Race-blaming Frameworks in Health Research | Drug Researchers' Roundtable

In this webinar, Rafik Nader Wahbi discusses how public health and other health related fields have continued to recognize the importance of studying the relationship between the carceral system, substance use, and race. The dominant orientation in both research and policy related to this relationship, apply a race blind, if not “race blaming,” model that “gazes down” and pays little to no attention to power dynamics or history. Conclusions from this framing are that racial inequities are causally linked to the individual's race which produce the harmful behaviors. As researchers who engage in this work with this orientation, we empower the war on drugs, and expand the reach of the carceral system through evolving carceral-health technologies, such as drug courts or civil commitments. In this talk, Rafik will describe the limitations and dangers of this orientation, and provide a review of alternative theoretical frameworks, methods, and their corresponding policy implications.
Rafik Nader Wahbi, MPH is a PhD student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, in the Department of Community Health Sciences, with a minor in Anthropology.
Recorded April 29, 2021.
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