Last week, Congresspeople Brown, Booker, and Padilla declared racism a public health crisis that is responsible for disproportionate health outcomes by race.  “Communities of color continue to be disproportionately affected by negative health outcomes, from chronic diseases to maternal and infant mortality.” Disproportional health outcomes are tragic, but that’s not tied to racism. By alleging it is, these politicians shirk their duty to solve pressing problems, demonstrate their ignorance of government-supplied data, and falsely impugn America and the medical profession. 

Black babies die from sudden unexpected infant death syndrome at 2.1 times the rate of whites, but it has nothing to do with racism. One study showed that black mothers don’t follow the Safe to Sleep recommendations. Some said they thought they were unnecessary or made them uncomfortable. Another study pointed to black mothers’ continued use of high-risk sleep practices.

A 2019 study found that black people aged 51–55 were 28% more likely to have a chronic disease compared to white people of the same age. Many cried “racism,” but that’s not correct. Poor health outcomes are tied to increasingly sedentary lifestyles and being overweight.

Culturally, blacks don’t subscribe to thin is in. American blacks “in general accept larger body sizes and feel less guilty about overeating than other ethnic groups.” Blacks are least likely to engage in non-work physical activity or regular exercise, while Latinos are second. According to the CDC, “Black adults (49.9%) had the highest age-adjusted prevalence of obesity, followed by Hispanic adults (45.6%).” Blacks are the only racial group to disproportionately exceed the three categories of obesity. Blacks are 13.4% of the population but 25% of the overweight, 19% of the obese, and 22% of the severely obese population. The correlations between regular exercise and health care outcomes are impressive, for example, 25-50% reductions in depression, osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular deaths. 

Image: Lizzo. YouTube screen grab.

Being overweight is the single greatest contributing factor to an increased presence of diseases and other unfavorable health outcomes. The more people are overweight, the worse the outcomes. 

People who are obese have increased risks for many causes of death and serious disabilities, including maternal mortality, type 2 diabetes, neuropathy, hypertension, stroke, coronary heart, kidney, and gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, many forms of mental illness and decline, sleep disorders, amputations, difficulty functioning physically, and many types of cancer, including kidney, liver, and breast. 

Hypertension increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, which are the leading causes of death in the United States. About 55% of black adults have hypertension. A study reports that “High blood pressure has been a common significant factor associated with the excess disease burden for African Americans.” People of color are less likely to take measures to control hypertension, resulting in increased risks of dying from a stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease. 

Dr. Richard White, who is black and works at the Mayo Clinic, has studied the correlation between health literacy and health outcomes in minority populations. He does not point to racism as a causal factor.

It’s really going to require the African-American community to come together as a unit to really say, ‘you know what? this is our health as a community, this is something that we’re going to take the initiative and interest to improve ourselves and not necessarily rely on outside or external forces to try and make it happen for us.

That’s good advice. Some studies have found that African-American health habits are not influenced by external sources like medical doctors. Instead, they prefer informal sources. Blacks must draw their own conclusions and then act on them. 

Most of the data cited above comes from research supplied by the CDC and NIH. Why is Congress falsely asserting that disproportional health outcomes for communities of color are tied to racism and trying to hold all Americans responsible for minority health outcomes? Maybe it secures votes, but it won’t improve health outcomes, and it stokes the nation’s already plummeting racial disunity.