Health Equity Tourism: Ravaging the Justice Landscape
Open accessAbstract
As the long-standing and ubiquitous racial inequities of the United States reached national attention, the public health community has witnessed the rise of "health equity tourism". This phenomenon is the process of previously unengaged investigators pivoting into health equity research without developing the necessary scientific expertise for high-quality work. In this essay, we define the phenomenon and provide an explanation of the antecedent conditions that facilitated its development. We also describe the consequences of health equity tourism - namely, recapitulating systems of inequity within the academy and the dilution of a landscape carefully curated by scholars who have demonstrated sustained commitments to equity research as a primary scientific discipline and praxis. Lastly, we provide a set of principles that can guide novice equity researchers to becoming community members rather than mere tourists of health equity.
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Structural racism extends beyond interpersonal discrimination towards individuals from minoritized backgrounds and is embedded into the policies, practices, and systems of U.S. institutions.
“However, structural racism extends beyond interpersonal discrimination towards individuals from minoritized backgrounds, but is rather embedded into the policies, practices, and systems of U.S. institutions [38,39].”
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- Authors
- Lett, E., Adekunle, D., McMurray, P., Asabor, E. N., Irie, W., Simon, M. A., Hardeman, R., & McLemore, M. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- NYU Langone Health (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lett, Elle
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Systems
- Published
- 2022-02-12
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 17-17
- ISSN
- 0148-5598 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-689X
- PMC
- PMC8853313
- OpenAlex
- W4211091276
- Cited by
- 264
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 8.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Systems (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Race, Genetics, and Society
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Public Health Policies and Education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Keywords
- health equity research, racial inequity, novice researchers, community participation, research ethics, health disparities
- MeSH terms
- Health Equity, Tourism, Humans, Public Health, Social Justice, United States, Racism
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