Overcoming Implicit and Unconscious Racial Bias: A Public Health Imperative

Description: The 18th century concept of a hierarchy of human value based on perceived physical characteristics was promulgated by the most notable scientists and philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment. The resulting ideology undergirded centuries of enslavement, annihilation and exploitation of the perceived "others”; people of color that were relegated to the lower and bottom rungs of this false hierarchy of value. The vestiges are still with us in the 21st century and manifest in individual implicit and unconscious biases, as well as in social structures such as residential segregation, widening income and wealth gaps and persistent disparities in health and education. This presentation will discuss emerging tools, tests and resources that can be used to overcome these biases within academic workplace and community settings. The discussion will also offer insights gleaned from nearly a decade of funding related racial healing and racial equity programs and an emerging community of practice.  The convergence of contemporary public health concepts such as social determinants of health, life course theory, and epigenetics presents new opportunities for integrating concepts of racial healing to accelerate change. Implementation of the affordable care act and the national prevention strategy created by the office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Prevention Council, as well as efforts led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create a culture of health are among the opportunities to be considered. Implications for disparities and inequities in maternal and child health, chronic disease prevention and management will be discussed.  There is an imperative to apply these insights in creating a new paradigm for population health that fosters well-being for all.