Spring Break
African-Americans' health and education needs ignored
Raquel Parks
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Perspectives
Although it's the 21st century, it's amazing how much farther African-Americans have to go in achieving the best education and highest quality of life in the United States.
Recently, I was doing research for a paper when I came across some very disturbing and enlightening statistics.
As one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States, it's saddening that African-Americans have one of the poorest health statuses. African-Americans account for nearly half of the people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, according to a 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
The largest threat, however, to African-Americans by far is cardiovascular disease, causing 36 percent of deaths each year. Perhaps the saddest realization about these statistics is that there is one main reason why African-Americans suffer from very poor health statistics.
Many African-Americans simply lack awareness about the disease because they don't have access to health care or education about health risks. How can people get better and live healthy lives if they don't have the health insurance required just to get a regular check-up?
There just doesn't seem to be enough being done to help improve these statistics for African-Americans. Poverty is also another contributing factor to these statistics. In 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau found that one in four African-Americans live in poverty. That's a scary fact to process.
Still, what's really amazing is the education levels among African-Americans. In doing my research, I found that African immigrants were the group with the highest level of education and most likely to receive a Ph.D. African-Americans are often thought of as a single group, but it's easy to forget that a great percentage of the black population consists of those from different countries.
Therefore, it's inconceivable why there are so many African immigrants with high education levels, but native born blacks lack high numbers in education. The United States is supposed to be "the land of the free and home of the brave" and is based on idealistic values of equality and justice, yet its second largest ethnic group suffers from varying degrees of equality.
Statistics in "The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education" do show an increase in college enrollment, but African-Americans are still lagging behind in education statistics compared to white Americans. The gap is still too wide and it should not be this way.
Why are things still like this? It's absolutely ridiculous for statistics to be this low. For our country to be so rich, I wonder where the resources are going and how they are being distributed. I know that some measures have been taken to create more awareness, but poverty and health care are the other sides to the equation. What are we doing about that?
As naive as it may sound, I don't think things have to be like this for any ethnic group or population in this nation. We can do better. I hope that change comes soon with the 2008 presidential election. If things don't change, I would hate to see where the statistics are10 to 20 years from now.
Recently, I was doing research for a paper when I came across some very disturbing and enlightening statistics.
As one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States, it's saddening that African-Americans have one of the poorest health statuses. African-Americans account for nearly half of the people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, according to a 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
The largest threat, however, to African-Americans by far is cardiovascular disease, causing 36 percent of deaths each year. Perhaps the saddest realization about these statistics is that there is one main reason why African-Americans suffer from very poor health statistics.
Many African-Americans simply lack awareness about the disease because they don't have access to health care or education about health risks. How can people get better and live healthy lives if they don't have the health insurance required just to get a regular check-up?
There just doesn't seem to be enough being done to help improve these statistics for African-Americans. Poverty is also another contributing factor to these statistics. In 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau found that one in four African-Americans live in poverty. That's a scary fact to process.
Still, what's really amazing is the education levels among African-Americans. In doing my research, I found that African immigrants were the group with the highest level of education and most likely to receive a Ph.D. African-Americans are often thought of as a single group, but it's easy to forget that a great percentage of the black population consists of those from different countries.
Therefore, it's inconceivable why there are so many African immigrants with high education levels, but native born blacks lack high numbers in education. The United States is supposed to be "the land of the free and home of the brave" and is based on idealistic values of equality and justice, yet its second largest ethnic group suffers from varying degrees of equality.
Statistics in "The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education" do show an increase in college enrollment, but African-Americans are still lagging behind in education statistics compared to white Americans. The gap is still too wide and it should not be this way.
Why are things still like this? It's absolutely ridiculous for statistics to be this low. For our country to be so rich, I wonder where the resources are going and how they are being distributed. I know that some measures have been taken to create more awareness, but poverty and health care are the other sides to the equation. What are we doing about that?
As naive as it may sound, I don't think things have to be like this for any ethnic group or population in this nation. We can do better. I hope that change comes soon with the 2008 presidential election. If things don't change, I would hate to see where the statistics are10 to 20 years from now.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Michael
posted 2/20/08 @ 2:56 PM EST
Enough with the whining, slave mentality. Those who could care less of their health or education deserve what they get. The true victim will be those who will pay for the dumb, lazy and immoral via taxes. (Continued…)
Post a Comment