ArticleThe Milbank quarterly2023
The Water Surrounding the Iceberg: Cultural Racism and Health Inequities.
Article in The Milbank quarterly, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Vicarious Racial Discrimination and Mental Health among Adults: A Scoping Review of Literature Published between 2010 and 2023.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Review
- Observational
- A latent measure of cultural racism and its association with US mortality and life expectancy.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Race-Related Stress as a Driver of Postpartum Depression Among a Sample of Black Mothers.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Changing the Story on Health and Racial Equity: Why Public Health Needs an Infrastructure for Building Narrative Power.The Milbank quarterly · 2025Article
- Multilevel Racism and Discrimination and Cardiovascular Disease and Related Biopsychosocial Mechanisms: An Integrated Scoping and Literature Review and Future Research Agenda.Current cardiology reports · 2025Article
- Conceptualizing and Measuring Systemic Racism.Annual review of public health · 2025Review
- To what extent could eliminating racial discrimination reduce inequities in mental health and sleep problems among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children? A causal mediation study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2024Article
- Life Space and Activity Space Measurement: Making "Room" for Structural Racism.The Gerontologist · 2024Review
- Experiences of racism in the U.S. - A perspective from Asian & Pacific Islander, Black, Latina, and Middle Eastern women.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Structural Racism and Health Stratification: Connecting Theory to Measurement.Journal of health and social behavior · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Policy Points Cultural racism-or the widespread values that privilege and protect Whiteness and White social and economic power-permeates all levels of society, uplifts other dimensions of racism, and contributes to health inequities. Overt forms of racism, such as racial hate crimes, represent only the "tip of the iceberg," whereas structural and institutional racism represent its base. This paper advances cultural racism as the "water surrounding the iceberg," allowing it to float while obscuring its base. Considering the fundamental role of cultural racism is needed to advance health equity. CONTEXT: Cultural racism is a pervasive social toxin that surrounds all other dimensions of racism to produce and maintain racial health inequities. Yet, cultural racism has received relatively little attention in the public health literature. The purpose of this paper is to 1) provide public health researchers and policymakers with a clearer understanding of what cultural racism is, 2) provide an understanding of how it operates in conjunction with the other dimensions of racism to produce health inequities, and 3) offer directions for future research and interventions on cultural racism.
methodsWe conducted a nonsystematic, multidisciplinary review of theory and empirical evidence that conceptualizes, measures, and documents the consequences of cultural racism for social and health inequities.
findingsCultural racism can be defined as a culture of White supremacy, which values, protects, and normalizes Whiteness and White social and economic power. This ideological system operates at the level of our shared social consciousness and is expressed in the language, symbols, and media representations of dominant society. Cultural racism surrounds and bolsters structural, institutional, personally mediated, and internalized racism, undermining health through material, cognitive/affective, biologic, and behavioral mechanisms across the life course.
conclusionsMore time, research, and funding is needed to advance measurement, elucidate mechanisms, and develop evidence-based policy interventions to reduce cultural racism and promote health equity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.