Complex effects of racism and discrimination on African Americans' health and well-being: Navigating the status quo

Most research on the effects of racism and discrimination on the health and well-being of African Americans utilize a deficit perspective, one that homogeneously paints African Americans as disadvantaged victims. Such approaches do little to highlight the variability in the effects of racism and discrimination on relevant outcomes, and the resources that African Americans have drawn upon to navigate an environment characterized by varying levels of racialized hostility. The goal of this special issue is to inspire more refined conceptualizations of how African Americans navigate an often-hostile status quo in service of their health and well-being. The articles in this special issue examine within-race heterogeneity in African Americans' responses to varying manifestations of racism and discrimination, as well as subsequent heterogeneity in the effects of racism and discrimination on African Americans’ health and well-being at the individual level. The commentaries and articles address the goals of this special issue in three broad categories of health outcomes: biological/physiological, mind and brain, and health behavior. These contributions demonstrate several critical themes that can guide future work to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneity in the effects of racism and discrimination on health and well-being among African Americans.