Responses to Racism, Health, and Social Inclusion as a Dimension of Successful Societies1

Objectives and Contributions This chapter informs one aspect of what makes societies successful: social inclusion. My focus is social recognition and cultural citizenship – who fits in, who belongs, who is “us” and who is “them.” Societies that are inclusive are societies that make room for the social recognition of a variety of groups. They are societies that sustain competing definitions of a worthy life and a worthy person, which empower low-status groups to contest stereotypes and measure their worth independently of dominant social matrices. They are also societies where people do not have to pay a heavy toll (symbolic or material) for crossing group boundaries – for intermarriage for instance.