First it was “Driving while Black”. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the “Living while Black Index”.
(BET.com) Being Black in America is enough to make you sick, two new studies suggest.
That’s what two Penn State University researchers found in developing their “Living While Black Index,†which measures Black quality of life.
Their report comes on the heels of an American Public Health Association study published last Thursday that found that people who experience racial discrimination report greater difficulty in achieving their goals and greater personal discomfort…
… “As you look at the factors, there is a social cost of being Black. The stressors have a lot to do with it. For instance, being exposed to the reality of discrimination impacts blood pressure. Our research makes it clear that the comprehensive ‘Living While Black’ stress factors pose a substantial public health issue.â€Â
The Penn State study dovetails with the American Public Health Association findings.
Of the 650 Blacks and Latinos surveyed, half reported that discrimination impeded their ability to achieve their goals; half reported that they felt discomfort in the way others treated them because of their race.
“The bottom line is that racial discrimination is a risk factor for mental health, and by extension, physical health,” said Gilbert Gee of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, who co-authored the study with colleagues at the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Minority Health Coalition. (more…)
While I agree that racial discrimination does exist here in America, to suggest that it has reached levels hazardous to our health is simply ridiculous. For starters, “discrimination” is defined by whatever the subject says it is, based on this article (I would like to get my hands on the actual study). If a non-Black person is hired over a Black person automatically mean that racial discrimination has taken place? To some, yes. Or how about a Black person being denied a loan? Discrimination or bad credit? As for the homicide rate in the Black community, it was much LOWER in the pre-civil rights era than it is today. It doesn’t take a study to conclude that exposure to real discrimination could raise blood pressure, but so does obesity and a history of a poor diet which are much more common foes faced in the Black community.
I think I get so ticked off at these “studies” because they always make the assertion that Black folks are a bunch of weak and frail individuals who can barely walk down the street under our own power or think straight unless the government is right there holding our hand. At the same time, they ignore other races that have migrated to this country and experienced similar hurdles–starting with Africans and Caribbeans.
