Several prior studies have documented the Black-White health gap in life expectancy, which grew substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, some have argued the life expectancy gap is due to transgenerational slavery trauma (TST), a hypothesis that suggests the horrors of being subjected to slavery created epigenetic changes in enslaved Black Americans, resulting in adverse health outcomes in their present-day descendants.
However, a new study from scholars at Duke University has debunked this theory, finding that today’s healthcare inequities are instead a result of current conditions of structural racism persistent in American society.
In their report, the authors conducted a literature review of past studies that considered the potential for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of trauma in humans. They found no indication of the presence of this type of epigenetic transmission in humans, stating that they could not identify any “evidence of a pathway five or more generations, the minimum to attribute to modern-day outcomes to slavery-era trauma.”
Based on their findings, the authors believe it is much more likely that current racial health disparities are due to the direct structural racism mechanisms facing contemporary Black Americans. The authors argue that the TST theory is harmful, as it detracts attention from the legitimate inequities that persist in both healthcare and other sectors. The authors conclude that “there is no justification needed beyond the key role of structural racism experienced directly by African Americans today.”
