Racism as a Public Health Epidemic

This week’s project presentations have me considering how we can change the way we view racism in our culture. We have tried (however feebly) to combat blatant racism through anti-discrimination laws, integration laws, court case after court case, but people of color still have not achieved equality. Several studies have indicated that the everyday effects of living in a racially discriminatory society do not diminish overtime. There is no desensitization period. People of color experience lasting health effects from the chronic stress of everyday discrimination.

            Chronic stress is known to worsen existing medical conditions and put individuals at a greater risk for developing mental health disorders and early onset forms of other chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Many studies have shown that African American patients are less likely to receive adequate medical care and access to appropriate levels of pain medication than white patients. The disparities of healthcare between races is wide-ranging and can be illustrated through various examples, but one of the most troubling to me is the high mortality rate of black mothers and infants in the U.S. “African American women are more likely to lose a baby in the first year of life than women of any other race or ethnicity.”[1] This high mortality rate may be related to lower access to health care, and higher levels of poverty among African American populations in the U.S., but this cannot be seen as the limiting factor for the health of black infants and mothers. These statistics translate even to middle-class, well-educated black women and their pregnancies. Discrimination causes higher corticosteroid levels in people of color. Chronic, high levels of stress hormones have cascading effects in the body and in pregnant women, the stress of discrimination increases the rate of premature births, which increases risk of infant mortality.

For black mothers that are able to carry their babies to term there are even more statistics that indicate their increased health risks because of the discrimination: “black women are three times more likely to die [in or after childbirth] than white women.” [2] Beyond implicit bias against black women, recent mothers are frequently given inadequate after-care and their complaints and symptoms are often ignored. This is unacceptable. The truth of the matter is that regardless of race women are not taken seriously by doctors, but black women face even more discrimination and are more frequently dismissed by irresponsible health professionals. There are well documented, and frightening, mortality trends in the U.S, but little is being done to change the way hospitals and care-centers function. Considering the horrible health impacts of racism and discrimination in the U.S., I wonder if change could occur more quickly if federal authorities stopped viewing racism as an individual or ideological issue and declared racism as public health epidemic, requiring immediate action?

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[1] “How Racism May Cause Black Mothers To Suffer The Death Of Their Infants,” Morning Edition (NPR, December 20, 2017), https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/20/570777510/how-racism-may-cause-black-mothers-to-suffer-the-death-of-their-infants.

[2] Gene Demby, “Making The Case That Discrimination Is Bad For Your Health,” NPR.org, January 14, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/01/14/577664626/making-the-case-that-discrimination-is-bad-for-your-health.