American Journal of Public Health, Vol 90, Issue 8 1212-1215, Copyright © 2000 by American Public Health Association

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Levels of racism: a theoretic framework and a gardener's tale

CP Jones
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA.

The author presents a theoretic framework for understanding racism on 3 levels: institutionalized, personally mediated, and internalized. This framework is useful for raising new hypotheses about the basis of race-associated differences in health outcomes, as well as for designing effective interventions to eliminate those differences. She then presents an allegory about a gardener with 2 flower boxes, rich and poor soil, and red and pink flowers. This allegory illustrates the relationship between the 3 levels of racism and may guide our thinking about how to intervene to mitigate the impacts of racism on health. It may also serve as a tool for starting a national conversation on racism.

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