In a surprising announcement, Howard University President Ben Vinson III, 55, will leave his position as Howard University’s 18th President. Vinson’s departure comes at a...

Black PR Wire) Miami, FL – Candice Nicole is an award-winning publicist who has built a reputation for amplifying voices and turning stories into...

Gloria Gaynor, the disco legend whose 1978 anthem “I Will Survive” became a rallying cry for empowerment and resistance, will now stand center stage...

People in the News

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

People in the News

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Why is America failing Black women?

black women healthWhat took so long? After all, black women’s health is suffering.

Black women have higher rates of hypertension and diabetes. Black women are far more likely to suffer from fibroids and undergo hysterectomies. While HIV-AIDS infections have declined throughout the United States, black women account for 66 percent of new cases of HIV among women. And there is this shocking disparity―black women are less likely than white women to get breast cancer, but more likely to die from the disease. In 2010, the CDC reported breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for black women 45 to 64 years old, a death rate 60 percent higher than for white women.

Babies born to black women remain twice as likely to die before their first birthday as those born to white women.
Perhaps nothing so powerfully illustrates how the bodies of black women carry the burdens of racial injustice as the persistent racial infant mortality gap. Babies born to black women remain twice as likely to die before their first birthday as those born to white women. The gap is not closed by access to health insurance, prenatal care, or education. Black mothers with advanced degrees suffer higher infant morality than white mothers who have not finished high school. The most promising research in this area suggests that black infant mortality may be an intergenerational result of historical experiences of racial inequality. It may be that black women literally carry the legacy of American racism and sexism in our bodies, making both our infants and ourselves ill.
Read more of Melissa Harris-Perry overview of how the country continues to fail Black women here.