Headlines hit last summer about Black nursing home residents being neglected and left unbathed, without clothing, and sometimes without the medications they needed at an Alabama nursing home after a lawsuit was filed. What it outlined was an allegedly discriminatory environment at a facility toward both patients and staff, who were called “n****,” “slave girls” […]
Health
Posted inHealth, Mental Health
Does Money Buy Happiness for Black Americans?
When Shelisa Demuth moved to a new home a few months ago, she paused as she packed to sift through boxes of old birthday cards and letters. She held onto the ones she felt were really important, and melted as she read the once stashed-away letters from her mom. The relationship had weathered many seasons. […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity
When Algorithms and AI Perpetuate Medical Racism, Who’s Responsible?
When the coronavirus spread violently through the nation, disproportionately burdening Black communities, it was in some grim way the perfect reminder of why Dr. Noha Aboelata had founded her community clinic in East Oakland, California, more than a decade prior. In Alameda County, where she was located, Black folks were dying at a rate much […]
Posted inHealth
Could Artificial Intelligence Give Black Patients More Power in Medical Research?
Her cries ring out from behind the emergency room curtain where she’s laying. “She says she can’t breathe,” someone says in the background. Then, the voices blend together. “Just bear with us one second.” “There’s a crisis.” The video has gone viral on TikTok since its upload in 2021. The words, “This is what a […]
Posted inHealth
The Lessons Medical School Never Taught Her
In the midst of the coronavirus’ devastation and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, America was confronting a reckoning on race, and Dr. Uché Blackstock emerged as an authority on how racism was affecting health outcomes. COVID-19 was disproportionately burdening Black communities across the country, and the data shocked some Americans. Black people […]
Posted inHealth, Mental Health
Amid Trauma, Black Americans Are Choosing to Heal
This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. CHICAGO — As they sat on the two chairs in Courtney G. Smith’s living room, they bounced between laughter and deep thought. For at least an hour, they contemplated how past traumas […]
Posted inHealth, Reproductive Health
A Miscarriage, a Grand Jury, and the Policing of Black Women’s Bodies
The case of a Black woman in Ohio who’s been charged after a miscarriage confirms reproductive activists’ fears in a post-Roe era: that women’s pregnancies, especially Black women, would be criminalized. Brittany Watts miscarried 22 weeks into her pregnancy in September. The 33-year-old woman went to her doctor, who told her she would miscarry — and […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity
What’s Behind Black Women’s High Risk For Strokes
Dawn Turnage had been dizzy and exhausted all week. Her vision was blurry, but she wrote it off. Maybe she needed new glasses, she thought. Or, maybe a day off of work. Either way, she kept it moving. Then, one day after work, she woke up on the bathroom floor after chugging Pepsi to muster […]
Posted inHealth
‘They Were Just Exploiting Us’: The Void Big Tobacco Left in These Black Families
As the massive garage door lifted to reveal the inside of the small warehouse where Minou Jones’ mother worked, the bulk packs of menthol cigarettes began to glisten. Here, where the gold containers were stacked sky-high in downtown Detroit, was the heart of Big Tobacco’s money making operation. They’d market menthols, which were scientifically concocted […]
Posted inHealth, Partner Content
The Cosmetic Industry’s Toxic Toll on Black Women
Dereliction of Beauty: First in a series from Inside Climate News on how lax regulation of beauty care products victimizes women of color. ICN is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. For Jeanette Toomer, the hours she used to spend to ensure that […]
