Policing The Black Body: Health Disparities and Why Your Health Matters
- Aniya M
- Jun 5
- 2 min read
A few weeks ago I decided to dive into nonfiction books simply because I’m a history nerd and learning never stops. I had no idea that these books would lead me to constantly think about health disparities and the fact that for centuries, Black people have received disproportionate treatment. Most times we were left to die or live with a poor quality of life. Before I get into some serious matters, let’s talk a little about health disparities.
According to the Centers For Disease Control, health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities. They are directly related to unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. What does that look like exactly? Lack of equal access to healthcare, food deserts, infant mortality, chronic disease and so on. It’s your chronically ill neighbor who is constantly reminded to change their diet even though they don’t live in an area where there are fresh markets or stores with healthier options. It’s someone you know who is on a fixed income and has to pick and choose which medicines to buy because they can’t afford them all. It’s the little black boy who has “behavioral issues” that never seem to get any better because he is undiagnosed and doesn’t have access to proper treatment.Take a look around you. Things are not much different than they were 100 years ago.
Black men and women were considered inferior, ignorant, hyper-sexualized and many more untrue adjectives that I will not rehash here. Yet, our bodies were experimented on without our consent. There was no such thing as bodily autonomy. Modern gynecological medicine is what it is today because of the experimentation on enslaved Black women. Henrietta Lacks’ cancerous cells were removed from her body without consent and are now responsible for groundbreaking treatment of many disease states. Her daughter, Elsie, was also experimented on without consent during her time at a mental asylum. However, mental illness is still a glaring stigma in the Black community.
Our pain and symptoms have historically been disregarded due to rumors that Black people lie about their symptoms, have higher pain tolerances, and are drug seeking. If these things were true, wouldn’t the maternal mortality rate be lower for Black women? (50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births) Black men would have a higher life expectancy and they wouldn’t be dying from heart disease, stroke, and cancer at alarmingly higher rates. Our illness is not a myth contrary to popular belief.
You matter. Your Black body matters. Your mental and physical health matters. Always advocate for yourself, your family, friends, neighbors, communities. Only you know the things that you are feeling whether it’s chronic pain or anxiety that never seems to ease up. No one can police your body. We deserve to grow old just like everyone else.
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