I see discrepancies like this all the time. As I see it, there two interpretations of the gaps in black/white mortality:
1) African-Americans tend to make poor lifestyle choices and collectively have much higher rates of violence and poverty, of course they have poor health outcomes. Duh.
2) African Americans are stupid little children who cannot be responsible for their own lives, victimized by evil people on all sides, we must save them from everything by making sure they can't buy i.e. menthol cigarettes, even when they murder each other at 14x the rate of all others in America that's not their fault don't punish them. High rates of prostate cancer must be due to "racism", blah blah Tuskeege (which 90% of black people have never heard of). See: "Stupid little children".
I'm not trying to be offensive, this crap diminishes the dignity of everybody around it, black people, white people, doctors, even honest people like yourself reporting the truth. People with money to be made seize on any gap in health outcomes as deliberate racist action and ignore both structural differences in lifestyle but also real broad-based improvements that are helping all.
Well, there are other causes of death where the gaps differ.
With respect to some cancers, one wonders if there are genetic propensities as well -- there are genes we know of (and there are sure to be genes we don't know of) associated with early onset breast cancer, for instance.
Some of the racial differences, fwiw, may come from geographic differences -- the races aren't spread evenly in terms of where they live in the U.S. Places like South Carolina and Georgia, for instance, have much higher percentage of black population than California or Texas. You get very different lifestyles in those areas. It appears in differences in white populations geographically, too.
But one will see other racial gaps in a few other causes of death I'm about to touch on... and they can go in different directions.
I see discrepancies like this all the time. As I see it, there two interpretations of the gaps in black/white mortality:
1) African-Americans tend to make poor lifestyle choices and collectively have much higher rates of violence and poverty, of course they have poor health outcomes. Duh.
2) African Americans are stupid little children who cannot be responsible for their own lives, victimized by evil people on all sides, we must save them from everything by making sure they can't buy i.e. menthol cigarettes, even when they murder each other at 14x the rate of all others in America that's not their fault don't punish them. High rates of prostate cancer must be due to "racism", blah blah Tuskeege (which 90% of black people have never heard of). See: "Stupid little children".
I'm not trying to be offensive, this crap diminishes the dignity of everybody around it, black people, white people, doctors, even honest people like yourself reporting the truth. People with money to be made seize on any gap in health outcomes as deliberate racist action and ignore both structural differences in lifestyle but also real broad-based improvements that are helping all.
I would love to see it fade away in my lifetime.
Well, there are other causes of death where the gaps differ.
With respect to some cancers, one wonders if there are genetic propensities as well -- there are genes we know of (and there are sure to be genes we don't know of) associated with early onset breast cancer, for instance.
Some of the racial differences, fwiw, may come from geographic differences -- the races aren't spread evenly in terms of where they live in the U.S. Places like South Carolina and Georgia, for instance, have much higher percentage of black population than California or Texas. You get very different lifestyles in those areas. It appears in differences in white populations geographically, too.
But one will see other racial gaps in a few other causes of death I'm about to touch on... and they can go in different directions.