Why do Black Americans die younger?

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Friends —

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while.

Not because the data is hard to find — there’s a mountain of research on why Black Americans die younger than white Americans. It’s a troubling gap.

The problem is almost the opposite. There’s so much research, so much certainty, and so much professional pressure to reach the “right” conclusions that the actual picture is hard to figure out.

That bothered me enough that I finally decided to dig in.

What I found is genuinely surprising. I learned that foreign-born Black men live, on average, 11 years longer than U.S.-born Black men. Even longer than U.S.-born White Americans.

Same country, same racism, sometimes even the same neighborhood. And that advantage disappears in a single generation. That data point should make a lot of us rethink our assumptions.

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Here’s what else I kept running into: the explanations you hear most — food deserts, green space, healthcare access — turn out to be much weaker than their reputation suggests.

And there’s no single answer to the question; factors like diet, obesity, and homicide affect the numbers dramatically. Sadly, many researchers have learned not to ask about some of them, often to protect their jobs and reputation.

It’s how the incentives work in academic medicine, and it’s worth being honest about. Because until we ask and answer the right questions … nothing will change.

You may enjoy the whole video on YouTube for a deep dive into this American issue.

– Ken

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