Racism and the Life Course: Social and Health Equity for Black American Older Adults

Abstract

Life course theory (LCT; Elder & George, 2015) links human development and behavior to sociohistorical contexts that are embedded within social and personal relationships and processes. Although well-known in ger-ontology and human development, LCT is seldom used to examine the lives of racial/ethnic minority groups and how systemic racism (i.e., discriminatory policies and practices) operates as a structural driver of social and health inequities across the life course (see Gee et al., 2012). Bonilla-Silva (2006) and Reskin (2012) argue that racism and discrimination is an all-encompassing system that produces race-linked disparities in health and social well-being and represents a: "meta-level phenomenon that shapes our culture, cognitions, and institutions, thereby distorting whether and how we perceive and make sense of racial disparities" (Reskin, 2012, p. 17). Gee and colleagues (2019, p. S43) link racism and the life course in stating: "racism shapes the life course, a perspective for understanding how human experiences unfold over time." Racism, enshrined in historic and ongoing policies and practices and experienced over the life course, has a continuing impact on the social and health statuses of racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States and in producing inequities in health and social well-being that are unfair, unjust, and avoidable (Braveman et al., 2011). Racism, enshrined in historic and ongoing policies and practices and experienced over the life course, has a continuing impact on the social and health status of racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States and in producing inequities in health and social well-being that are unfair, unjust, and avoidable. Building on prior work, this article has four aims. First, we briefly review the basic principles and processes described in life course theory. Second, we discuss racial residential segregation (RRS) and disproportionate rates of Black premature mortality as examples of systemic and structural racism (i.e., racialized policies and practices), which operate as fundamental drivers of the social and health inequities experienced by older Black adults. Third, using life course theory principles and processes, we demonstrate how racialized policies and practices operate across the life course in producing social and health inequi-ties. Fourth, we discuss how the LCT framework can be used to inform equity-focused aging policy.