Diabetes in the African-American Community

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the conjunction of the economic, social, and cultural status of African-Americans in Louisiana and their rates of Type 2 diabetes. African-Americans in Louisiana, as is true across the South and, indeed, across the nation, suffer from diabetes at seemingly disproportionately high rates. However, once economic, social, and cultural factors are taken into account, those rates no longer seem disproportionate. They are tragic, but comprehensible.

From the Paper:

"It must be noted that despite the terrible conditions under which many African-Americans continue to live that they are in general much better off than were their grandparents. We all know that beginning in the early 1960s the Civil Rights brought to the nation's conscience the terrible conditions under which the majority of black Americans were living and helped begin the steady, if painfully slow, progress toward fuller civil rights and full inclusion in the promise of American citizenship. In large measure as a response to the Civil Rights movement, a number of federal, state, and local government programs were developed and implemented to help combat poverty and the effects of racism on African-Americans (Polednak, 1997, p. 38). While these programs were not directed primarily at diabetes reduction, of course, or even specifically toward improving the health of African-Americans, they tended to do so overall. One of the most important risk factors for early death and for a range of illness from diabetes to cancer to AIDS is poverty. By alleviating poverty, a society also alleviates unnecessary suffering from diseases."

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