title: Structural health and the politics of African American masculinity.
abstract: This commentary describes ways in which notions of African American men's "health" attained by individual choice-embedded in the notion that African American men should visit doctors or engage in fewer risky behaviors-are at times in tension with larger cultural, economic, and political notions of "health." It argues that efforts to improve the health of Black men must take structural factors into account, and failure to do so circumvents even well-intentioned efforts to improve health outcomes. Using historical examples, the article shows how attempts to identify and intervene into what are now called social determinants of health are strengthened by addressing on-the-ground diagnostic disparities and also the structural violence and racism embedded within definitions of illness and health. And, that, as such, we need to monitor structural barriers to health that exist in institutions ostensibly set up to incarcerate or contain Black men and in institutions ostensibly set up to help them.
authors: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. jonathan.metzl@vanderbilt.edu
authors: Jonathan M
authors: JM
authors: Metzl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D054526:Men's Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology*; D011057:Politics; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cultural disparity; hegemonic masculinity; masculinity; public health; social class