516 PS 2: Beyond the critique of racism within public health: understanding how demographies of death and dying most accurately depict racial disparity in mortality and health in white majority countries

Abstract PS 2: Emergency Preparedness - Learning from the experiences of migrants during public health emergencies like COVID-19 and improving preparedness for future crises - Emma Rawson-Te Patu and Tommy Curry, Auditorium A & B (Rectory), September 3, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 Over the past several years, there has been a renewed emphasis among white public health scholars and medical academics on decolonizing curricula and addressing health disparities among clinician populations. These calls emphasize recognizing the role that racism and the legacies of colonialism play in creating racial inequalities that are not fully explained by class disparities or socio-economic position. This presentation argues that these critiques of public health research and practice, while welcomed by some, fail to understand the role that racial health disparities play in maintaining racism and legitimizing the racial order within white-majority nations. This brief presentation will argue that public health has historically concerned itself with the mortality and life expectancy of racially subjugated populations. The premature deaths of Black people and other racial and ethnic minority groups aid in sustaining white power and racist ideations throughout the United States and Europe. To counteract and diagnose how power and disparity operate, public health scholarship would benefit from considering how racism dictates health disparities among dominant and subordinate groups and how efforts to decolonize fail to address the logic and necessity of racial health disparities throughout the United States and Europe. The efforts of Black and other racial/ethnic minority groups should focus on attenuating the outcomes of societal racism and counteracting the effects of white clinician animus and bias towards non-white populations.