Suburban Color Lines

The suburbs have traditionally been seen as a respite from the hazardous health conditions of crowded and contaminated urban areas. Though the suburbs are often healthier places to live as compared to cities, this healthy glow masks other realities that exist below the surface.  Looking at just a few health outcomes by race/ethnicity in Nassau County shows the large disparities in health that exist: diabetes rates among Latinos are twice that of whites, obesity rates are two and a half times as high for African American vs. white women, whites were more likely to have had a cancer screening than other groups, and infant mortality is more than four times higher among African Americans than whites. 

How do we explain these stark differences in health outcomes between people living in the suburbs?  Are these differences the results of individual choices?  Do communities influence the health of its residents?  Can structural systems like employment, education and housing have an effect on how healthy you are?  Place does matter, and spatial concentration of poverty and race is a persistent problem in Nassau County.  Health is a contextual and dynamic process that depends not just on individual behaviors, but also on the local build environment, community assets, cultural attitudes and access to resources.   Increased understanding about health and context may lead to more effective interventions in specific localities and among specific resident populations with risk profiles for poor social health.

This video examiines the border between the Village of Hempstead and Garden City and suggests that it is a color line, a line that is divided by race/ethnicity. It is also a line between good and poor health outcomes. The video tells the story about traveling across that line in suburban Nassau County and how it relates to unequal health outcomes.