For More Reasons Than One: Health Disparities Between Races

As I’ve continued to read the assigned articles throughout the semester I’ve begun to see a long chain of connections. It seems that through each unit the articles are trying to figure out which one idea is the cause of the many disparities between races. I don’t see one cause, I see many causes that contribute to the disparities in a sort of “domino affect” I guess you could say. Now that we’re looking at the health disparities between races, morbitity rate, mortality rate, etc., the studies still seem to portray that it is the environments that these people live in that are the biggest causes. I agree that when it comes down to it, the environments/residential areas do have an effect on the disparities but I think it goes much deeper than that and much further back in time. I think it all started even before the civil rights movement. African Americans, and many other minority groups had faced much oppression, discrimination, and segregation and when a certain group faces something like that, all they want to do is stick together. From all of the hardships that these racial groups faced they were already in a bad place to begin with. With them wanting to stick together it just led to them segregating themselves from everyone else whether it was consciously or subconsciously. Minority racial groups such as African Americans developed this comfort zone within their own race and they don’t want to get out of it, therefore they end up living in predominantly African American residential areas which are majority poor due to the low collective SES of the African American race. With having a low SES and living in poor residential areas it is very difficult to access good quality healthcare or even keep a good healthy diet and therefore the health of African Americans becomes much lower than other races.

After reading the article by Why Are There No Supermarkets in My Neighborhood? The Long Search for Fresh Fruit, Produce, and Healthy Food by Shannon Zenk I still couldn’t quite understand why good quality supermarkets were not in close proximity to the neighborhoods that really needed them. Some argue that these good quality supermarkets would not be able to make good business in an area where people could not afford their products. Sure, that reason is legitimate but I also argue that racism plays a part too. Everyone knows which races are the majorities that reside in the areas plagued by poverty and some may not want to help and serve those in these areas or just are not comfortable around them. The first step to good health is having a good diet but without access to the food needed to make these diets one will get nowhere. Better quality supermarkets need to take a shot at doing business in these poor areas, but try to compromise their prices to something that these people can afford but won’t put the company out of business. If access to good quality foods can be established then I believe the health disparities will begin to lessen and the health of this country as a whole can become better.