The Unnatural Causes: Place Matters Summary

Living in the Bronx and participating in a summer medical internship, aimed at underrepresented minorities, outlined the flaws and the well-known struggles that minorities face. In the borough on the Bronx, where the internship was in, I learned about the good and lots of bad about the Bronx and why it is seen as the worst county in the state of New York. Out of the 62 counties, Bronx has been ranked highest, or one of the highest, for health concerns like asthma, obesity, violence, and pollution. Majora Carter quickly reviewed, just a fraction, of these issues that face the Bronx and also giving a brief History lesson. Being abreast with much if this, the part that stood out most was also the part that I was totally clueless about was the

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of data from the largest U.S. metropolitan areas has shown that people who are living in poor neighborhoods have a higher decrease in health than a person who is from a more stable economic neighborhood. The study has also shown that people living within poor neighborhoods also have a higher likely-hood to live in areas with

Although racial segregation has been illegal since the Fair Housing Act of 1968, it is still a major problem in the United States (Kramer & Houge, 2009). Some of the process through which residential segregation affects health outcomes in marginalized population are related to schools and neighborhood quality, employment opportunities, environmental pollution, availability of infrastructure and services such as hospitals, grocery stores. The effect of residential segregation on health exist even after removing individual level racial discrimination (Diez Roux & Mair, 2010 and Kramer & Houge,

Nearly one half of the world 's population is affected by environmental poverty, however, only fourteen percent in the United States fall in line with poverty (Mark). The poor, Hispanics, and blacks suffer the most from pollution, health, and hazardous waste issues, unlike people from other races and social classes. Taking for granted good food, clean water, and other resources necessary to survive, wealthy citizens forget that others struggle. Some areas in America are deficient in these basic resources that are necessary to live. Driving through different communities, it is clear that certain areas lack proper health needs.

After I listened to Majora Carter 's passionate speech, I learn that we must work together as a community to improve the quality of our surrounding environment. Poor neighborhood often located near industrial factories or sewage system which correlated to the high percentages of obesity and asthma in these ares. According to Majora Carter, poor people not only poor but also unhealthy. Coming from a minority low-income family, Carter knows how it feel to live in polluted areas and she was brave enough to stand up and ask her community to help her make a different. After vacant lands in Bronx areas turned into parks and walk-able neighborhoods, people stopped alliterate, crime rate dropped because the streets were alive with people.

This chapter examined how different white residents viewed diversity as some viewed it as positive and negative. It also examines day to day interactions between white and non-white residents. On one hand, whites were attracted to the diversity in Creekridge Park but others see diversity as a negative effect of affordable housing. Other than those two views, some people moved to Creekridge Park simply because they were attracted to its taste instead of because it had positive economic benefits. I found that this chapter addressed the main point of this because it explained interracial relations by exploring what members of the neighborhood thought about diversity.

Location matters when it deals with who you are. The reasoning behind residential segregation deals with your surrounding environment and what you are born into. Industrialization has had a big impact on neighborhoods which had people

The findings from this research have led me to be certain of the importance of how by just merely looking into a subject from the origin of it can make us understand the true cause of the problem. Often people believe in one thing because it was told to them as a child like “ you are just like your parents who also have asthma.” However, after examining the different triggers of asthma it is with more certainty that I believe the borough of the Bronx has to advocate for its community and the area in they live in. Without change the Bronx’s pollution will continue to affect the people and the hospitalizations will continue to be the highest in all the boroughs.

The health status of the people vary, some of the community appear to be healthy whereas, others appear unhealthy. Those that are homeless appear to suffer with substance abuse issues, we did not that there are some overweight individuals and many smokers.

The conclusions of gentrification has shifted in recent years, whether it stands for its moral or corrupt. In the course text from the Sharon Zukin’s article, “Naked City: The City That Lost Its Soul”, argues that gentrification is often detrimental to low income/longtime residents, destruction and the end of old authentic neighborhoods. Zukin argues, based on the facts on white-collar men and women have taken up all space, development of new residents and creating a cultural/economic barrier between rich and poor, young and old. Vice Versa, according to recent studies and new formulas of gentrification, it is an effective urban planning strategy because it minimizes the growth of slums, prevents crime and causes growth in the economy. Therefore,

Gentrification connotes the influx of wealthier people into an existing urban area and a related increase in the property value, rent, and changes in culture and character. More often, gentrification is negatively portrayed as the displacement of poor communities through the arrival of rich outsiders. Gentrification arises from an increased interest in a certain urban district leading to many wealthy people buying and renovating houses in the area. The real impacts of gentrification are often intricate, contradictory and vary depending on the type of urban center. In a way, gentrification has greatly altered American urban landscape over the years. Despite the negative connotations often attached to gentrification, it is recognized that the

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most ethnicities in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, and whites.(2)” Among these ethnicities, African Americans have the highest death rate. Why is it that African Americans are at the top of this list? Perhaps it is because of the social inequality experienced on the socioeconomic scale. Socioeconomic status can heavily influence the optimal health of the heart in an individual; resulting in cardiac injury.

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People (2015), these factors underlie preventable disparities in health status and disease outcomes. Poor health outcomes are often the result of the interaction between individuals and their social and physical environment. Policies that result in changes to the social and physical environment can affect entire populations over extended periods of time, while simultaneously helping people to change individual-level behavior. Improving the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age will ensure a healthier population, thereby improving national productivity, security, and prosperity through a healthier nation. The importance of social determinants of health is growing initiatives to address these determinants of health.

After living in Los Angeles for a while, the more I acclimated with the social setting, the more similarity I found with the social context that I experienced in Bangladesh.   Even though I was accustomed to seeing people lack basic health care, I was shocked by the transparent disparity in the underserved community in America, in arguably one of the most developed countries in the world. It was puzzling to see that even though America has the best health care, there was still a lack of care in the underserved community. Chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and so on, are more prominent in these communities. Lack of education, socio-economic status, and even gender impacted the way people sought health care.

There is no doubt that a direct correlation between low income and less health is prevalent. I see it specifically in my place of work. I work at wound care center where over half of the wounds we see are complicated by diabetes. The patient population that are younger and have uncontrolled diabetes are mostly young, of lesser socioeconomic class with government funded insurance like Fidelis and Medicaid. In a survey completed in 2010 48% of people with less education and a lower household income under $24,000 report that they have health problems that prevent them from doing what other people in their age group can do.