Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Researcher Rachel Hardeman and midwife Rebecca Polston at Roots Birth Center
Researcher Rachel Hardeman (left) and midwife Rebecca Polston at Roots Community Birth Center. Hardeman will serve as founding director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity.
The U of M School of Public Health received a $5 million philanthropic gift from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota to create a groundbreaking Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity, which will be "dedicated to addressing and uprooting structural racism’s impact on health and healthcare."
Associate professor Rachel Hardeman, an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of health equity and reproductive health, who is also the Blue Cross Endowed Professor of Health and Racial Equity, will serve as founding director.
“Antiracist research is a revolutionary way of doing research grounded in the understanding that racism is a fundamental cause of health inequities,” said Hardeman in a press release. “Among other things, antiracist research requires that we lift up the voices of those closest to the pain and it reframes research questions that often begin with the premise that there is something wrong with Black and brown people that makes them sick.”
Hardeman began her career in 2014, when scholarship about the effects of structural racism on health was still slim. A Minneapolis native, Hardeman’s research has made racial health inequities more visible and uncovered solutions to dismantle them. Credited with creating the vision for the center, her work has previously brought her to study Roots Community Birth Center, one of five African-American–owned birth centers in the country.
“As a Black child growing up in Minnesota, it was clear to me from a very young age that not everyone was afforded the same opportunities to achieve optimal health and wellbeing,” she said. “I saw very real examples of racial health inequities in my own family and within the broader community. I have dedicated my career to advancing racial justice so that Black communities can live full, healthy lives, and I see no better place to do this than right here at home.”
According to the U, the life expectancy of white people in the Twin Cities is 81 years, whereas for Black people it's 74 years (and Indigenous people, just 64 years). Black women in the U.S. are 3-4 times more likely to die during or after childbirth than white women, regardless of income and education levels. Meanwhile, excess mortality–"COVID-19 mortality alongside deaths indirectly attributable to the pandemic"–has been higher for people of color, at a rate estimated to be around five times more for Black people in Minnesota than white folks, underscoring the urgency of this research.
The goals of the center include changing the narrative about race and racism to not be centered around whiteness, and becoming a source of fact-based information for public health agencies, policymakers, media, and the community at large. The antiracist research will cover areas where racism impedes health, such as police violence, reproductive health, and healthcare delivery, looking at how systems, policies, and social structures create an environment that exacerbates poor health.
“In 2020, we saw Minnesota become a national epicenter for racial injustice, under some of the most tragic and heartbreaking conditions imaginable,” said Craig Samitt, president and chief executive officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, in a statement. “In order to transform our state, inspire change and improve health, we can’t just say the right things–we must do the right things. We believe that Blue Cross’ investment in the creation of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity will serve as a catalyst to advance health equity and dismantle racism from the structure and fabric of our society.”
