Are health and social justice divorced in the United States?

In this paper I explore the construction of health in academic and political arenas in the United States. I argue that the great majority of discourse in the social sciences and in political documents about health in the United States over the past 20 years developed without a social justice foundation. Therefore, the concept of social determinants of health, although touted extensively, has not been applied effectively in research and policy aimed at ameliorating health disparities, inequalities and inequities. To find out whether or not the construction of health is divorced from a concept of social justice, I conducted a systematic review of the literature in “Health and Human Behavior” between 1990 and 2010 as an illustration of academic discourse. Additionally, I critically analyzed the 2000 and 2010 “Healthy People Reports", as representative of federal policy, to find out whether or not and how these two domains of discourse, academic and political, constructed health devoid of social justice. I found compelling explanations for the prevalence of race over class in academic and political discourse, and reasons why silence about class inequalities benefits and nurtures the capitalist system.