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The greatest danger lies not in the so-called 'problems' of race, but rather in the integrity of national thinking and in the ethics of national conduct.
W. E. B. Du Bois (1928). Race Relations in the United States,Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 140:
INTRODUCTION
Young through middle-aged adults in high-poverty urban African American populations have a high probability of dying or becoming disabled long before they are old (Geronimus 2001; Geronimus et al., 2001). As shown in Figure 1, in Harlem or Chicago's South Side, one-third of African American girls and two-thirds of boys who reach their fifteenth birthdays do not live to celebrate their sixty-fifth. In contrast, only 10% of girls and about 25% of boys nationwide fail to live to age sixty-five. Indeed, African American youth in some urban areas face lower probabilities of survival to age forty-five than White youth nationwide face of survival to old age (Geronimus et al., 1996, 2001).
Mortality calculations based on data from the 1990 U.S. Census (adjusted for coverage error) and from death certificates for 1989-1991; Harlem refers to African American residents of the Central Harlem Health Center District in New York City. Chicago refers to the African American residents of South Side community areas of Near South Side, Douglas, Oakland, Fuller Park, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park in Chicago, Illinois. See Geronimus et al., 1999, for details of calculation methods.
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Stress-related chronic diseases are the primary reasons for this excess mortality in urban, African American populations (Geronimus et al., 1996, 1999). Evidence indicates that their negative impact on life expectancy is growing. For example, between 1980 and 1990 excess deaths attributed to circulatory disease or cancer each doubled among young and middle-aged men in Harlem (Geronimus et al., 1999). In contrast, the more publicized homicide rates began to decline. As a general rule, racial differences in health tend to widen after age twenty-five and become most pronounced among those aged thirty-five to sixty-four (Adler et al., 1993; Elo and Preston, 1996; Geronimus 1994; Geronimus and Bound, 1990; House et al., 1990). Although racial differentials in infant health are also stark, these often...