WHAT’S YOUR RACE-GENDER-CLASS SOCIAL LOCATION & EXPERIENCE? USE OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY & INTERSECTIONALITY FOR INTERROGATING INEQUALITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION & “STREET RACE” FOR MEASURING HEALTH (IN)EQUITIES

Dr. Nancy Lopez, Associate ProfessorSociology, University of New Mexico
Director and Co-founder, Institute for Study of “Race” & Social Justice, RWJF Center for Health Policy
What patterns of inequality can be revealed when quantitative researchers interrogate race-gender-class gaps in six-year graduation outcomes and remedial class placement for distinct race-class-gender social locations as categories of experience? As debates about conflating Hispanic origin and race into one question for the 2020 continue, what can we learn about health inequity when we examine self-reported physical and mental health status among Latinas/os/x using “street race” or how you believe other Americans perceive your race at the level of the street? Anchored in critical race theory and intersectional inquiry & praxis, Dr. López highlights surprising results from two distinct empirical studies of inequalities in: 1.) higher education at a public university in the Southwest (1980-2015); and, 2.) self-reported physical and mental health in a 2015 national survey of Latinas/os/x in the U.S. Co-authors for these two papers include colleagues and graduate students from multiple disciplines.