Racism: A Leading Cause of Death

Parents everywhere have learned the awful statistics over the last 15 years: Suicide has become a leading cause of death among teenagers.

In the United States, teenagers and young adults die from suicide at a higher rate than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, congenital disabilities, stroke, pneumonia, flu, and chronic lung disease combined. Every day, 3,700 high school students attempt suicide.

That wasn’t a typo.

For Black youth, however, the numbers are far more devastating.

Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for Black youth ages 10 to 24.

Since 2022, the suicide rate among Black youth ages 10 to 19 far outpaced white children in the same age group, increasing a staggering 54% since 2018, compared to a 17% decrease for white youth. The suicide rate is rising at a faster rate than any other group.

Of course, there are many causes of suicide. Untreated depression, anxiety, and bullying in school or on social media are not limited to Black youth — these issues affect young people everywhere.

Black adolescents, though, are burdened with the additional stress and harm of racism.

That racism can come in the form of personal experiences with racists but also through exposure to racist comments, images, and videos online, which are sadly plentiful and unabated.

One 2024 University of Georgia study also found that growing up in a low-resource environment and experiencing racial discrimination as an adolescent can make having healthy, trusting relationships difficult. Strong mistrust and caution toward relationships can lead to feelings of isolation. That all leads to thoughts of death and suicide.

Michael Curtis, the author of the study, noted, “We found when Black men were exposed to childhood adversity, they may develop an internal understanding of the world as somewhere they are devalued.”

Additional research demonstrates that racism can result in lower life satisfaction and self-esteem, even causing mental health disorders. These all, in turn, contribute to higher suicide rates.

Black youth face systemic inequities, including higher poverty rates. And the Black community has a justifiable mistrust of the medical system. Mental health among some in the Black community is also stigmatized, discouraging some from seeking and accessing proper care.

Racism doesn’t stop killing Black people after age 24.

There’s overwhelming evidence that racism has a significant impact on health, resulting in lower life expectancy for Black American men and women. It factors into how Black people access medical care, receive diagnoses, and get treatment.

The suicide rate for Black adults is also on the rapid rise.

What all this means is that we need to start treating racism — personal, systemic and online — as a public health emergency.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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