Racism and Health: the Life Expectancy Gap
Have you ever wondered why Black people don’t live as long as White people? It’s true! When I was born, my life expectancy was six years greater than that of a Black male born at the exact same time. Six Years. After fifty years of racial “progress,” the gap remained exactly the same: Six years. It appears that being Black is just as bad for your health as being as smoker. Must be a genetic thing, right? Guess again. Although White and Black people have different genetic risks for different diseases, the gap in overall life expectancy is not explained by genetics.
It’s explained by a myriad of social factors, from environmental exposures, to socioeconomic deprivation, to differences in health care, and even to a bias in funding of medical research. In other words, to racism. Let’s take a look at the facts, starting with COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to ravage the country, with more than 6 million Americans infected and over 200,000 dead…so far.
When we look closely at the numbers, though, we find evidence of something even more troubling. Black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at about 3.6 times the age-adjusted rate of White Americans. More than triple the mortality risk. When looking at the ten nations of the world with the highest number of COVID deaths per population, if Black America was a country, it would be number one in the world for its COVID death rate. Number one.
What could possibly explain this? Again, this is not due to some sort of a genetic defect. The culprits are clear when we review the facts. They are the same factors that create the life expectancy gap. First, we know that Black people are more likely to live in environmentally-challenged neighborhoods where their health is already threatened by air and water pollution, if not the lead in their pipes. Plus, they have less access to health care, and the care they do receive is often below standard, which we will get into shortly. And they are more likely to have jobs that don’t allow for social distancing, which means they are disproportionately the essential workers on the front lines of this pandemic.
We should not be surprised that racial disparities appear in COVID survival. After all, Black adults are more likely to die from heart disease, strokes, and breast cancer. Black mothers are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth. And Black children are 10 times as likely to die from asthma. Believe me, nothing puts a crimp in your life expectancy like dying in childhood. As the CDC puts it, “African Americans are more likely to die at early ages from all causes.” That really doesn’t sound like a genetics thing, does it?
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