What else could it be?
Black women are more likely to die during childbirth. And it’s your fault.
“Black women in the US are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts,” states an article in the Huffington Post, and racial disparities exist “even when socioeconomic status is accounted for.” The author, a “health & social justice advocate based in Washington, DC,” says the racism helps explain it:
Maternal mortality in the Black community is at its core tied to the experience of living while Black in the US, which can be a very stressful and traumatizing experience. The stress prompted by racism, discrimination, poverty, sexism, injustice, and violence, can cause a physiological response known as ‘fight or flight.’ While this stress response is beneficial in short-term situations, chronic exposure becomes harmful.
There has been a spate of recent articles blaming white racism for the relatively high black rate of maternal mortality. Indeed, racism is so powerful that even the tragic deaths of wealthy and educated blacks are laid at its door.
For example, NPR’s story on black maternity highlighted the death of Shalon Irving, an African-American woman who was a lieutenant commander in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. Irving died only a few weeks after giving birth, and the explanation could hardly be poverty or poor education.
Indeed, as author Nina Martin noted ...
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