The aim of this research is to deconstruct the myth of meritocracy in relation to housing inequities as well as dissect the intersection of housing and healthcare for black women. We will focus on the realities of community engagement, meritocracy, and healthcare from a sociological lens. Specifically, we conducted an analysis of Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers using materials from our community engagement course. Some of the main questions we strived to answer are the following: How can success, motivation, and adversity affect one’s life? How can we use a socio-cultural perspective in the examination of success? And how can we challenge society’s understanding of success? And how can we better understand the complexities of meritocracy? We focused on the policies and traditional real estate practices that continue to uphold and establish housing inequalities. We then dissected the effects of these housing inequalities on healthcare outcomes specifically for black women. We analyzed how various zip codes affect access to quality maternal care as well as how racial biases in medicine transcend socioeconomic status. Some of the specific questions we addressed included: How does housing correlate with socioeconomic status to determine the health outcomes of black women? How is the myth of meritocracy detrimental to the health of black women? And finally, how do black women who have attained a significant amount of wealth still receive poor quality of care? Finally, we explain the unique niche that black women hold given that black women who are considered “wealthy” and live in expensive zip codes still experience sub-par healthcare outcomes.
Presentations deriving from capstone seminar in the community engagement and social change concentration with Denys Candy, director of the Jandon center for community engagement.