We have conducted health and educational disparities research for more than three decades among minority populations. We began with research that aimed to understand the cultural, historical, biological, and political economic factors that contributed to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. We found multiple layers of complexity, including lingering effects of colonialism and colonization, ethnocide and genocide, genetic vulnerabilities, pathogen mutations, inequitable resource extraction by powerful empires and corporations, income and wealth inequalities, a general absence of cultural humility among organizations and groups who were seeking to help, including ill-advised (though well-meaning) interventions from Western government and mission-based organizations, and many other issues that made southern Africa “fertile soil” for the pandemic.
We determined to pursue more education, training, and additional research so that we would not contribute to the harms we had witnessed. This led to our research expanding to include American Indians/Native Peoples, Blacks/African Americans, aging populations, and sexual minorities.
Based on insights from years of fieldwork, in-depth studies, and reflection, we found two basic principles that now guide our work:
- Most of the health and educational disparities that exist in the world today are rooted in historical and on-going injustices and inequalities of power, access to resources, and opportunities; and
- The most effective means of improving the health and well-being of society begins with improving the health and well-being of that society’s most vulnerable.