Infant Mortality as a Result of Systemic Racism
Sierra Hoff
Spring 2024
For one thousand white babies born in the United States, less than five infants will die. For one thousand Black babies born, almost eleven will die. This trend is described by Dr. Chang and Dr. Lee as: "the non-Hispanic Black population experienced an IMR [Infant Mortality Rate] of 10.8" and the US. White Americans experienced an IMR of 4.6 (Chang and Lee). The US has an average of almost 6 IMR, which is high for a wealthy country. But Black infants are dying at almost twice that rate. While infant deaths have declined overall from the 1990's, the disparity between white and Black patients still exists. Medicine appears to be trending away from infant deaths, but if the disparity is still festering, then it would take even greater medicinal strides to save Black infant lives. And the question remains: how is it that Black babies pass twice as often as white ones?
Disproportionate Black Infant Mortality Rates in America
Black infants are more likely to die during childbirth than white babies in the United States by a significant amount. This occurs due to a complex framework of medicinal racism and intergenerational trauma, but heightened awareness can create informed medical professionals who properly adjust for the needs of their patients.
History of the Issue
Eugenic thought grew in 19th century America and is the root racial oppression. The eugenic impulse behind racism and discrimination towards the disabled began to spread in the 1800's in the United States; though biological sciences have improved beyond these biases in modernity, it is only with a historical perspective that people can continue to weed out the legacy of such an ignorant and violent foundation. Additionally, it is important to note that despite literal science advancing beyond these racial biases, biases are still prevalent among medical practitioners in no small part because of the long-lasting effects of eugenic thought pervading medical sciences.
Among others, Francis Galton was an architect of the movement, as it gained traction with his ideas of favorable genetics as explored in Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development after his studies in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe (Fulkerson Dikuua). Eugenics became associated with Nazis during the World War, so different language was used for a period of time, though it is incontrovertible that pre-war eugenics “strove for a separation of gene pools, aligning closely with the mindset of the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws” (Fulkerson Dikuua). While post-war eugenics would center focus on sexual conformity instead of race, it is clear to see that eugenic thought shaped the policies of the United States in the 19th century. The concept of good genes was also a large component of Darwin’s 1859 work, On the Origin of Species; science and law, then, were both informed by this root that initially insisted on separating gene pools racially, with the white race and its associated genes being the highest valued.
Eugenics has continued to infiltrate medical sciences into the modern day, with the last four decades seeing unethical outcomes of this dangerous movement. Among these episodic disasters is the forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women in the 90's as well as the forced birth control testing with groups of uninformed Black women (Redfield and Redfield). Eugenic science has also contributed to dangerous myths like Black people having thicker skin or having a higher pain tolerance. The ramifications of such dangerous and outdated concepts can be difficult to conceptualize, but there are harrowing statistics about the human cost of poor medical care. Even one life lost due to this kind of ignorance is one too many, but it is completely possible to fund modernized medical sciences in the United States.