[How About This Book] Decreasing Life Expectancy Due to Discrimination... The 100-Year Life Era Moves Further Away

Allyn Jeronimus, "How Inequality Eats Away at the Body"
An Era of Longevity, but Inequality Worsens Health
Life Expectancy of Black Americans Shorter Than White Americans
Negative Perceptions Shorten Lifespan
Changing Stereotypes Is Essential

In modern society, individuals are guaranteed freedom. They can choose the jobs they want within their abilities and act as they wish within the bounds of the law. However, individual freedom is still not completely free from social conventions, customs, and prejudices. The right to health is one of these.

Allyn Jeronimus, who has worked as a public health scholar for over 30 years, argues that unjust social structures gradually undermine individual health. He warns that stress arising from an unfair society accelerates aging in our bodies, critically affecting health and lifespan. Those at the very bottom of the social ladder tend to fall ill more often and die earlier. He scientifically refutes the social perception that has sought to find the causes of such phenomena in individual characteristics.

It is statistically confirmed that the mortality rate of Black people is higher than that of White people. According to 1985 statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the life expectancy of Black people was 69.3 years, while that of White people was 75.3 years. Causes of this gap were attributed to genetics, culture, socioeconomic status, and access to medical services, and it was believed that individuals could overcome these through their own efforts.

At that time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended, "Since many behavioral and environmental risk factors are controllable, more attention should be paid to educating minority groups about these risk factors." Although public health goals were set and pursued every decade thereafter, the author points out that there was no significant change, and some gaps even widened.

In American society, there is a common belief that the high mortality rate among Black people is related to AIDS, drug addiction, and homicide. However, the author calls this a "blame narrative" and emphasizes that chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer are the main causes of death. The fact that the infant mortality rate among Black infants is nearly twice that of White infants is in the same context. Criticism that Black girls are promiscuous and unplanned is merely prejudice; rather, the sharp gaze society directs at them harms their health, he explains.

The author names the phenomenon of continuous physical damage under such prejudice and discrimination as "Weathering." This is a biological phenomenon where prolonged and repeated physiological stress responses accumulate, ultimately reducing life expectancy. While some negative effects can be mitigated through good housing environments, quality food, and medical services, these alone are insufficient. He highlights the seriousness of Weathering by citing data from the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the mortality rate of Black people was twice that of White people, and the maternal mortality rate among Black mothers during childbirth was three times higher than that of White mothers. According to epidemiologist Diane Lauderdale's research, the preterm birth rate among Arab women in California was significantly higher than that of other races for six months after the 9/11 attacks.

Poverty is often cited as a cause, but some economically stable minorities suffer greater damage. This is because they strictly adhere to the "values of working diligently and following rules" emphasized by American society, while simultaneously being exposed to greater stress.

The author analyzes, "The pervasive racist and classist ideologies in American society activate biological processes that erode the physical and mental health of people of color across all economic classes," and "Black people who have secured socioeconomic stability or succeeded in upward social mobility suffer additional health damage due to that success."

Some may ask whether mainstream groups in the Weathering-affected marginalized classes suffer the same damage if it is a structural social problem. The author's answer is "Yes." The likelihood of a White man living in a Detroit slum surviving to age 85 was 12%, similar to that of a Black man (9%).

False stereotypes also limit individual abilities. The stereotype that Black people have lower intellectual abilities than White people influenced intelligence test results among Black college students. Those who were told it was an intelligence test performed poorly, while those who thought it was a simple exam scored much higher. Conversely, the stereotype that "Asians are good at math" sometimes increased Asian students' math scores.

Efforts are being made in various parts of the United States to improve living conditions in impoverished areas. However, there is still a lack of substantial attempts to address the core issue of "changing stereotypes." The author points out, "Local residents remain marginalized and are exposed to the values of dominant culture that ignore the culture of marginalized groups, prejudices disguised as common sense, algorithms, federal and state laws, and media stereotyping," adding, "They are vulnerable to the destructive Weathering storms these factors cause."

His concerns are not unique to American society. The increasing barriers based on region, hometown, gender, and class also resonate with the current state of Korean society.

How Inequality Eats Away at the Body | Written by Allyn Jeronimus | Translated by Bang Jin-i | Dolbegae | 509 pages | 31,000 KRW