The numbers are an alarming reminder of concerning gaps in health care—and they are not entirely surprising, according to experts on racial health disparity. The study’s authors say their findings should be a “call to action” for policymakers. “There’s no biological, intrinsic reason why people with darker skin should have shorter life spans,” says Harlan Krumholz, a study co-author and a cardiologist at Yale University. But because of the systemic racism that plagues American society, “the family you’re born into in this country can have devastating consequences.”

Looks at black morbid obesity rates, diabetes rates, dietary content, hereditary diseases like sickle cell, etc. Plus you flagrant fucking retard “systemic racism” since 2000 was apparently helping black people live longer until 2020, what happened there again?

A handful of conditions, heart disease chief among them, caused many of these deaths. There are multiple reasons for this, says epidemiologist and internal medicine physician Lisa Cooper of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, who did not work on the new study. For example, economic barriers often lead to Black people living in places where it’s difficult to access healthy food, space to exercise or adequate health care. And living in a racist society takes an additional toll on mental health. It’s “almost like a cascading effect” on overall health, Cooper says.

Blatant fucking lies. Anyone can easily live off vegetables and cheap proteins, THE DIFFERENCE IS CHOICE. “Space to exercise” holy fuck is this pathetic reaching. “Living in a racist society takes an additional toll on mental health” 😂😂😂 this is just beyond insanity. Once again, why was the “racist” 2000s better than now?

Progress was short-lived, however. Around 2011 the gap between Black and white excess deaths stabilized. “I think it really had to do with obesity,” Harris says. In the 1970s and 1980s heavily processed foods became cheap and plentiful in the U.S. A few decades later the effects were reflected in death rates. The same socioeconomic disadvantages that led to high rates of heart disease made the Black population especially vulnerable.

It’s white peoples fault we drank all the grape koolaid and ate fast food for every meal.

Then, in 2020, COVID hit the U.S., obliterating any progress on reducing health disparities over the past two decades. The disease was a leading cause of death among Black people, as it was in other marginalized populations. Indirect effects of the pandemic also exacerbated other health conditions: heart disease spiked again, for example. For the Black male population, deaths from assault also surged. The recent study does not address why assault rates increased in this population, but Cooper speculated that pandemic-related stress increased interpersonal violence, which was compounded by law enforcement systemically targeting Black men. “All of those things, I would venture to say, contributed,” she says.

“Why are all of these young black men dying? Must be the KKK”