Insult, Then Injury

Researchers are finding links between racial discrimination and long-term health

- Mojola Omole

FOR DECADES, it has been one of the most vexing questions facing researchers: Why do white people have such a health advantage over racialized groups in North America?

In 1985, a United States government task force showed that African Americans not only suffered more serious medical problems but black men were also dying an average of six years earlier than their white counterparts. Since the report’s release, dozens of studies have revealed similar disparities involving other minorities, including Indigenous people, Asian people, and Hispanic people. In the US, breast cancer rates among Korean and Southeast Asian women have been increasing faster than among any other group, and Hispanic people die at higher rates from chronic liver disease. While race-based health information isn’t collected or made available in Canada in a systematic way, we do know, according to a 2016 survey, that immigrant black women have higher odds of hypertension than immigrant white women.