Building A Pro-Black World

Repairing the Whole: How Reparations Can Address Physical and Mental Health

Trevor Smith

Shortly after the US Constitution was ratified, Benjamin Franklin penned a letter to French scientist Jean‐Baptiste Le Roy, in which he said that “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”¹ Although certain, death can come in myriad ways, and if we peel back behind some of the leading causes of death, we find that chronic stress is linked to six of them.

Stress, like most health issues, is not equally distributed across racial groups. Black adults are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress compared to white adults.² Those who live in poverty and face daily struggles of overpoliced neighborhoods, underfunded schools, and lower‐paid jobs are two to three times more likely to report serious psychological distress.

The psychological effects of these economic disadvantages don't only affect parents, but they also heavily affect children, even before they are born. Studies have shown that prenatal stress can have significant effects beginning in the womb and spanning across a lifetime.

This stress, according to experts,³ can arise from traumatic experiences, life‐changing events, or daily microaggressions. And it has negative influences not only on the outcome of the pregnancy but also on the behavioral and physiological development of the child. Threatening situations, no matter how big or small, increase the body's heart rate, blood pressure, and the pace ...