Black Resilience - Broadening the Narrative and the Science on Cardiovascular Health and Disease Disparities.

Abstract

The health of African Americans has been largely described in terms of deficits, disease and death. Little attention has been historically given to the fact that African Americans as a population show the sustained ability to survive an evolving array of social, economic and environmental adversities that date back to more than a century before the founding of the United States. While these inequities have indeed taken (and continue to take) a devastating toll, there is also wide heterogeneity in outcomes, suggesting the existence of substantial individual and collective resilience among African Americans. This Perspective aims to stimulate discussion and research that explores resilience in a population in which "overcoming" and "bouncing back" from adversities (ranging from minor incidents to legally ordained, chronic and horrific oppression) has been a requirement for survival. Rigorous scientific exploration of Black resilience may yield important insights into the phenomenon of human resilience that transcend race.