title: Analyzing the use of race and ethnicity in biomedical research from a local community perspective.
abstract: Lost in the debate over the use of racial and ethnic categories in biomedical research is community-level analysis of how these categories function and influence health. Such analysis offers a powerful critique of national and transnational categories usually used in biomedical research such as "African-American" and "Native American." Ethnographic research on local African-American and Native American communities in Oklahoma shows the importance of community-level analysis. Local ("intra-community") health practices tend to be shared by members of an everyday interactional community without regard to racial or ethnic identity. Externally created ("extra-community") practices tend to be based on the existence of externally-imposed racial or ethnic identities, but African-American and Native American community members show similar patterns in their use of extra-community practices. Thus, membership in an interactional community seems more important than externally-imposed racial or ethnic identity in determining local health practices, while class may be as or more important in accounting for extra-community practices.
authors.affiliation: University of Oklahoma, USA.
authors.forename: Morris W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics*; D002961:Civil Rights; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology; D009825:Oklahoma; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology*; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D011287:Prejudice; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000941:ethics*; D044465:White People / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology