Many don’t see systemic racism as health issue
Despite communities of color enduring the hardest hit from COVID-19, a new survey finds many people don’t consider systemic racism a barrier to health.
The Rand Corp.’s ongoing survey, COVID-19 and the Experiences of Populations at Greater Risk, measures attitudes toward health, equity and race amid the pandemic.
More than 4,000 people participated in the study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Researchers sought adults in lower and middle income households earning less than $125,000. More than half of participants didn’t believe systemic racism is a main reason people of color have poorer health outcomes. Black and Hispanic respondents were more likely to believe it is so, but they also were oversampled in the survey – meaning many of the surveyed people of color also didn’t consider it a leading problem.
“If people don’t recognize some of the drivers of some of those differences, it just means we have more work to do to try to explain how this kind of inequity pervades this system, what it means for different populations and then how we actually fix it,” said senior policy researcher Anita Chandra, vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being.
But the survey also found that 70% of respondents do think the pandemic poses an opportunity for positive change, including improving access to health care – the change respondents said they most want to see. Black and Hispanic people, however, were more likely than white respondents to endorse that statement.
“That matters not just in terms of readiness for certain kinds of policies and voting,” Chandra said, “but it also means that we are far off in terms of explaining these types of issues better so that people understand it.”
Reducing income inequality was the second-most cited change spurred by the pandemic that respondents wanted to see, and nearly two-thirds of respondents believe the government should ensure health care “as a fundamental right.” White respondents were less likely than other races to endorse that statement. Researchers are exploring why.
“Is it a function of a society that for many years wanted to be more raceblind?” Chandra said. “That might explain the differential responses, where white Americans are not particularly likely to see color versus the experiences of people of color where that’s more front and center. And not just interpersonally but also in the structures and institutions that people of color confront.
“Because those are the long-standing sources of inequity, not being able to appreciate it and understand it means that it’s really hard to design policy solutions,” Chandra continued. “Not recognizing that we’re not on the same page is continuously challenging us going forward.”