The Future of Public Health Must be Radical: Incorporating Racial Capitalism

Abstract

Racism impedes the health of communities of color and, more recently, has been declared a public health crisis. Social uprisings in response to the police brutalities in the summer of 2020 have further pushed public health as a discipline to recognize racism as a public health issue. We argue that, as a discipline, we must challenge ourselves to move toward radical public health to achieve health equity. Radical public health requires future and current public health practitioners to discuss the root of health inequities, which we identify as racial capitalism. We (a) discuss racial capitalism and its intersection with public health and (b) critique current anti-racist pedagogy with recommendations on how to move forward. Future public health practitioners must acquaint themselves with racial capitalism and use it as a lens to see all public health problems if they are to dismantle structural racism that perpetuates health inequities.