risk of overweight or abdominal obesity among black women in the Caribbean (Tull et al. 1999; Chambers et al. 2004; Butler et al. 2002), and with waist circumferences, diastolic blood pressure and fasting glucose among black women but not men in Africa (Tull et al. 2007). Racial stereotypes are only one source of self-stereotyping. Their influence needs to be combined with other sources of stigmatization, especially those that are more likely to be prevalent among socially disadvantaged populations. For example, there are elevated rates of obesity in many racial minority populations and evidence of both a stigma linked to obesity and discrimination targeted at overweight individuals (Carr and Friedman 2005). Future research needs to explore the extent to which elevated health risks are located at multiple intersections of stigmatization and discrimination. Understanding how experiences of racial discrimination relate to internalized racism and combine to affect health is also important (Carter 2007).
