At Black Healthcare Conference, Class and Race are Recurring Themes

By Beth Fitzgerald, February 21, 2012 in Healthcare. Feb. 21, 2012.

For Dr. Joycelyn Elders — and other speakers — where you live is just as important as who you are

The wide disparities in health between black and white Americans are more a matter of place — where people live — than of race.

That was one of the recurring themes at “Taking Good Care: A History of Health and Wellness in the Black Community,” a day-long conference held at Rutgers-Newark last week.

It was sounded implicitly by former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who delivered the 32nd annual Marion Thompson Wright lecture.

“Today we could all do more for our own health than all the medical discoveries in the past 100 years. We need to take care of our own health,” Elders urged.

And it was made explicitly by Dr. William F. Owen Jr., former president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in his talk, “My Genetic Code or My Zip Code: Which is More Important?” Read More

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