Why We Need to Talk About Culture Not Just Race To Tackle Health Inequalities

When conversations around health inequalities come up, they often centre around race. Reports highlight racial disparities in maternal health, mental health, cancer outcomes, or access to services. And while these conversations are important, we rarely pause to ask a deeper question:

Are we talking about the right thing in the right way?

Because the truth is health inequalities aren’t just about race. They’re about culture. And if we’re serious about closing the gap, we need to be willing to shift the conversation.

Race is a Label. Culture is a Lived Experience.

Race tells us very little about who someone is beyond how the world might see them. Culture, on the other hand, tells us how someone sees themselves.

Culture shapes:

The words people use to describe pain or illness
Who they trust for advice or care
Beliefs about health, healing, pregnancy, food, ageing, and death
How they interact with doctors or systems
Their support networks and coping mechanisms
The stigma or silence around certain conditions

When healthcare focuses only on race, it risks flattening people into categories that erase their real needs and stories.

For example:

→ Two Black women might have completely different experiences of maternity care because one is from a Caribbean background and the other from Somalia with distinct languages, health beliefs, and expectations of care.

→ A South Asian man from India and a South Asian man from East Africa may share a racial label, but their cultural experiences of mental health, food, or family dynamics could be worlds apart.

Why Culture Matters in Health Inequalities

If we want to tackle health inequalities properly, culture gives us a better lens to ask:

What’s important to you in this situation?
How do you understand what’s happening to your body?
Who or what helps you feel safe, well, or heard?
What barriers are unique to your cultural context?

Culture holds the keys to designing healthcare that feels respectful, relevant, and real. This doesn’t mean race is irrelevant, racism and systemic bias absolutely shape health outcomes. But culture helps us move from labels to lives.

It invites healthcare providers to:

Be curious, not assumptive
Ask, not prescribe
Partner with communities, not talk at them
Build trust over transactions

Culture Is Where Change Happens

If race often tells us where inequality shows up, culture can tell us why and crucially, how to change it.

When we understand culture:

Health messaging lands better.
Interventions become more effective.
People feel seen, not stereotyped.
And healthcare starts to feel like it belongs to everyone.

Because at the heart of tackling health inequalities is a simple but powerful truth:

People don't live their lives in boxes like race categories. They live in stories, families, traditions, languages, and values. They live in culture.

And if health systems want to serve people well, they have to start there.

Cultural Factors Influencing Health

A diagram showcasing how cultural beliefs, language, and practices intersect to influence health behaviours and access to care.