Why does racial inequity in health persist?

Abstract

Attempts over decades have failed to eliminate the glaring inequity in birth outcomes between Americans of different races. We propose broadening the approach to dealing with racial health inequity by considering the interplay of race and class in the politics of the United States. This approach, combined with a grasp of the historical roots of race relations in North America, could hold the promise of improving our country's abysmal showing in international comparisons of population health indicators, including birth outcomes.