By Ariyana Griffin
AFRO Staff Writer
agriffin@afro.com
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), racism can lead to massive disparities in various systems, such as inequity within interconnected political, economic and social systems. It’s no surprise then, when experts say systemic racism also can lead to negative impacts on a person’s physical and mental health.
PHOTO: Photo courtesy of creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
A 2022 survey completed by the Pew Research Center, titled “Black Americans Have a Clear Vision for Reducing Racism but Little Hope It Will Happen,” states that “roughly eight in 10 say they have personally experienced discrimination because of their race or ethnicity (79 percent), and most also say discrimination is the main reason many Black people cannot get ahead (68 percent).”
The report also revealed another fact: after experiencing racism in a variety of forms, Black Americans are “concerned about racial discrimination and its impact.”
But Black people aren’t the only ones concerned about the effects of racism. In 2021, the CDC took a significant step by officially declaring racism as a public health threat. This declaration underscores the urgent need to address the profound impact of racism on health.
Racism in the healthcare system can result in a lack of health resources and inequities. Black people, specifically, are then disproportionately impacted by a range of diseases and chronic conditions.
According to the CDC, “racial and ethnic minority populations experience higher rates of poor health and disease in a range of health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma and heart disease, when compared to their White counterparts.” The CDC also reports that as a result of these conditions, “life expectancy among Black or African Americans is four years lower than that of White Americans.”
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are non-medical factors that can affect the outcomes of one’s health and the CDC states that the determining factors are age, where someone has lived, grown up and work. According to the CDC, SDOH includes “healthcare access and quality, education access and quality, social and community context, economic stability, and neighborhood and built environment.”
The CDC also warns that “SDOH, including the effects of centuries of racism, are key drivers of health inequities within communities of color. The impact is pervasive and deeply embedded in our society, creating inequities in access to a range of social and economic benefits—such as housing, education, wealth, and employment.”
In the pandemic, these conditions only further exacerbated the effects of the coronavirus on Black bodies, already predisposed to disease due to environment and other social determinants of health.
Dr. Stephen B. Thomas, a founding director of the University of Maryland Center of Health Equity and a professor in the Health Policy and Management department, noted how COVID-19 infections wreaked havoc on the Black neighborhoods where people were already fighting other diseases due to circumstances beyond their control.
“There was a disproportionate burden in the pandemic minority communities because of their exposure to the virus and pre-existing conditions– diabetes, heart disease, cancer– all kinds of debilitating diseases that made them more vulnerable,” said Dr. Thomas.
He shared that COVID-19 is still doing damage today, alongside other factors that are non-medical related.
For example, Dr. Thomas said that the lack of grocery stores, the high accessibility of processed fast food and chronic stress all contribute to negative health outcomes and increased susceptibility to the virus, which has mutated multiple times.
According to Feeding America, a nationwide nonprofit that is committed to fighting food insecurity, “22 percent of Black people in the United States experienced food insecurity – more than twice the rate of White people.” The organization states that this is due to Black communities being “disproportionately affected due to systemic racism and economic inequality.”
The results are clear. The Office of Minority Health states that in 2022, “African-American were 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic White adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician.”
All of this leads to added stress on the body, furthering the impact of negative health outcomes.
“A lot of our community is under chronic stress,” he shared and he explained that this can lead to people not having the time to make healthy meals along with the struggles of them living in a food desert. “Obesity and all the things that come with it are all around us,” he said.
Chronic stress can adversely affect the cardiovascular system and cause headaches, muscle tension, blurred vision, reoccurring infections and other symptoms.
Pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, “are driven by exposure to chronic stress – like chronic stress of racism,” Dr. Thomas told the AFRO.
More health issues arise when talking about how people cope with these issues. Dr. Thomas shared that drinking, smoking and overeating are coping habits that can further worsen health conditions.
“There are consequences to living in a society and constant stress– where there’s not only easy access to guns but easier access to sugar, and a bottle of water costs more than a soda. We’re seeing the consequences,” said Dr. Thomas.
He suggests that people do their due diligence in learning about health issues, being mindful about what they eat and learning more about clinical trials.
Dr. Thomas said that while Black people are disproportionately impacted by a host of diseases, they are at the same time underrepresented in clinical trials that test the safety and efficacy of new medicines and treatments.
“The science that is leading to the success in curing diseases and in treating it, the science that currently exists, does not include the input of Black people as participants,” said Dr. Thomas. “By learning more about clinical trials, our community can gain better healthcare and be proactive in addressing health disparities.”