Harmful Myths

This myth is so pernicious and its effects are lived by Black Americans in their daily lives.

From having to wait longer to see the doctors, receiving under-treatment, to having higher risks of maternal mortality, this false belief adds to the long term systematic unequal access to healthcare and further threatens Black people’s wellbeing in America. On average, Black patients have around 25% longer wait time than White patients to receive medical care. The maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 3.55 times that for non-Hispanic White women.

• Racial bias in medicine (Harvard)
• Black and Hispanic People Have Longer Hospital Wait Times in America Than Whites (Salon.com)
• Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Maternal Mortality in the United States Using Enhanced Vital Records, 2016‒2017  (American Journal of Public Health)
• Myths about physical racial differences were used to justify slavery — and are still believed by doctors today. (New York Times Magazine)

There has been a long-held prejudice and racist regulations toward Black women and their bodies. One is about the high birthrate of African American women. In reality, from June 2020-June 2021, non-Hispanic Black women had a 5% negative birth rate compared to that of non-Hispanic White women. All minority races have a lower birth rate than that of White women. During the time period, the U.S. birth rate increased 0.09%. Black pregnant women experienced much judgement and psychological stress because of heavy stigmas placed on them.

• Vital Statistics Rapid Release (March 2022) (CDC)
• Black Pregnant Women “Get the Most Judgment”: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Black Women at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Pregnancy (Womens Health Issues, 2020, 30:6)

Black Americans experience a higher level of poverty. According to Survey of Consumer Finances data, the median Black family has $24,100 in wealth, compared to the $189,100 in wealth owned by the typical White family. However, this phenomenon has a long history out of control by African American individuals. Instead of accusing the morality of those who have been affected by long standing racial violence, a more critical question is how we got here?

When Black Americans, against all odds, built wealth from their hard work, their achievements were taken. Their intelligence and innovation are not given credit but robbed away from them. For example, when Onesimus, an African man, shared with his slave owner, essentially the method of inoculation that helped to mitigate smallpox in the 1700s. Neither he or his offspring ever benefited from his ingeniousness.

When Black people built wealthy and thriving communities, they faced sudden and violent attacks — such as the racial cleansing of Forsyth County, Ga., in 1912. Since the 20th century, millions of acres of African American-owned land were stolen from them. Between the 1860s and 1920s, White Americans pushed Black people out of communities that they had established. Until the 1970s, Black Americans were still fighting to keep the little land that they owned from being taken by White Americans.

Black Americans continue to experience housing discrimination in the 21st century. When African Americans took down family photos in their house, there was almost a 40% appreciation — simply because no Black resident appeared to live in the house. This is one of the many legacies from the "redlining" practiced by the U.S. Federal Housing Administration since the 1930s.

• Facts: Racial Economic Inequality (Inequality.org)
• The African roots of inoculation in America: Saving lives for three centuries (The Washington Post)
• In 1912, This Georgia County Drove Out Every Black Resident (History.com)
• The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations (Harvard Business School)
• Blacks in South Struggle to Keep the Little Land They Have Left (The New York Times, 7 Dec 1972)
• A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America (NPR)
• Black Homeowners Face Discrimination in Appraisals (The New York Times)

In addition to lacking generational wealth, Black youth have to overcome tremendous obstacles to fight for a job. Unlike White Americans, they have to stay highly motivated to complete higher degrees, for no apparent immediate benefit. In fact, it is admirable that so many stayed in school when "White high school dropouts are as likely to land jobs as Black college students." However, the unemployment gap between Black and White men with bachelor's degrees is only 5%. For Black women who have bachelor's degrees, the gap with White people is 3%. The gap almost disappears for those who earn professional degrees.

Black boys and men face more challenges to complete their degrees because they receive harsher punishment than White boys and men. They are more likely to be suspended for the same offenses their White peers conducted in school. According to research, Black students do not “act out” in class more frequently than their White peers. Yet, they are more likely to be sent to the principal’s office for subjective offenses, like “disrupting class,” and they’re more likely to be sent there by White teachers. White students are more likely to be suspended for "objective offenses" like drug possession.

• White High School Drop-Outs Are As Likely To Land Jobs As Black College Students (Forbes)
• The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Time to Shut it Down (National Education Association)