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Kelvin Dennis
Mrs.Kenly
British Lit
03/13/19

Health setbacks in the black community

What is there in black community for the government to not like to help the blacks and

for the blacks to not educate themselves for them to live better and complete lives. With the

medicine the world studies is almost 200 years old what could this money driven industry do to

help the black community gain the pride that sets the blacks up for success. Today there is no

way to know what the government is gonna do to hurt the system of the black community with

the things in the air to dropping crack in the hood’s and giving black men aids knowing there is

no cure but that either here nor there. With the research on minority health using the national

vital statistics system it should not be hard to end up with all the answers no one will answer.

To start there is many things holding the black community to a low standard of living or

holding the community back to the success they rightfully deserve for all the hurt they have been

through over the years. From high hiv rates, high blood pressure, and high death rates it either

makes or breaks you in the long run. The leading cause of death in the black community that has

been affecting the black community for a long time is obesity and diabetes. Theories include

higher rates of obesity and diabetes among African-Americans. Researchers have also found that
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there may be a gene that makes African-Americans much more salt sensitive (faststats health of

black americans). With the african american community fixing there diets would help change

these stats and make the police the only worry of the community.

The vogue of high blood pressure or also known as cardiovascular disease in African-

Americans in the United States has been among the highest in the world for over the past 60

years. More than 40 percent of the African-American men and women have high blood

pressure. For the African-American community high blood pressure also develops in the earlier

life stages and they usually more severe when the race grows in age. With the simple fact that

people will just have to cut out eating meat everyday, eat more veggies, and workout more to end

a stat will bring the african american community to be better and to continue to strive for

greatness and togetherness as a whole for as better community .

The implications are important in a population that has seen the rate of the african

american community dying from heart disease and stroke knowing there's an association with

HIV/AIDS evening cause blood pressure to rise. With a hypertensive crisis is a severe case in

blood pressure that can lead to a regular or even a mild stroke. The thing that comes with an

extremely high blood pressure will be a top number systolic pressure of 180 millimeters of

mercury mm/Hg or higher or the thing of a bottom number an diastolic pressure of 120 mm/ Hg

or higher. This type of thing always hurts in the long run and can damage blood vessels. As that

happens the heart may not be able to pump blood effectively. This is just a shown as an

epidemic in general its a stigma is one huge factor that holds the black community back as a

whole.
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When it comes to this next topic the community as a whole is quiet and there barely any

help in providing the facts to help the black gay community with any HIV/AIDS cases. With

atlanta taking the top spot as the gay capital running off san fascicio it also takes the lead as the

HIV capital of the world. With every 1 and 3rd person having HIV in atlanta but just in general

with there being 1 in 7 living with hiv/aids you would think the people in the world be more

careful in this day and age . Those things are big in the queer community and its hiv and aids

rates are though the roof.

With the people not knowing what there getting into. have it could be hard for them want

to live a loving life knowing they have something that would follow them for the rest of theirs

life which is always not able to be treated so teaching things to do to help them treat it and to

prevent it would make their community much more safe. By getting linked to HIV medical care

early it can end worries early by starting treatment with HIV medication called antiretroviral

therapy or ART for short adhering to this medication, and staying in care, people with HIV can

keep the virus under control, and prevent their HIV infection from progressing to AIDS and not

being another number in the stats in the african american community. To just keep it simple and

to keep everything under control getting tested once or twice a month can help you keep your

mind at peace.

The thing with hiding this epidemic is a choice as in denial, stigma and shame don’t help

the case of the major news outlets did not show that this was hurting mostly the black gay men

community. To help this crisis it requires the use of treatment as prevention, increasing sexual

education, and undoing the homophobic health disparities caused by the race barrier in general
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bystanders and mainly US healthcare system in particular why they don't care for the lack

community.

With the things that measure to keeping up with the setbacks you have to think about the

government in this situation and how they try to handle the things that happen in there country.

With as much money as they earn for the cancer society they never find a cure but that money

could be used on the black and brown community with greater things in the healthcare industry

we could be doing instead of using it for the wall and not giving any to the poor and people that's

truly under the poverty line.

