http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/04/black-americans-have-fewer-years-to-live-heres-why?src=usn_FbBy Lindsey Cook Jan. 4, 2015 | 12:01 a.m. EST
The average African-American male lives five years less than the average white American male.
The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted a national conversation about race and the justice system, with many concluding discrepancies exist in policing and sentencing that, apart from race, seem unexplainable.
Health is also far from post-racial. While America has made progress on this front, including through the Affordable Care Act, many gaps persist between blacks and whites.
Issues in health and health care that lead to a shorter life span for black Americans start before birth. The average black baby enters the world under different circumstances than the average white baby, and the gap only grows between birth and death.
In 2012, about 13 percent of babies born to black mothers had low birth weights (less than 2,500 grams), compared with 7 percent of babies born to white mothers, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the infant mortality rate for white America is 5.2 infants out of 1,000 births dying before age 1, the infant mortality rate for black America is much higher – 11.5 per 1,000 – putting the population subsection nearly on par with Mexico.
continued..
