Fewer than 6% of American physicians identify as Black or African American, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. But the census shows roughly 12% of the U.S. population is Black.
Some experts say that disparity is one reason communities of color tend to experience worse health outcomes in the U.S. High blood pressure is more common among Black Americans, life expectancy is almost five years shorter than White people (72.8 years vs 77.5 years) and childbirth is deadlier for Black families, even when they are wealthy.
A new book from a former ProPublica reporter links today’s inequalities to a long history of structural racism — part of which runs through North Carolina.
Shaw University in North Carolina was the site of the country’s first four-year medical school, and trained some 400 Black physicians during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its closure in 1918 had a significant impact on the supply of Black physicians over the next century, author Nicole Carr writes.
Carr joins Charlotte Talks to discuss how North Carolina played a role in today’s medical disparities and how it might help solve them.
GUEST:
Nicole Carr, visiting assistant professor of journalism at Morehouse College, investigative reporter and author of “The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation”