The total national health expenditures, US $ Billions, 1970-2017. Health spending totaled

$74.6 billion in 1970. By 2000, health expenditures had reached about $1.4 trillion, and in 2017

the amount spent on health had more than doubled to $3.5 trillion. So when you think about there

should be no real reason for 328,693,610 it be united states and there about 5.0% of the black

people that don’t have healthcare . The healthcare spending has outgrown the u.s economy even

though healthcare has a huge GDP rate. Health spending as a share of the economy often

increases during economic downturns and remains relatively stable during expansionary periods

(How has U.S. spending on healthcare changed over time? Rabah Kamal and Cynthia Cox).

Meaning that even with government shutdowns the healthcare system with still flourish and

grow with people still in debt from medical bills when they could have the government pass a

healthcare law better than obamacare where everyone in the united states can have free health

care from the richest to the poorest can enjoy a healthy joy filled life knowing they could be sick
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and won't have to worry of how to paying their medical bills back when it could just be free in

the long run.

As in 2014 counted by Faststats.com the Affordable Care Act is benefiting millions of

African Americans and beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will provided 6.8 million

uninsured African Americans an opportunity to get affordable health insurance coverage. Before

2013 the Act help 85% of americans get better healthcare service even if they already were

covered. Where it was a low rate of of the african american community was covered. 3.1 million

young adults have gained coverage through the parents’ plans.6.6 million seniors are paying less

for prescription drugs.105 million Americans are paying less for preventative care & no longer

face lifetime coverage limits.13.1 million Americans have received rebates from insurance

companies.17 million children with pre-existing conditions no longer denied coverage or charged

extra (Fast Stats).

The Act has changed the pace of the government spending making the national grow

faster than the personal inflation rates of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage remain at an 3%

growth rate but we will never know if we can gain 100% access to free healthcare america like to

drag money out of every single thing like you will never own anything in america there’s taxes

on everything it's hard for the black community to live off low wages and basic health care when

they have big time issues with their body they don't have to worry living in a debt heavy life.
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One big thing in the black community is the lack of care in there mental health status of

the younger generation. The older people in the black community has to find a way to help the

youth thinking they can pray depression away. As people in the older black community takes

mental health as a joke with thinking they could just pray everything away like thats not always

the case for everyone. Out of the 34 million black people in the U.S about a little less than half

have had problems with they way they live to have stress and the way of a bad family life thats

leads to the things of a high rate of teen suicide in black families ( Black & African American

Communities and Mental Health). Meaning the already small community in the united states of

black people are hurting mentally with little to no help from family and people their close to in

general. Luckily there is programs like Black Health America to help the youth gain their sense

of mine back . To all the other things the youth in the black community go through mental health

should be the number one thing they take care of even though they have to worry about life in

general as being a young person in the community . There are many aspects of things when it

comes down to getting down to what causes the mental health problems what else cause we do to

solve them.

Despite progress made over the years, racism continues to have an impact on the mental health

of Black/African Americans. Negative stereotypes and attitudes of rejection have decreased, but

continue to occur with measurable, adverse consequences. Historical and contemporary instances

of negative treatment have led to a distrust of authorities, many of whom are not seen as having

the best interests of Black/African Americans in mind (Black & African American Communities

and Mental Health). The past reflects the future and the things that happened in the past has set a
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mind barrier in the black community minds of things that set us backs to cause anxiety because

it's nothing you can do about it.

Stigma and judgment prevents Black/African Americans from seeking treatment for their

mental illnesses. Research indicates that Black/African Americans believe that mild depression

or anxiety would be considered “crazy” in their social circles. Furthermore, many believe that

discussions about mental illness would not be appropriate even among family(Black & African

American Communities and Mental Health) . The older people in the black community say that

mental health wasn't really a problem because families back then were more tighter than .

Leaving with the aspect that you can just pray it away is crazy because mental health in your

head is an chemical imbalance that sends bad signals to your brain. With the black community be

super religious some people maybe would be able to relieve themselves form the stress this

causes.

Things that could help to end this is to make communication key from the youth to the

older people in the community. Actually getting the youth into these therapy programs have

some other help the people that's in the same mindset as them. With the affordable care Act in

place this possible that some people will get the help and attention the need to survive when

there in a dark place in life. While implementation of the Affordable Care Act has helped to
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close the gap in uninsured individuals, 15.9 percent of Black/African Americans, versus 11.1

percent of whites Americans were still uninsured in 2014 (Black & African American

Communities and Mental Health). As mental health stills becoming a rising problem you can see

how the governments gives no help to some people in the community that's also going through it

more than anybody else. The percentage of people who were unable to get or delayed in getting

needed medical care, or prescription medicines was significantly higher for people with no health

insurance (18.7%) than for people with private insurance (8.4%) (Black & African American

Communities and Mental Health). As there is industry is worth more than 3 trillion dollars so

there's no reason why the black community should suffer knowing they could have free help

from the start of everything . To further push this agenda the black community should come

back together as a whole to where there should rarely be any worries when it comes down to the

african american community health.

