African American Inequality

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Pages: 5

It has been established that discrimination and inequality in society leads to mental and social distress, however few are aware of the physical harm that is done. The 2008 PBS documentary, Unnatural Causes...Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, discusses how stress among African American woman has had negative repercussions toward their newborns. It’s a known fact that People of higher income and education tend to live longer and have fewer health problems in the long run. African American woman have a harder time obtaining a higher education/higher income due to the discriminatory environment they are born into.It’s the unequal treatment of African Americans and other groups of minorities in our society that has led to the poor health of African …show more content…
Jefferson. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line (Jefferson 208).” The chapter discusses how millions of Americans felt betrayed by the justice system, the democracy fails to provide an equal deliverance of the goods and services this country has to offer. Discrimination among minorities has always played a social role and continues to be a problem. When you cannot walk through a grocery store without being glanced at by workers or followed, it starts to take a toll on one’s soul. It is almost like society is against you, this in itself causes stress because minorities now always have to have their guard …show more content…
Class is the most potent factor in creating or denying opportunities and it has been clear for centuries that African Americans find themselves starting at the bottom of the taldom pole, needing to work twice as hard to match up with non-minorities. Thousands of minorities show u to interview for “low-skilled, low-wage, and dead-end jobs,” because this is all that is provided based on their social class (Jefferson 211). The reality is that there is a higher percentage of minorities in the low class spectrum of society than non-minorities for whatever reasons. This causes more stressful opportunities; whether it be a dangerous neighborhood, difficulty paying bills,etc. The environment which one is in affects the amount of stress pumped into their bodies, which affects overall health. Even someone as successful as Kim Anderson went through enough stress to change pregnancy results.According to studies stated in the PBS documentary, there is a 4/1000 birth mortality rate for whites while there is a rate of 10/1000 birth mortality rate for blacks. Shockingly, educated blacks have a higher mortality rate than whites who have dropped out of high