emer:

mjmont:

emer:

In 2007, the average life expectancy at birth for persons born in the United States was 77.9 years, an increase of 1.1 years from 2000 and an increase of 0.2 years from 2006. For black males and females, life expectancy increased by approximately 2 y

Why?

You reminded me that I forgot to put more down on this… and that my message got cut off.

It’s nature, not nurture—this article provides one explanation of the health disparities between races caused by the stresses of… tada! Racism!  Some people (i.e. people of privilege) find this theory (called “weathering”) pretty controversial, but otherwise, how do you account for the same disparities existing after you control for socioeconomic variables and other behavioral variables (such as smoking)?

There are however, plenty of Nature arguments. Institutional racism affects class and therefore job opportunities, learning opportunity in school, neighborhood safety, home health and therefore life expectancy.