Harvard epidemiologist Nancy Krieger and physician Stephen Sidney's study, "Racial discrimination and blood pressures: the CARDIA study of young blacks and white adults," published in 1996 in the American Journal of Public Health, found that racism affects health. Participants in the study was asked to discuss "experiences of racial discrimination and unfair treatment" and "whether they had ever been prevented from doing something," such as getting a job or securing housing, "or "been hassled or made to feel inferior" because of their sex or race. They were placed in groups according to how many times they reported that they had been victims of racism, and blood pressure readings were taken. In order to access how the participants coped with racism incidents, they responded to questions, such as, did you "do something about it," and/or "talk to someone about it"? The researchers found that many participants had internalized their reactions to racist incidents, and explained this as "internalized oppression" in which victims accept their subordinate status as "evidence of their own deficiencies rather than discrimination." The study suggests that blacks who take action against racism are healthier than those who remain passive. Kreiger concludes that the black and white disparities in blood pressure is the "literal embodiment, biologically, of experiences and consequences of racial discrimination."
Racial discrimination is being recognized by social scientists as well as epidemiologists as a threat to the health of African Americans. The addition of a social phenomenon, in the equation of the causes of illness, brings about a contentious debate among opponents and supporters of the "racism affects health" conclusion. Kreiger and Sidney's study has been rejected as flawed and inconclusive by some members of the medical academic community. Notwithstanding the criticism, Krieger and Sidney's study has confirmation from the results of similar replicated research. For example, lab studies of African American women, done by Maya McNeilly of Duke University Medical Center, found that significant rises in blood pressure and heart rate, triggered by biochemical changes, were caused by racist comments from whites. She states that "Racism," independent of income, "can act as a potent stressor that may contribute to hypertension and heart disease." Further, a 13-year longitudinal study by the National Panel Survey of Black Americans conducted by James S. Jackson and Myriam Torress focused on perceived and experienced racism and their effects on mental and physical health. Their research showed that those who reported the most racist and discriminatory experiences had the most doctor-verified disabilities and health problems.
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