When the Bough breaks;

only the black baby will fall

I was watching this PBS special last night which compared the infant mortality between blacks and whites in America and the results were startling. The infant mortality rate was twice as high among African Americans as those of white Americans.


After excluding the socioeconomic and physiological differences between the two races, the doctors concluded that stress from racism was the chief cause of the higher infant mortality rate among blacks.


As incredible as it sounds, upper middle class african american mothers with graduate degree’s were more likely to give birth to high risk babies, than white mothers who are on welfare and dropped out of high school.


Stress from racism which is endemic in our society has killed tens of thousands

Hotwater

 

honey bee. I just want you to clarify this a little for me. What causes the baby's death exactly?

 

Preterm, low-birth weight babies are by definition high risk for a wide variety of illnesses and ailments which contribute to their demise


Hotwater

 

Oh okay. wow. hotwater have you experienced racism towards yourself in life?

 

Do you have any sources/links for this?

 

Rather than look at this from my perspective, let’s look at in a broader sense.



The doctors concluded that racism towards blacks (although subtle) plays an important role in our mental development.


Hotwater

 

PBS.org

http://www.wgbh.org/program-info?episode_id=3866646&program_id=3805695


Hotwater

 

I agree, but anyone who feels subjected against is going to affect them deeply.

 

Well, despite what that article said (and I'm not saying there is no validity to it), I think poverty is a larger deciding factor then race in many, many issues in life.

 

They compared white americans with blacks who recently emigrated from sub-saharan africa and the infant mortality rate was exactly the same.

Yet within one generation, those same africans who emigrated to america had
succumb to the same mortality rate as multi-generational african americans


Hotwater

 

lol thats some random ass shit
racism cause of death. seriously.. lol.

 

Yeah, but shouldn't you also consider the environment? Most black babies born into poverty are born into a much different environment than white babies born into poverty. Most black babies are born largely into an urban environment, while this is not so much the case with white babies. So if we're talking about stress, we could say there is more stress in an urban environment, versus one that is suburban or rural.

I still have a hard time believing that stress alone is causing these high infant mortality rates, let alone the fact that an infant can even perceive racism. Or is it the idea that the mother's stress causes the baby to be born unhealthy?

 

When it was discovered that africans who recently emigrated to america (and I mean right out of a mud hut) had the same infant mortality rate as white Americans, it became clear that there was a causal relationship between infant mortality rate and blacks living in America versus living elsewhere


Hotwater

 

^ they had the same infant mortality rate as white americans ? Isnt that good? or?

 

All of the factors you've mentioned were taken into consideration during the study, including african american babies who were born in rural areas versus urban environments, and the statistics held firm throughtout when compared to their white counterparts


Hotwater

 

Within one generation, their infant mortality rate soared


hotwater

 

Be careful with that... it's a considerable jump in thought as there could be other factors involved that deal with environment in America.

Different races have diff. genes and are more susceptable to different illnesses and conditions and there could be something in America that doesn't exist in Africa that maybe white people aren't as suspectable to....

 

The two scientists who performed the study (one white, and one black) took everything into consideration (including genes) and came to the inimitable conclusion that racism was the X-Factor


Hotwater

 

I am always leery of articles like this put out by the media, which seem to rely more on supposition than fact. This only further divides the races, and that's exactly what they want. Because when black people read something like this they see all white people as the enemy. It's not the average white man you see that is your enemy, it is the less-than-average white man you don't see.

Sure, racism exists and it always has, but it exists more at the micro versus macro level. This is where it has the REAL impact. The reason many poor blacks are made to live in the conditions they're in is because the system iitself is racist (or should I say the people running that system). That's why they targeted the blacks first with breaking down the familiy and bringing in the drugs, and it was to create a massive underclass to jusitify more control. Because the people running this system at the top see blacks as inferior, they used the black man to foreward their own sinister agenda, which is now targeting ALL of us.

So what I am saying is that, to get to the bottom of racism, we need to understand where it comes from. We need to unite and start to see each other as humans, regardless of skin color. This nonsense with playing the races off against one another only feeds into the hands of the real racists, who want to keep the people divided instead of united against their common enemy.

To me it just seems like supposition that racism is causing these high infant mortality rates. I am not douting the statistics, just the conclusion that these mortality rates are being caused by racism. That seems like pretty irresponsible reporting to me.

 

When their book is published it will undoubtedly be met with some controversy

Don’t worry about looking for it, it will find you (through the mass media)


hotwater