fault—and everyone’s.

An outlined map of Onaganta county, home to Syracuse, New York, is shaded in greens and blues by census tracks. It is laid upon a black and white photo of peeling paint.

Data View

Lead poisoning is a crisis for Syracuse’s Black families

Syracuse’s lead problem isn’t new. A legacy of redlining, poverty, and white flight has left Black families scrambling for safe housing. Most make do with houses that are not.

Feature

Resolving health disparities in NYC starts with data

New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began anti-racist work by establishing metrics.

Illustration: A pastel patchwork grid of five icons: L-R: finger print with prick of blood, tablet with lines and a hand-finger-point, a stethoscope, kidney organs, and a computer with a chart and magnifying glass.

Feature

Taking steps toward anti-racist health care

Across the U.S., efforts are being made to increase equity and reduce bias in the practice of health.

A young, brown girl with her in a bun and a blue barrette, wears a blue shirt and green beaded necklace, and holds an inhaler. She is drawn on top of a black and white city map with red lines over both the map and her figure. The drawing is on a blush background.

Research

What science tells us about structural racism’s health impact

Research has established a clear, ongoing connection between systemic bias and health disparities.

Ntobeko Ntusi looks out a window in a non-descript buliding. Windows are open behind his shoulders showing a blue sky. He wears a navy blue suit, white shirt and tie. He is black and has close-cut hair.

Feature

The long, low echo of apartheid in South Africa

In South Africa, persistent bias in medical schools and health care means your health is still worse if you’re Black. Because you’re Black.

Illustration: a Black woman wearing a black dress, purple scarf, and purple headband stands in front a community center. In the background is a mother with two young children. A pregnant figure walks towards the door.

Ideas

Kansas City and the case for restitutional medicine

How one U.S. city is approaching a way to redress structural racism and boost community health.

From the school

Revisiting the ‘Unequal Treatment’ report, 20 years later

Two decades ago, a landmark report called out racism in health care, indelibly changing the public health landscape. There is much more work to be done.

Tom Sequist, wearing a dark suit and purple tie, rests on a hospital bed in an exam room with a slight smile.

People

Changing health equity at Mass General Brigham and beyond

Tom Sequist, MPH ’04, is leading equity-based changes at Boston’s Mass General Brigham health care system.

More issues

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Issue

Fall 2023

On reinventing Medicaid, using social media for good, and South Africa's path to universal health care.

Issue

Spring 2023

On indigenous displacement, family leave, and the future of PEPFAR