Diabetes Is An Epidemic
Diabetes is one of a number of chronic conditions -- along with cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases -- that is driving many of the top health issues around the world.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there are 415 million people with diabetes (2015), with numbers expected to reach more than 642 million by 2040!
The top countries include China, India, United States, Russia, Germany, and Brazil; with other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and Japan having high rates of diabetes occurrence.
Diabetes Prevalence
Diabetes is prevalent in all races around the world. In the U.S., diabetes is prevalent especially in ethnic groups having a 50% to 75% higher probability of developing diabetes compared to Caucasians.
- African-Americans are 60% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
- Hispanic-Americans are 70% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
- Asian-Americans are 40% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
- Native-Americans are almost 3 times (~200%!) more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
- Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders are almost 2.5 times (250%!) more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
Unfortunately, African-Americans and other ethnic groups have similar high risk profiles for other diseases, including heart disease, cancer, obesity, and high blood pressure.
Health Disparities
African-Americans have to deal with unfair health disparities such as the lack of health insurance. In addition, African-Americans have to deal with other disparities including:
- Healthcare
- Medical Insurance
- Education
- Housing (Redlining, Gentrification)
- Job Employment
- Wealth Distribution
Unfortunately, many of these disparities are driven by racism in the United States.
Systemic racism, structural racism, institutional racism, and individual racism are the primary types of racism that have kept African-Americans and other ethnic groups from achieving the American Dream.
These forms of racism drive government policies, laws, housing policies, criminal justice practices, employment practices, media beliefs, etc. -- all of which affect the lives of African-Americans in multiple ways.
Health Disparities Between Blacks and Whites Run Deep
Being a person of color in America is bad for your health. That’s the theme of a new op-ed written by David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Writing in U.S. News and World Report, Williams and Lavizzo-Mourey say that acknowledging the links between racism and poor health will be critical to closing the health equity gap.
In the U.S., health disparities between blacks and whites run deep. For example, blacks have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease than other groups, and black children have a 500% higher death rate from asthma compared with white children. Williams and Lavizzio-Moruey write that geography plays a large role in all of this because, “where we live determines opportunities to access high-quality education, employment, housing, fresh foods or outdoor space – all contributors to our health.”
The authors write that some cities have been successful in reducing health inequities. In Philadelphia, a focus on prioritizing physical activity in schools and improving access to fresh foods has helped childhood obesity rates fall by 6.3% in the last seven years, with the biggest drops among black and Asian children.
According to Williams and Lavizzo-Mourey there is no single solution to the societal racism and poverty that contribute to poor health, but they write that, “…we now know enough to improve the situation. Health builds from where we live, learn, work and play – and only secondarily in the doctor’s office.”
The American health care system in beset with inequalities that have a disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. These inequalities contribute to gaps in health insurance coverage, uneven access to services, and poorer health outcomes among certain populations. African Americans bear the brunt of these health care challenges.
African Americans comprise 13.4 percent of the U.S. population.1 Over the span of several decades, namely since the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, they have been able to make notable strides in American society. According to the Economic Policy Institute, educational attainment has greatly increased, with more than 90 percent of African Americans aged 25–29 having graduated from high school.
College graduation rates have also improved among African Americans. When it comes to income, gains have been made as well, but African Americans are still paid less than white Americans for the same jobs and lag significantly behind when it comes to accumulating wealth. And as for home ownership, just over 40 percent of African Americans own a home—a rate virtually unchanged since 1968.3
African Americans are also living longer, and the majority of them have some form of health insurance coverage. However, African Americans still experience illness and infirmity at extremely high rates and have lower life expectancy than other racial and ethnic groups. They are also one of the most economically disadvantaged demographics in this country.
Forms of Racism
Reference: http://www.aclrc.com/forms-of-racism
Racism occurs between individuals, on an interpersonal level, and is embedded in organizations and institutions through their policies, procedures and practices. In general, it may seem easier to recognize individual or interpersonal acts of racism: a slur made, a person ignored in a social or work setting, an act of violence.
However, "individual" racism is not created in a vacuum but instead emerges from a society's foundational beliefs and "ways" of seeing/doing things, and is manifested in organizations, institutions, and systems (including education). Below are some useful definitions:
Individual Racism refers to an individual's racist assumptions, beliefs or behaviours and is "a form of racial discrimination that stems from conscious and unconscious, personal prejudice" (Henry & Tator, 2006, p. 329). Individual Racism is connected to/learned from broader socio-economic histories and processes and is supported and reinforced by systemic racism.
Because we live in such a culture of individualism (and with the privilege of freedom of speech), some people argue that their statements/ideas are not racist because they are just "personal opinion." Here, it is important to point out how individualism functions to erase hierarchies of power, and to connect unrecognized personal ideologies to larger racial or systemic ones. (That is, individualism can be used as a defensive reaction.) This is why it is crucial to understand systemic racism and how it operates.
Systemic Racism includes the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions, which result in the exclusion or promotion of designated groups. It differs from overt discrimination in that no individual intent is necessary. (Toronto Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations. Race Relations: Myths and Facts)
It manifests itself in two ways:
- institutional racism: racial discrimination that derives from individuals carrying out the dictates of others who are prejudiced or of a prejudiced society
- structural racism: inequalities rooted in the system-wide operation of a society that excludes substantial numbers of members of particular groups from significant participation in major social institutions. (Henry & Tator, 2006, p. 352)
Institutional racism – Recognizing that racism need not be individualist or intentional, institutional racism refers to institutional and cultural practices that perpetuate racial inequality. Benefits are structured to advantage powerful groups as the expense of others. Jim Crow laws and redlining practices are two examples of institutional racism.
Structural racism – Structural racism refers to the ways in which the joint operation of institutions (i.e., inter-institutional arrangements and interactions) produce racialized outcomes, even in the absence of racist intent. Indicators of structural racism include power inequalities, unequal access to opportunities, and differing policy outcomes by race. Because these effects are reinforced across multiple institutions, the root causes of structural racism are difficult to isolate. Structural racism is cumulative, pervasive, and durable.
Some forms of systemic racism may be more explicit or easier (for some) to identify than others:
Jim Crow Laws in the US, which were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Enacted after the Civil War, the laws denied equal opportunity to black citizens.
The exclusion of African-American golfers from elite, private golf courses in the US;
The way that "universal suffrage" did not include Indigenous North American women (nor did Indigenous men receive the vote until 1960, unless they gave up their status/identity as Indigenous).
Jim Crow Laws in the US, which were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Enacted after the Civil War, the laws denied equal opportunity to black citizens.
The exclusion of African-American golfers from elite, private golf courses in the US;
The way that "universal suffrage" did not include Indigenous North American women (nor did Indigenous men receive the vote until 1960, unless they gave up their status/identity as Indigenous).
Some Canadian examples of systemic racism include:
the Indian Residential School System in Canada.
the 1885 Head Tax, the 1923 Exclusion Act, the 1897 Female Refugee Act, passed in Ontario, which criminalized 'immoral' and 'incorrigible' acts conducted by women if they were found to be pregnant out of wedlock or drunk in public.
the Indian Residential School System in Canada.
the 1885 Head Tax, the 1923 Exclusion Act, the 1897 Female Refugee Act, passed in Ontario, which criminalized 'immoral' and 'incorrigible' acts conducted by women if they were found to be pregnant out of wedlock or drunk in public.
Other forms or manifestations of systemic racism may not be as readily obvious to some, usually those privileged by the system. Click here to see three more examples of systemic racism.
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