Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America

Helena Hansen, Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UC Los Angeles

This talk excavates the ways that the US "opioid crisis" of the past two decades came to be seen as white. Based on over a decade of participant observation in the field of addiction medicine, which has evolved in tandem with the marketing of Oxycontin, Professor Hansen reviews several "technologies of whiteness" - neuroscience, new biotechnology development, regulation and marketing - that explain the racial symbolism and demographics of opioids. The talk ends with a glimpse of alternatives to racial capitalism as the foundation for US healthcare.
Sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, part of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

Co-sponsored by: Othering and Belonging Institute, Berkeley Public Health

10/13/2023