Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reveals past health issues, calls out racial inequality in health care
NBA legend and UCLA Health Ambassador Kareem Abdul-Jabbar laid it out as simply as possible. “Black lives are at risk. Serious risk,” he wrote in a piece titled “Black Lives Matter” released Wednesday as part of WebMD’s social justice magazine series.
Abdul-Jabbar notes that his own life is at risk given not only his age (73) but also his height (7-foot-2) and race. Black Americans are more likely than white Americans to have high blood pressure and to die of heart disease, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are more likely to die at early ages from all causes, per the CDC.
“In keeping with these statistical risks,” he wrote, he has had prostate cancer, leukemia and a heart bypass surgery.
The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar with six NBA titles, six MVP nods and entrance into the Hall of Fame knows he is better off when it comes to health. Via WebMD:
I’ve been fortunate because my celebrity has brought me enough financial security to receive excellent medical attention. No one wants an NBA legend dying on their watch. Imagine the Yelp reviews.
But others in the Black community don’t have those benefits.
Health care system more damaging to Black lives
Abdul-Jabbar called the issue of police brutality only “the most dramatic and violent attack on the lives of African Americans.” Instead, the more damaging issue is “a health care system that ignores the fact that, though they are most in need of medical services, they actually receive the lowest level.” Nothing has shown this more clearly than the current COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Nov. 30, the COVID-19 death rate for Black Americans is 2.8 times higher than that of white Americans. They also have higher hospitalization rates and total number of cases. Part of this is underlying health conditions are more prevalent in the community. It’s also because they are more likely to work in essential jobs, typically lower-level, low-income positions where they can’t work from home.
Poverty leads to underlying conditions, COVID-19
Abdul-Jabbar wrote that it is what leads to these underlying conditions that isn’t talked about enough and falls on the healthcare system. Those who have less opportunity are less likely to be able to continue their education, and therefore are less likely to have higher paying jobs that offer healthcare and paid time off to attend medical visits. Even if they do have a degree, he wrote, they are more likely to be discriminated against in the hiring process.
There’s an issue of food deserts, where quality grocery stores aren’t available in poorer neighborhoods. Instead people rely on convenience stores where cheap food lacking proper nutrition is plentiful. All of these issues combine to create the current situation and there is no solving a branch without the root.
Abdul-Jabbar used the metaphor of a quilt.
The problem with pulling any single thread—COVID-19, health risks, job opportunities—is that each thread is a single strand in a giant quilt that smothers the Black community. One thread leads to another, to another, to another—each forming an interlinking pattern that seems impenetrable and unassailable. A police officer crushing the windpipe of an unarmed Black man is related to not valuing Blacks, which is related to stereotypes about Blacks, which is related to how they are portrayed (or not portrayed) in media, which is related to not having educational opportunities, which is related to … and on and on.
The health threats are “built into the foundation of American society as solidly as steel girders holding up a bridge,” he wrote.
Most people know this is true, though some will deny it because they fear removing those rusty girders will cause the whole bridge to collapse. The truth is that those girders are already malignant with rust and will eventually collapse if we don’t address the underlying rot of systemic racism.
It takes people working daily on the structural flaws to keep it from falling away.
Black community trapped in ‘Groundhog Day’
Abdul-Jabbar wrote that he could have written the exact same thing 50 years ago, before there was a pandemic or a Black Lives Matter movement. He compared it to the famous 1993 movie with Bill Murray.
It’s as if the Black community is trapped in Groundhog Day in which every day we fight racism, prove it exists, see gains, and then wake up the next day to all the same obstacles. In the movie, Bill Murray escaped the cycle by becoming selfless, caring more about others’ needs than his greedy desires. That’s how America will escape this self-destructive behavior. The future of equity for Black Americans starts with physical and mental health, and as long as they are at the end of the line for services, true equity can’t happen. Black lives have to matter in every aspect of American society if they are to thrive.
Abdul-Jabbar partnered with UCLA Health a year ago on health and wellness initiatives. He has been a vocal writer and activist in recent years.
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