Why do African Americans live sicker and die younger? The Skin You’re In argues that answer involves two key reasons: The first is the legacy of slavery, followed by racial segregation. Racism rooted in America’s sociopolitical DNA set the European settlers and enslaved African newcomers to the “new world” on dramatically divergent paths for generations. After slavery’s end, ongoing legal segregation and racial terror cemented their divergent fates. Racism causes constant stress. Stress causes the human body to react with an either fight, flight or freeze response. No human, regardless of race, can thrive successfully long term while under constant stress. The geographic separation of people based on race causes exposure to health hazards to differ among groups. For example, toxic waste sites are more likely to be in predominantly African American communities. Cigarettes and alcohol are more likely to be marketed to Black communities. And, resources that support healthy lifestyles are less available in Black neighborhoods, such as full quality supermarkets, full-service restaurants, and physicians in private practice. So, poor health is a natural predicatable outcome of any group -- regardless of their so-called race -- living under such adverse conditions.
Why African Americans Live Sicker and Die Younger
Why African Americans Live Sicker and Die Younger
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African Americans are genetically programmed to hold salt in our bodies, which is why we are more prone to high blood pressure.List Item 4
This is a false theory that has no scientific basis at all. Even if African American bodies were somehow “made” to hold more salt, this alone would not cause the elevated blood pressure that is prevalent. Pathophysiological, anthropological, and historical data have disproven this theory.
Citation: Lujan, Heidi L, and Stephen E Dicarlo. “The ‘African Gene’ Theory: It Is Time to Stop Teaching and Promoting the Slavery Hypertension Hypothesis.” Advances in Physiology Education, vol. 42, no. 3, 2018, pp. 412–416.
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African Americans don’t need to use sunscreen. We are immune to common skin cancers.
The belief that melanin naturally protects black people from UV rays is false. African Americans are not resistant to hyperpigmentation, dark spots, wrinkles, sunburns, and cancer. Skin cancer is less prevalent in the black community, but it still occurs. When it occurs it is too often diagnosed at a later stage because of myths like this. This causes higher deaths rates among African Americans from skin cancer.
Citation: Doggett, Jolie A. “Yes, Black People Do Need To Wear Sunscreen.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 15 Aug. 2019.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-skin-sunscreen cancer_l_5d540570e4b0cfeed1a68cea
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African Americans have nerves that are less sensitive, so we don’t feel as much physical pain compared to other people
Unfortunately, racist “quack science” thinking persists still, even in America’s top medical institutions! Recent surveys have revealed that many white medical students and residents believe black people feel less pain than white people because of differences in nerve endings. Research has also shown that black people are less likely to receive pain medication in emergency rooms when they complain about pain. Again, black and white people do not have differences in nerve endings because there are no genetic or biological differences between the races.
Citation: Hoffman, Kelly M, et al. “Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment Recommendations, and False Beliefs about Biological Differences between Blacks and Whites.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 113, no. 16, 2016, pp. 4296–4301.
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African Americans have poor health because of our low income, education, or high poverty rates compared to other groupsList Item 1
Even blacks that are highly educated and with high incomes have poorer health outcomes than their white counterparts. Education, economic status, and even access to healthcare are far less important in producing the African American health gap. Increased stress, poor diet choices, and biases by healthcare providers against African Americans, are all key factors rooted in racism that lead to poorer health.
Citation: Beth J. Soldo, et al. “Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in Late Life.” Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Health of Older Americans, 2000, pp. 106–162.
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African Americans have poorer health because of our genetic makeup. Black folks just have bad genes.List Item 3
Race is a social construct. We are not born racist. There are no genetic differences between the races. The melanin that determines the differences in skin colors is as significant as our different hair textures or eye colors. Though the long history of bad science used to attempt to justify race superiority has done significant ongoing damage, respected scientists agree there is no biological or genetic basis for racial categories. Race was created by white elitists centuries ago to maintain their power and privilege over others, including poor whites. Not one characteristic, trait, or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.
Citation: Chen, Angus. “Is It Time To Stop Using Race In Medical Research?” NPR, NPR, 5 Feb. 2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/05/465616472/is-it-time-to-stop-using-race-in-medical-research.
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The poor health of African Americans is ONLY because of our low access to healthcare and or our unwillingness to use healthcare when it’s available.List Item 2
The effects of past racism are still with us today. For example, the black neighborhoods that were redlined generations ago are often poor and underserved now, unless, of course, they've been gentrified. As long as the legacies of enslavement and racial segregation go unaddressed by policy makers, African Americans will continue to experience poorer health outcomes than their white counterparts. As long as institutional racism persists, African Americans will continue to experience poorer health outcomes. Having universal healthcare is a needed big step to help narrow the gap, but will not eliminate health inequity. Eradicating racism througout the health care system will.
Citation: Noonan, Allan S, et al. “Improving the Health of African Americans in the USA: an Overdue Opportunity for Social Justice.” Public Health Reviews, vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, p. 12.
