Are you ready for the craziest explanation for what afflicts the black community due to their being exposed to more gun violence than other racial groups in America? Read on.
Gun Violence Faced by a ‘Striking’ 60% of Black Americans, by Jess Thomson, Newsweek.com, May 23, 2024
Nearly 60 percent of Black Americans have been exposed to some degree of gun violence, new research has found.
In a survey of 3,015 Black Americans by Rutgers Health, 40 percent of participants said that they knew someone who had been shot, and 12 percent had been exposed to gun violence in three separate ways.
This exposure to gun violence may also predict increased rates of disabilities, according to a new paper in the Journal of Urban Health.
“Traditionally, the majority of efforts related to gun violence have focused on reducing homicides, but this study indicates that we need to provide more support to those who face such exposures to violence beyond homicide,” Daniel Semenza, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health’s Gun Violence Research Center and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
Thirty percent of the men in the survey reported some degree of exposure to gun violence, compared to 15 percent of the women, with these exposures ranging from hearing a shooting occurring nearby to knowing a victim to have been threatened or even shot themselves.
Of the survey participants, 4 percent of the men and 2 percent of the women reported having been shot.
“These numbers are striking because this was a nationally representative sample, matched to all Black Americans as a whole by age, sex, income, education and area of residence,” said Semenza. “The survey shows that roughly 60 percent of all Black adults in the US have faced exposure to gun violence and that 40 percent of them personally know a shooting victim, which is staggering.”
Black people in the United States face a huge range of systemic and institutional racism, manifesting in various aspects of life, including employment, housing, education, criminal justice, and health care. As of 2021, the unemployment rate for Black Americans was 8.6 percent, compared to 4.7 percent for white Americans, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, and Black workers earn, on average, 76 cents for every dollar earned by white workers.
“Black Americans experience a disproportionate burden of violent injury and exposure to firearm violence in the U.S.,” the researchers wrote in the paper. “The majority of Black men and women exposed to firearm violence reside in low-income urban communities, placing them at high risk for repeated exposure and resultant ongoing physical and psychological health challenges.”
“Black Americans disproportionately experience numerous types of firearm violence exposure detrimental to mental, physical, and behavioral well-being,” they wrote.
The disabilities associated with gun violence recorded in the survey include trouble concentrating, struggling to walk/use stairs or run errands, and issues with dressing or bathing. Men who saw or heard about shootings had a 53 percent increased rate of suffering from some form of functional disability than those who had not and were over twice as likely to report trouble concentrating, walking up or down stairs, dressing, or bathing.
Yes, a study in the Journal of Urban Health details the black community’s—recall, those who are disproportionately exposed to gun violence because other black individuals engage in said gun crime—proclivity to being exposed to gun violence causes those who experience it to be twice as likely to report not getting dressed or bathing.
Great to see @Newsweek covering our work on gun violence exposure and functional disability among Black Americans.
Most Black adults experience some type of gun violence, direct or indirect, which carries very real implications for everyday well-being. https://t.co/LsVzSSkp7B
