Health

Black Americans are more likely than white Americans to develop Alzheimer’s disease. They are less likely to be diagnosed and get treatment. The reasons are many and systemic and can be traced to American health inequities that follow Black people from birth to death.

When Sen. Feinstein returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room earlier this month, the 89-year-old got a standing ovation. But Rep. Dean Phillips shared concerns about the Democrat’s physical and mental fitness.

In a nation plagued by high blood pressure, Black people are more likely to suffer from it. And so, in the time of COVID-19, they are more likely than white people to die. It’s a stark reality. And it has played out in thousands of Black households that have lost mothers and fathers over the past three years, a distinct calamity within the many tragedies of the pandemic.

The drivers of the youth mental health crisis for Black children begin early and persist through a lifetime. Black children’s first encounters with racism can start before they are even in school, and Black teenagers report experiencing an average of five instances of racial discrimination per day.

Black children are more likely to have asthma than kids of any other race in America. They’re more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers, because of racist housing laws in the nation’s past.

Black women in the U.S. are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy or delivery than any other race. Some doctors don't take their concerns seriously. Black babies are more likely to die, and also far more likely to be born prematurely.