Changing the story on health and racial equity: Why public health needs an infrastructure for building narrative power

Changing the story on health and racial equity: Why public health needs an infrastructure for building narrative power

As the field of public health strives to advance health and racial equity amid intense political pushback, we need more than better messaging: We need narrative power and infrastructure. In this commentary for Milbank Quarterly, BMSG Director Lori Dorfman and co-authors Sarah Gollust, Makani Themba, Pritpal S. Tamber, and Anthony Iton use real-world examples and lessons drawn from tobacco control and anti-racism advocacy to show how we can make health-promoting narratives, mindsets, and policies the norm.