Using these four foundations Capstone Institute/Center for Research on the Education of

Students Placed at Risk, Howard University, National Black Nurses Association,National

Medical Association, and Lee Thompson Young Foundation can give the youth and the older

black community the rest and the peace of mind they need to be success as an community .

A great question coming up now is. Why does being black have you at a greater risk of

death at every stage of life. If your apart of the black community there’s about 10,000 things

flowing in your head but with the social media age all you see is black on black voice and the

white man killing the youth of the community and getting away with like nothing never

happened. If you weren't aware already two big things have dropped in america . The media of
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health known as the (CDC or Centers for Disease Control) says the African-American

community Death Rate Drops 25 Percent even though there are differences still persist between

the black community and white community. Black people in groups tend to live together longer

but it's still a bit short of the white community by 4 years by a thing called white privilege . Of

concern, the study also found that blacks in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are more likely to live with or

die from conditions that typically occur at older ages in whites, including heart disease, stroke,

and diabetes. Risk factors for some diseases, such as high blood pressure, may go unnoticed and

untreated during these early years. Notably, the death rates for homicide among blacks did not

change over the 17 years of the study (CDC). To end off that statement the black community as

a whole should have culture shock and try new things when it come comes down living a better

lifestyle.

To have a better aspect of the setbacks of the black community a survey was set to

anzylae the heads of the black community and to see what other races thought about the

situations killing the black race. There was a grand total of 10 questions with a whooping 133

people to respond was an great asset to piece the research together. The age range that was

completed the most buy the survey was the age group of 18-24 with under 18 being second with

no one older than 45 has completed the survey. Just as women run the world they ran the survey

63.89 % of the survey were taking by females and no other gender but males (36.11%). The

survey was taking by 97.22%. With 2.78% martnority be one latino responder . As asked what is
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the leading cause of death in the black community of corse high blood pressure would win with

black people having a higher salt intake. With the straight community taking over the survey.

When asked could you pray away depression 50/50 tie with most people taking advice from

older people and the advice from a person with a degree in the field. People mostly agree than if

your black you have a greater risk of dying earlier. As it it has mostly been the youth to complete

the survey you can see how depression in the leading factor in youths brain in this day and age.

With The government everyone feels as if they should be somewhat providing with healthcare

since the industry is so large. Everyone said they would further their minds and read but

healthcare more often to change their lifestyle.

To conclude this research the black community as a whole goes through alot and the non colored

people thinks all lives better even though there the ones held the mental block in the black

community heads to think there better. To have the black community at peace there's things they

could do to have a better lifestyle. Go to therapy is not crazy it's gives you someone to talk to

without feeling any shame. Meditating clears your mind with any stress your going through.

Eating right and working out gives you the confidence that you can do anything you want.
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WORKS CITED

References

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/black-health.htm

[Accessed 1 May 2019].

CDC. (2019). CDC Press Releases. [online] Available at:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0502-aa-health.html [Accessed 1 May

2019].
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Copeland, T. (2019). African American Christian Senior Pastor's Beliefs About Mental

Health Treatment. [online] ScholarWorks. Available at:

https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6191/ [Accessed 1 May 2019].

HIV.gov. (2019). U.S. Statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-

basics/overview/data-and-trends/statistics [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Khazan, O. (2019). Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. [online] The

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black-in-america-can-be-hazardous-to-your-health/561740/ [Accessed 1 May 2019].

Nami.org. (2019). You Can’t “Pray Away” a Mental Health Condition | NAMI: National

Alliance on Mental Illness. [online] Available at: https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-

Blog/July-2017/You-Can-t-Pray-Away%E2%80%9D-a-Mental-Health-Condition

[Accessed 1 May 2019].

Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker. (2019). How has U.S. spending on healthcare

changed over time? - Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker. [online] Available at:

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spending-healthcare-changed-

time/ [Accessed 1 May 2019].