Othering & Belonging Institute

This policy brief reviews recent scholarship from members of the Diversity and Health Disparities cluster and offers important insights to meet the intertwined challenges of neighborhood inequalities and racial health disparities. The brief reviews how the inclusion of place in research about health disparities initiates a new dialogue about the basis for persistent racial/ethnic health disparities that departs from discriminatory ideas linking them to what are thought to be natural differences. The brief then considers how residential segregation contributes to differences in neighborhood conditions and racial/ethnic health disparities. Taken together, the research presented in this brief provides new ways the think about health disparities and their causes, consequences, and potential remedies