Segregation doubled the odds of some Black children dying in U.S. cities 100 years ago

From the choice of schools to safety to access to green spaces and healthy food, the neighborhood where a child is raised can play a determining role in their future health . And because structural racism can systematically silo nonwhite people in certain neighborhoods, those local factors shape the health of millions of people of color in the United States. Now, census data link Black children’s neighborhoods and mortality rates in the early 20th century, exposing segregation’s devastating impact on health more than 100 years ago. The study shows segregation drove racial health disparities “not just today, but [also] in the past,” says New York University community psychologist Adolfo Cuevas, who was not involved in the work. John Parman, an economist at the College of William & Mary, says the new results are striking because they document the impacts even before the makings of the Jim Crow era in the late 19th century, which legalized and enforced racial segregation and is known to have exacerbated health inequities. A growing body of evidence has shown that, today, neighborhoods with majority nonwhite residents tend to have poorer health—the result of many accumulated social and environmental inequalities such as systematic overcrowding, higher noise levels due to industrial projects, and exposure to toxic hazards. But how early such residential segregation began to affect health was not clear, says J’Mag Karbeah, a hea...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news