A lot is known about how to improve Black health outcomes. So why has the problem remained so difficult to solve? Perhaps it is because the racial health gap has not been treated as a national crisis in the way that slavery or lynching or voting rights eventually were. Black moral activisim has been critical to forcing policy makers to overcome differences to confront racial injustice in America. As America debates healthcare reform, it is past time that we eliminate racial health injustice. All Americans deserve quality health care.
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Blueprint for Solving Black Health InequalityList Item 1
Research on racial and ethnic disparities in health care has mainly focusing on describing the problem rather than identifying the best practices or proven strategies to address it. This paper publishes the findings of the Disparities Solution Center, whose goal was to decide on innovative action items and adoption strategies to address health disparities. The forum concluded that to identify and effectively address racial/ethnic disparities in health care, health care organizations should: (1) collect race and ethnicity data on patients or enrollees in a routine and standardized fashion; (2) implement tools to measure and monitor for disparities in care; (3) develop quality improvement strategies to address disparities; (4) secure the support of leadership; (5) use incentives to address disparities; and (6) create a messaging and communication strategy for these efforts. This article also discusses these recommendations in the context of both current efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care and barriers to progress.
Article Title: A Plan for Action: Key Perspectives from the Racial/Ethnic Disparities Strategy Forum from the Racial/Ethnic Disparities Strategy Forum Citation: King, Roderick K., et al. “A Plan for Action: Key Perspectives from the Racial/Ethnic Disparities Strategy Forum.” Milbank Quarterly, vol. 86, no. 2, 2008, pp. 241–272.
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Improved Education and Income Leads to Better Health
The objective should be to improve population health for all groups to the maximum extent. Ironically, enhancing population health and even the health of the disadvantaged can conflict with efforts to reduce disparities. This paper presents data showing that interventions that offer some of the largest possible gains for the disadvantaged may also increase disparities. It also examines policies that offer the potential to decrease disparities while improving population health. Enhancement of educational attainment and access to health services and income support for those in greatest need appear to be particularly important pathways to improved population health.
Article Title: Disadvantage, Inequality, And Social Policy: Major Initiatives intended to improve health may also increase health disparities
Citation: Mechanic, David. “Disadvantage, Inequality, and Social Policy.” Health Affairs, vol. 21, no. 2, 2002, pp. 48–59.
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Increased Health Care Access, Means Improved HealthList Item 4
Chronically ill Americans from racial and ethnic minorities have much to gain from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. These Americans are more likely to be without health insurance coverage—they make up more than half of America's uninsured—and they suffer higher rates of chronic illness than the general population. Being uninsured often means postponing needed health care services. Because people of color are disproportionaltely poor and without health coverage, they are diagnosed at more advanced disease stages. Once diagnosed, they receive poorer care. This paper primarily focuses on how implementation of provisions in the Affordable Care Act can help those who benefit the least from our current health system by addressing disdparities in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic illnesses, thus easing the additional health care burdens borne by racial and ethnic minorities with chronic conditions.
Article Title: Easing the Burden: Using Health Care Reform to Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care for the Chronically Ill
Citation: Russell, Lesley. “Easing the Burden.” Center for American Progress, 16 Dec. 2010.
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Models That Have Been Tried and WorkList Item 3
In 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation created Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, a program to identify, evaluate, and disseminate interventions to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the care and outcomes of patients with Cardiovascular disease, depression, and diabetes. This paper provides a model for interventions that aim to reduce disparities in health. The key findings from six other papers on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, breast cancer, interventions using cultural leverage, pay-for-performance and public reporting of performance measures are summarized in a way that is easy to digest. The multifactorial, culturally tailored interventions that target different causes of disparities will hold the most promise, but much more research is needed to investigate potential solutions and their implementation.
Article Title: Interventions to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health CareHealth Care
Citation: Chin, Marshall H, et al. “Interventions to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.” Medical Care Research and Review, vol. 64, no. 5_suppl, 2007, pp. 7S–28S.
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The More We Know, The More We Can Do for OurselvesList Item 2
The purpose of this workbook is to provide a tool for public health practitioners and partners interested in addressing social determinants of health to promote health and achieve health equity. The Institute of Medicine has defined public health as “what we as a society do to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy collectively.” Early efforts to describe the relationship between these conditions and health outcomes has focused on factors such as water, air quality, and food safety. More recent public health efforts, particularly in the past decade, has identified a broader array of conditions affecting health, including community design, housing, employment, access to health care, access to healthy foods, environmental pollutants, and occupational safety. The link between the social determinants of health, including social, economic, environmental conditions, and health outcomes is widely recognized in public health literature. Moreover, it is increasingly understood that inequitable distribution of these conditions across various populations is a significant contributor to persistent and pervasive health disparities.
Article Title: Promoting Health Equity A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health
Citation: Brennan Ramirez LK, Baker EA, Metzler M. Promoting Health Equity: A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health. Atlanta: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2008.
