The research reviewed also raises larger questions for future research and policy regarding health and its determinants. The accumulating evidence emphasizes that health policy, across multiple societies needs to encompass the legacies of racial and ethnic inequality and the levels of intolerance, incivility and anti-immigrant sentiment. These factors appear to matter a lot for the health of targeted groups and as such require greater attention as a focus of health policy. Racism and ethnocentrism may not be inevitable. In the U.S., there have been marked declines in racial prejudice and discrimination in the last several decades that have resulted from a broad range of interventions (Schuman et al. 1997). However, there is still considerable opportunity to improve relations among population groups defined by race, ethnicity, migration history and other stigmatized social statuses. There is also the need to more seriously begin to provide targeted relief to individuals suffering from exposure to discrimination. One recent study provided the sobering finding that a written disclosure intervention that has been shown to be successful in improving health outcomes such as immune functioning among
