by Dish Staff
M.S.L.J. notes a new study on life expectancy for black and white Americans, writing that although a gap persists “despite policies aimed at closing it … the good news is that blacks are slowly catching up”:
Between 1990 and 2009 the difference in average life expectancy for black and white men narrowed from 8.1 to 5.4 years, and for women from 5.5 to 3.8 years. But some places made more headway than others. Washington, DC had the largest gap between blacks and whites of both sexes in 1990 (14.4 years for men and 10.4 for women) and saw the least improvement overall (reducing the spread by just 0.4 years for men and 0.2 for women). The city also underwent a significant demographic shift: the proportion of blacks as a percentage of the District’s population decreased from 70% to 50% in the decades studied. …
In New York campaigns to stamp out crime and provide care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS are seen to have contributed to a 5.6-year reduction in the male black-white gap—the largest reduction in the country. Tougher and smarter policing tactics and a jump in arrest rates helped lower the number of murders in New York City by 73% during the 1990s. This extended the lives of young black men in particular. More than half of America’s murder victims are black, though blacks make up just 13% of the population. Blacks are also more likely to die from AIDS than any other racial group, so new treatments and a decline in needle-sharing amongst drug users has benefited them disproportionately.
The Dish 