The Great Sleep Divide
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
Here in the United States a plurality of the people who live below the poverty line are white. And numerous ethnic minorities earn far more on average than the white ethnic majority.
If the article simply stated that impoverished people are far more likely to suffer sleep deficit, and then went on to point out that certain ethnic minorities are disproportionately impoverished, it would accomplish its mission, without ignoring subtlety and reality.
Instead it's written in the typical clickbait fashion to attract the large swath of people who think their destiny is dictated by their ethnicity. As if there's some squad of bigots out there purposely waking up people of color.
- living in a low-income neighborhood (many affluent black people live in lower-income black neighborhoods)
- job stress (in the same given job, black workers are more likely to be stressed than white workers)
- health problems (eg black people are more likely to have sleep apnea and more likely to be underserved for treatment)
So there are issues around policing, employment discrimination, and medical discrimination which have nothing to do with individual income.
I get that you have an axe to grind. But the headline is not clickbait and this isn’t manipulative. You just can’t help but attach your own ideological war to this article.
I can see (2) being acceptable at face value, however (1) seems to be rather dubious given the standard inflation of lifestyle where more affluence leads to moving to areas of more affluence, does it not?
For (3) I’d imagine this has more to do with rates of adverse health factors amongst impoverished communities, which I’d be given to believe is relatively evenly distributed if controlling for wealth?
Here is a noteworthy snippet from that article that you might find useful for future conversations about this:
In fact, a New York Times analysis of 2014 census figures shows that income alone cannot explain, nor would it likely end, the segregation that has defined American cities and suburbs for generations.
The choices that black families make today are inevitably constrained by a legacy of racism that prevented their ancestors from buying quality housing and then passing down wealth that might have allowed today’s generation to move into more stable communities. And even when black households try to cross color boundaries, they are not always met with open arms: Studies have shown that white people prefer to live in communities where there are fewer black people, regardless of their income.
The result: Nationally, black and white families of similar incomes still live in separate worlds.
- black patients are simply poorly treated by white doctors. One notorious myth (still taught in some medical schools) is that black people have a higher pain tolerance than Whitt people and are less in need of painkillers. This is an extremely serious problem:
> “Black people’s nerve endings are less sensitive than white people’s.” “Black people’s skin is thicker than white people’s.” “Black people’s blood coagulates more quickly than white people’s.”
> These disturbing beliefs are not long-forgotten 19th-century relics. They are notions harbored by far too many medical students and residents as recently as 2016. In fact, half of trainees surveyed held one or more such false beliefs, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. I find it shocking that 40% of first- and second-year medical students endorsed the belief that “black people’s skin is thicker than white people’s.”
(source: https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/how-we-fail-black-patient... )
- white racism itself is a constant source of low-level stress for many black Americans, which is plausibly (but not provably) implicated in numerous health disparities. It is obviously quite difficult to run an ethical controlled experiment here, but I think it’s quite believable that the overall impact of racism on anxiety (even if it’s somewhat minor for many individuals) can add up to a notable disparity in sleep hygiene.
I am having trouble finding specific sources because I am on my phone. I am also a mathematician, not a doctor or a sociologist. You could Google Scholar phrase like “medical racism” or “health impacts of discrimination” and do more reading.
It's patently absurd and simply isn't like that. Being poor is extremely stressful. It's really that simple. And acting as if people that live in trailer parks don't suffer health effects worse than more affluent people is also absurd.
I can guarantee you didn't live anywhere that was remotely integrated in your entire life. You have an ivory tower view of this entire issue, because these beliefs are a ready indicator of no firsthand knowledge.
Also citations of activist organizations are not objective and never will be. Why don't you provide a link from PETA while you're at it about the health effects of meat and see if it's a source of objective knowledge.