In ‘Who is Black? The urgency of accurately defining the Black population when conducting health research in Canada’, Dr. Jude Mary Cénat, an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, writes the lack of uniformity of terms used by researchers on a population whose definition of “who is Black” varies widely and leads to broadly reported research results that are not always in check with the reality of Black populations.
“Accurate, reliable and unambiguous data should be used for research to inform public health policies, training policies for health care workers and culturally appropriate and antiracist health care practices for Black communities,” writes Cénat, Director of uOttawa’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and V-TraC Lab.
“Inability to find a common term to describe Black people in health research in Canada may perpetuate the inequities observed in the nascent state of health research on Black health in Canada.”
“Inability to find a common term to describe Black people in health research in Canada may perpetuate the inequities observed in the nascent state of health research on Black health in Canada.”
Professor Jude Mary Cénat
— Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences
Current terminology, such as “African-Canadian”, “Caribbean”, and “African” is inconsistent and constrains the ability to compare studies. This inconsistency may also lead to inclusion of people who do not identify as Black in these studies, including populations from North Africa (including Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria) and the Caribbean (including, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico where people consider themselves first as Latin Americans).
“Thus, the answer to the question “Who is Black?” in health research is nuanced: self-identifying Black people of diverse ethnic backgrounds (e.g., African, Caribbean, South American or Canadian),” writes Cénat, who suggests using the phrase “Black individuals, peoples or communities” combined with asking participants to identify country of origin for their family and/or a subgroup with which they identify, generation status, among others.
These fixes can provide more clarity to ensure health research has a tangible impact on public policy, health care programs, and strategies and action plans for Black communities in Canada.
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