ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how public schools’ corporate curriculum, which is driven by the health gap and the “achievement gap,” works to racialize ethnic-minorities’ identities with “badges of inferiority.” It discusses how critical race theory, post-colonialism, and post-feminism can be used to interrogate, conceptualize, and reveal taken-for-granted assumptions informing the racialized notion of the “bodies-at-risk” framed by the at-risk paradigm in the health gap. Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in the United States is an urgent priority, a pressing need that demands social change. From a social justice perspective, there are serious risks associated with a historical and noncritical interpretation of disparities, and thus a novel perspective is needed to understand the impact of inequalities on minoritized groups. A key omission from public health discourse, policy, and research is the recognition of the significance and value of telling “untold stories” from the perspective of historically oppressed groups.
