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More recently, Gravlee and colleagues (2015, Rej et al. 2020) have developed a multiyear study using community-based participatory methods on the experience of discrimination and biological outcomes among African Americans living in Tallahassee, Florida (Gravlee et al. 2015). Their work follows from epidemiological studies on the experience of discrimination, with the addition that they considered both direct and indirect (friends and family network members) experience of bias (Rej et al. 2020). One aspect of this work has focused on how reported experiences of direct and indirect unfair treatment may be associated with telomere lengths (TL). Telomeres are found at the ends of chromosomes, and their shortening is an indicator of cellular health and aging. Prior research shows that TL is a risk factor for earlier onset of disease, and shortening of telomeres is associated with chronic psychosocial stress. Telomere length is but one of many mechanisms of how racism becomes biological, and collectively the known mechanisms and effects are probably just the tip of the iceberg. On a more theoretical and general level, this seems to be related to the weathering hypothesis originally proposed by Geronimus (1992) to explain the way that lifelong exposure to stress leads to low birth weight in African Americans. It may be that a good deal of the many unconscionable health inequalities by race is due to the weathering consequences of lifelong exposures to stress.

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