Remembering and reversing: Racism, DEI retrenchment, and Black health in 2026

The Buzz This Week

This month marks 100 years since Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week, now Black History Month. This year’s theme, “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” asks us to consider what has and hasn’t changed over that century of honoring Black history. Black communities have won hard-fought gains in civil rights, political power, and cultural recognition, yet the health effects of racism and discrimination remain stark.

Deep racial disparities in healthcare access, outcomes, and experience persist. Across measures such as preventable illness, maternal mortality, and life expectancy, Black Americans continue to face worse outcomes and more frequent barriers to care than white Americans. Surveys also find that Black adults are more likely to report going without needed care because of cost, lacking a usual source of care, or facing logistical barriers such as transportation and time off work.

New research underscores how discrimination impacts an individual’s overall health. A recent analysis highlighted how repeated exposure to racism and bias contributes to chronic stress, higher rates of chronic disease, and earlier mortality for Black Americans, even after accounting for income and education.

A separate study linked the stress of policing and surveillance in Black communities to elevated health risks, reinforcing that public safety policy and neighborhood environments are part of the health equity story.

At the same time, some of the infrastructure created to advance equity is under pressure. Federal and state actions limiting or restructuring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as legal challenges to race-conscious policies in education and health-related institutions have increased constraints and scrutiny around how organizations can explicitly name and address racism in their work.

Why It Matters

For health systems, the hundredth year of Black history commemoration comes at a time when evidence about the health effects of racism is extensive, yet the tools and political space for action are contested. Data from the American Heart Association (AHA) continue to show that Black Americans face disproportionately higher risks of heart disease, stroke, and uncontrolled hypertension. This underscores the need for targeted interventions to address persistent disparities.

National surveys also have found that Black adults are more likely to lack a usual source of care and delay needed services because of cost or logistics. These outcomes reflect differences in coverage and social drivers of health, such as income, housing, transportation, and neighborhood conditions, which are layered on top of repeated exposure to discrimination.

National surveys and qualitative research also describe Black patients who expect unfair treatment in healthcare settings and report withholding information, delaying care, or switching clinicians because of past experiences of bias.

This means that people's decisions to seek care, honestly share their symptoms, or follow medical advice depend not just on coverage and access points but also on whether their encounters and care environments feel safe, respectful, and free of discrimination.

Healthcare leaders must consider how their organizations can lead and sustain positive change in care delivery, workforce practices, and community investment to address persistent disparities in health outcomes and improve the health of their communities. Even as the political and operational space for this work remains unsettled, provider organizations can significantly influence how care is delivered, measured, and resourced.

At the same time, policy changes are reshaping some of the infrastructure designed to support equitable care delivery. State-level restrictions on DEI have led some public universities to eliminate or reorganize DEI offices and positions, including institutions that house major academic medical centers. Other health-related organizations have renamed offices or diluted equity language in public materials.

At stake is not only terminology but also whether organizations can still collect, stratify, and analyze demographic data that is legally supported and essential for identifying disparities in care and outcomes. Shifting administrative priorities and state policy pressures have created uncertainty about whether health systems can continue using that data to measure, report, and resource interventions to reduce inequities.

For example, health systems can use data to identify specific gaps for Black patients and staff, tie equity goals to operational and quality metrics, and support clinicians who are navigating discrimination and stress for themselves and their patients. Health systems can also partner with community organizations, payers, and public health agencies on focused efforts in areas such as maternal health, mental health, or chronic disease management to connect Black History Month programming to concrete improvements in access, experience, and outcomes.

Taken together, these choices can turn Black History Month from a once-a-year celebration into a recurring checkpoint on long-term progress. Health systems can honor a century of commemoration by accelerating the work that remains.