Our Bonds Are Broken: Why Communities of Color Keep Suffering

5. Poor Attitudes Towards Health

PROBLEM: Communities of color suffer HIV/AIDS, breast cancer and diabetes in huge percentages. And, according to the Center for Disease Control, 36% of non-Hispanic black men who are 20 years and over are obese. For black women, that number is 53%. Within that same demographic, 39% of black men have hypertension, and 43% of black women have the same. But wait. We haven’t even touched mental health stats yet. Our attitudes towards our ongoing physical health issues can be poor, but when it comes to mental health, our stance is even worse. We laugh at those who suffer from disorders, and even go so far as to convince ourselves that people of color “don’t do that depression stuff.”

SOLUTION: We need to think of health as an index that measures our mind, body and spirit—not just how many times we caught a cold each year. We need to maintain high indexes for our individual selves, as well as our extended selves. Our community is our extended self: which is why fighting for the health rights of others, even when we are not sick is so important. We cannot thrive as individuals if the community around us is drowning in malady.