Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, United States.
Department of Sociology, University of Washington, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2018 Feb;199:157-166. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.058. Epub 2017 Mar 28.
In the United States, racial/ethnic inequalities in obesity are well-documented, particularly among women. Using the Chicago Community Adult Health Study, a probability-based sample in 2001-2003 (N = 3105), we examined the roles of discrimination and vigilance in racial inequalities in two weight-related measures, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), viewed through a cultural racism lens. Cultural racism creates a social environment in which Black Americans bear the stigma burden of their racial group while White Americans are allowed to view themselves as individuals. We propose that in this context, interpersonal discrimination holds a different meaning for Blacks and Whites, while vigilance captures the coping style for Blacks who carry the stigma burden of the racial group. By placing discrimination and vigilance within the context of cultural racism, we operationalize existing survey measures and utilize statistical models to clarify the ambiguous associations between discrimination and weight-related inequalities in the extant literature. Multivariate models were estimated for BMI and WC separately and were stratified by gender. Black women had higher mean BMI and WC than any other group, as well as highest levels of vigilance. White women did not show an association between vigilance and WC but did show a strong positive association between discrimination and WC. Conversely, Black women displayed an association between vigilance and WC, but not between discrimination and WC. These results demonstrate that vigilance and discrimination may hold different meanings for obesity by ethnoracial group that are concealed when all women are examined together and viewed without considering a cultural racism lens.
在美国，肥胖的种族/民族不平等现象是有据可查的，尤其是在女性中。利用芝加哥社区成人健康研究（2001-2003 年的一项基于概率的样本，N=3105），我们通过文化种族主义视角研究了歧视和警惕在两种与体重相关的测量指标（BMI 和 WC）中的种族不平等中的作用。文化种族主义创造了一种社会环境，在这种环境中，黑人承受着他们种族群体的耻辱负担，而白人则被允许将自己视为个体。我们提出，在这种情况下，人际歧视对黑人和白人有不同的含义，而警惕则反映了背负种族群体耻辱负担的黑人的应对方式。通过将歧视和警惕置于文化种族主义的背景下，我们操作化了现有的调查措施，并利用统计模型来澄清现有文献中歧视与体重相关不平等之间模糊的关联。分别为 BMI 和 WC 估计了多元模型，并按性别进行了分层。黑人女性的 BMI 和 WC 平均值均高于其他任何群体，警惕水平也最高。白人女性的警惕与 WC 之间没有关联，但歧视与 WC 之间存在很强的正相关。相反，黑人女性的警惕与 WC 之间存在关联，但歧视与 WC 之间没有关联。这些结果表明，警惕和歧视对于肥胖的种族/民族群体可能具有不同的含义，如果将所有女性放在一起并在不考虑文化种族主义视角的情况下进行检查，这些含义就会被掩盖。
