Race & Health

When Phyllisa Deroze was told she had diabetes in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, emergency department years ago, she was handed pamphlets with information on two types of the disease. One had pictures of children on it, she recalled, while the other had pictures of seniors. Deroze, a 31-year-old English professor at the time, was confused […]

O’laysha Davis was a few weeks shy of her due date when in mid-August she decided it was time to switch doctors. Davis had planned to give birth at a small community hospital about 20 minutes from her home in North Charleston, South Carolina. But that changed when her medical team started repeatedly calling her […]

Muchas personas de grupos raciales y étnicos minoritarios dicen que se preparan mentalmente para recibir insultos y ser prejuzgados antes de las citas médicas, según una nueva encuesta entre pacientes que reafirma la prevalencia de la discriminación racial en el sistema de salud de Estados Unidos. La encuesta de KFF, que se realizó con casi […]

Many people from racial and ethnic minority groups brace themselves for insults and judgments before medical appointments, according to a new survey of patients that reaffirms the prevalence of racial discrimination in the U.S. health system. The KFF survey of nearly 6,300 patients who have had care in the past three years found that about […]

For Briana Jones, a young Black mother in San Francisco, a city program called the Abundant Birth Project has been a godsend. Designed to counter the “obstetric racism” that researchers say leads a disproportionate number of African American mothers to die from childbirth, the project has provided 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander San Franciscans […]

Republicans in Congress are “trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.” President Joe Biden on Oct. 14, 2023, in remarks at the 2023 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner. Are Republicans threatening to stop spending federal money to end one of the world’s most pressing public health epidemics? That’s what President Joe […]

As a kid, Wesley Jackson Wade should have been set up to succeed. His father was a novelist and corporate sales director and his mother was a special education teacher. But Wade said he struggled through school even though he was an exceptional writer and communicator. He played the class clown when he wasn’t feeling […]

ELAINE, Ark. — On a recent September afternoon, Courtney Porter counted his losses: his mom from old age, his wife from diabetes complications, two of his brothers. While one died of an aneurysm, the shooting death last year of his younger brother, Patro, hit the hardest. “It tore me up, real bad,” said Porter, 50, […]

Heather Avant always dresses up when she goes to the emergency room. “I’ve been conditioned to act and behave in a very specific way,” said Avant. “I try to do my hair. I make sure I shower, have nice clothes. Sometimes I put on my University of Michigan shirt.” It’s a strategy to combat discrimination […]

As Medicare Advantage continues to gain popularity among seniors, three Southern California companies are pioneering new types of plans that target cultural and ethnic communities with special offerings and native-language practitioners. Clever Care Health Plan, based in Huntington Beach, and Alignment Health, based in nearby Orange, both have plans aimed at Asian Americans, with extra […]