African Americans, democracy, and biomedical and behavioral research: contradictions or consensus in community-based participatory research?
Individualism, in both its political and attitudinal senses, reinforces societal and institutional racism in the United States. Because of individualism's dominant focus on self-interest and self-reliance, any application of "participatory democracy" in community-based biomedical and behavioral research is fraught with dilemmas similar to those that Gunnar Myrdal observed between American racism and democracy. The research establishment is overwhelmed by well-meaning non-minorities who recognize racism and its consequences in health, but only greater representation of people-of-color in the health establishment can ameliorate the inherent contradictions of "participatory democracy" which is so fundamental to the process of community-based participatory research.
Spigner
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Department of Health Services, Box 357660, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
D001741:Black or African American; D035841:Behavioral Research; D035843:Biomedical Research; D030861:Capitalism; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003709:Democracy; D006302:Health Services Research; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008913:Minority Groups; D011057:Politics; D011203:Poverty; D011287:Prejudice; D012923:Social Class; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values; D035502:Trust; D014481:United States; D000091762:Ethnic and Racial Minorities