Health disparities show up across nearly every measure of well-being. In 2023, Black Americans had a life expectancy of 74.0 years, compared with 78.4 for white Americans and 70.1 for American Indian and Alaska Native people, according to CDC data. Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at more than three times the rate of white women.
These gaps are not explained by genes. They follow the map of past and present policy: redlined neighborhoods with more pollution and fewer clinics, jobs without health insurance, and medical systems that have underserved or mistreated patients of color. Researchers also link chronic stress from racism to earlier onset of illness, a pattern called weathering.
Naming disparities is the first step. The goal is health equity, which requires changing the conditions that produce the gaps. Without that, better medicine tends to reach the already advantaged first and can widen the distance between groups.