Rethinking the effects of gentrification on the health of Black communities in the United States: Towards a racialized health framework

Current research suggests that gentrification is an important determinant of health. Furthermore, this research concludes that the health impacts of gentrification are heterogeneous and may have adverse impacts on Black Americans. However, existing gentrification and health research has not fully engaged with the racialized processes that produce these uneven impacts. To address this gap, we develop a conceptual framework to describe how gentrification may create unique experiences and differentiated health impacts for Black Americans. Applying a lens of racial capitalism, we examine how an ongoing legacy of structurally racist urban and housing policy in the United States has disinvested from and devalued Black communities; thereby rendering them vulnerable to subsequent reinvestment through gentrification. Next, we consider how this history creates unique health vulnerabilities to gentrification for Black residents. Finally, we describe pathways of displacement-physical and symbolic-through which these unique health vulnerabilities are shaped to produce differences in health.