White Health Benefits of Histories of Enslavement: The Case of Opioid Deaths

• Author: Hedwig Lee,Ryan Gabriel,Michael Esposito,Margaret T. Hicken,David Cunningham,Geoff Ward
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211009776
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Subject Matter: Contemporary Analyses and Implications

142 ANNALS, AAPSS, 694, March 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211009776

White Health

Benefits of

Histories of

Enslavement:

The Case of

Opioid Deaths

By

RYAN GABRIEL,

MICHAEL ESPOSITO,

GEOFF WARD,

HEDWIG LEE,

MARGARET T. HICKEN,

and

DAVID CUNNINGHAM

1009776ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyWhite Health Benefits Of Histories Of Enslavement

research-article2021

Popular media and researchers have given increasing

attention to the perceived growing alienation and

despair of white Americans. The narrative of white

decline has been particularly robust in light of the

recent uptick in premature deaths of whites from opi-

oid use, but this national conversation has lacked con-

sideration of potential associations between opioid

mortality among whites and durable legacies of white

advantage that were established through historical

racial violence. We provide an initial analysis of how

contemporary patterns of white opioid mortality in the

counties of southern states relate to the presence of

slavery and postbellum institutions of racial social con-

trol in those counties. We find that areas in the South

with higher rates of past enslavement are associated

with contemporary reductions of white vulnerability, in

this case, opioid mortality. This finding supports the

thesis that historical institutions of racial control offer a

protective benefit within the modern white population.

Keywords: opioids; white advantage; slavery; lynch-

ing; Ku Klux Klan

Amid the buildup of radical right-wing

populism in the United States, and the

resurgence of white nationalism, much atten-

tion has been paid by popular media and

researchers to claims of growing alienation

and despair among white Americans (Case

and Deaton 2020; Cherlin 2016). For exam-

ple, in a national survey published in 2011,

Ryan Gabriel is an assistant professor of sociology at

Brigham Young University. His research focuses on

urban sociology with a specific emphasis on racial resi-

dential segregation, residential mobility, and neighbor-

hood attainment. He is broadly interested in the

legacies of racial violence.

Michael Esposito is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute

for Social Research, University of Michigan. As of June

2021, he will be an assistant professor sociology at

Washington University in St. Louis. His research, gen-

erally, aims to clarify how structural racism shapes

population health.

Correspondence: ryangabriel@byu.edu