The American Public Health Association (APHA) recently released the much-anticipated second edition of Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional, a comprehensive guide offering critical insights into the impact of racism on public health. Building on the foundation of the first edition, this latest volume equips public health professionals with updated research, evidence-based practices, and actionable tools to address racial inequities in health outcomes. Practitioners will gain a historical view of the decades-long fight for racial health equity and learn how to move beyond merely documenting inequities and toward addressing their root causes.
In this second edition, Alana LeBrón, PhD, Wen School of Population & Public Health, contributes two thought-provoking chapters that address critical issues in the health of Latiné communities. Through a personal tribute and a scholarly analysis, these chapters honor the field’s giants and push forward the field’s understanding of structural drivers of health.
In one chapter, LeBrón and collaborators who include the late Edna A. Viruell-Fuentes, PhD, a pioneering Latiné health scholar, and Juan Carlos Ruiz Malagón, a current graduate student pursuing their PhD training at Wen Public Health, examine how racism, immigration, and immigrant policies affect the health of Latiné communities. Public health practitioners, they argue, are uniquely positioned to address these impacts by fostering awareness of exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies at federal, state, local, and organizational levels and understanding their implications for community well-being.
The first chapter highlights a critical opportunity for public health institutions to build and safeguard community trust, especially when restrictive policies render vulnerable populations even more marginalized. By actively protecting this trust, public health professionals can promote health equity and empower communities facing structural challenges. Through these actions, the authors outline a clear, actionable path for practitioners committed to health equity in Latiné communities.
Due to the fact that exclusionary immigration policies perpetuate structural racism, which we know to have negative health effects, practitioners must closely examine these policies. This includes designing interventions to prevent or alleviate their health impacts and collaborating with advocates to advance supportive policies.”
– Alana LeBrón, PhD
“Collaborating with Ruiz Malagón, a rising PhD student, brings fresh perspectives from emerging public health professionals, enriching the analysis of structural forces affecting Latiné health,” said LeBrón. “This first chapter is a valuable contribution to the field, emphasizing the urgent need for a paradigm shift to center racism’s role in public health frameworks.”
In the second chapter, LeBrón pays tribute to Edna Viruell-Fuentes who dedicated her career to unraveling the complex structural influences on health outcomes for Latiné communities. Viruell-Fuentes’ scholarship championed a framework centered on the intersections of migration, race, and systems of discrimination, analyzed through a structural racism lens.
Through this powerful work, LeBrón continues to advance Dr. Viruell-Fuentes’ legacy and advocate for transformative research that prioritizes the health and well-being of Latiné communities. “I vividly remember feeling a mix of chills, guttural relief, and delight while digesting her thoughts and each carefully crafted sentence, which called for examining structural drivers of health,” said LeBrón.
LeBrón shares eight lessons learned from Viruell-Fuentes:
- Approach each aspect of work with both grace and firmness.
- Revisit and challenge relationships with time, capitalism, and white supremacy.
- Understand Latiné community health through the lenses of racialization and intersectionality.
- Critically reflect on emerging trends in academia.
- Value and center the voices and lived experiences of communities facing multiple forms of oppression.
- Focus on new bodies of work and ways of thinking to advance understanding of Latiné health.
- Lift others up with you.
- See Dr. Viruell-Fuentes’ life as an example of intellectual brilliance and dedication to the Latiné community, a legacy gone too soon.
This powerful guidance reflects Viruell-Fuentes’ influence and the lasting impact of her contributions.
Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional is available for purchase as an eBook and softcover through the American Public Health Association.
