Let's Talk: Whiteness and Health Equity

This installation of the Let’s Talk series introduces the concept of Whiteness to public health audiences. Whiteness, in this publication, refers to “the practices, policies and perspectives that create and enable the dominance of White people, norms and culture, in institutions, systems and society” [1, p.2].

In addition to providing a definition of Whiteness, the paper describes White privilege and settler colonialism, providing examples of how Whiteness is manifested in public health research, practice and policy. It goes on to highlight examples of how Whiteness is not only detrimental to Black, Indigenous and other racialized peoples; Whiteness also impacts the health and well-being of White people.

Taken together, the harmful impact of Whiteness on all of society indicates the need to work collectively to address structural racism, Whiteness and the elimination of racial health inequities. To this end, the authors provide examples of how we can take a critical Whiteness approach to work to reduce racialized health inequities at the individual, institutional and systemic levels.