Explaining numbers on differences in health

As surprising as this might be, usually socioeconomically disadvantaged groups have lower life expectancy. Why? They've visited the doctor less (and when they did visit, were at poorer health care facilites), eaten worse diets (since healthy food is more expensive than crap food in our country), lived in worse housing and neighborhoods, had more psychological stress, worked in more dangerous jobs, and lived near more hazardous waste sites, to name a few possible reasons. On top of this, studies done by the National Academy of Sciences found that minorities face discrimination by health care providers and more generally receive lower quality health care, even when controlling for age, income, insurance status, and severity of health condition.

The black-white disparities in health have always existed in America, even back in the 19th century when little doctors did actually helped medically. Essentially, everyone has been getting healthier, but the gap has never closed.

An interesting fact: in countries with large disparities in SES, both rich and poor people have lower life expectancy than people in countries with less inequality. In countries like the US (where the gap between the rich and the poor is rather large), even the richest people suffer a lower life expectancy than people in less stratified societies (ie several European countries).

On particular questions: the American Indian reservations in South Dakota are some of the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the country, hence the ridiculously low life expectancy. (American Indian reservations in general are horrible places to live, look for a post on that sometime soon). Also, differences in infant mortality rates are also due to the things I discussed above.

Life Expectancy

Here are some sociological facts for you all...

Whites have a life expectancy that is around 77, blacks around 71, and some American Indian groups in South Dakota around 55.

The infant mortality rate of blacks is three times that of whites.

My life in South Bend

I am temporarily putting aside my idealistic notions of what a blog should be (coherent, nicely edited writing on interesting topics) to simply update everyone on my life South Bend. This has been a long time coming, sorry folks. (I have also put two "real" blog entries on hold to type this, so look for those soon). Now my only problem is where to start.

I have been living for the past few weeks in a cute two story house in South Bend. Brandy lives there all the time. She is a third year sociology grad student. Her roommate was out of town for the summer, so I came in and took over for a month. They have two miniature dogs and two cats, so it's lucky I'm not allergic to animals. Brandy has been a fantastic roommate (or should I say housemate, since we don't share a room, jsut a house?). Really, I should say that Brandy has been a wonderful hostess. She has taken me out with her friends many times, introduced me to people, shown me around South Bend, hung out with me, given me advice on the sociology program, and introduced me to one of my new favorite TV shows ever: Six Feet Under.

At school, I have a super fly office on the eighth floor, looking out onto the Golden Dome that is a well known feature of the Notre Dame campus. The office I am in is practically a palace compared to the dungeon I spent the summer working in. I spend many hours in my office. I work on papers, read articles and books, type up summaries, research faculty who study race and religion, analyze data... not to mention read email, keep up on the news from the Olympics, and update this very blog. My office is my little piece of the world, it feels like.

My office is officially the graduate student office of the DuBois Center for the Advanced Study of Race and Religion. This is the center that Dr. Michael Emerson (my advisor) has just recently founded. His office is next to mine. On the other side of me is the office of our grant coordinator, a nice lady named Donna who just started today. Two doors down is Bernadette: a cute Hispanic girl who just moved here from Fort Worth and who is the secretary for our center. I love Bernadette, and I especially feel I can relate to her because we are both young (in the midst of many older secretaries and faculty members who are housed on our floor), and we both just moved here from Texas, knowing no one else around.

I have been doing various things here. I don't know whether to call my office "work" or "school" because I do a combination of both. My work for the center is often related to my school work, and they feed off each other. Things I study for school always help for work, and things I do for work are handy for my papers and studying. Recently, I have been putting together a database of questions asked about race (on any survey ever) and figuring out what questions I would like to see included on our big panel study to start in the fall. I will have to start my schoolwork in earnest tomorrow, when our classes start.

I have always called Dr. Emerson "Dr. E", but now I'm supposed to call him "Michael" since I'm in grad school (grad students all call professors by their first name. Probably because when we finish the program we are "colleagues" instead of professor/student). I find it super weird still, but here goes. It's great having an office right next to Michael. He is so helpful and always ready to answer questions or help figure out problems from analyzing data to choosing classes. I couldn't ask for a better advisor or set-up.

Last week I spent several days in San Francisco for the annual American Sociological Association conference. Imagine 5,000 sociologists going to hundreds of meetings, discussing research ideas, networking, and seeing old friends from grad school. It was a little overwhelming but a lot of fun. I went to several presentations, some about research, some discussions/debates, some on how to finish grad school or write grant proposals. Most all of them I found to be interesting, though after awhile it felt like my head might explode from so much sociology. I also had a very fun time visiting with friends. Some people I met while visiting grad schools last year were there, and it was nice to see them. We watched the Olympics, hung out with people, rode the cablecars and had dinner on the Wharf. I also got a chance to see a friend from high school who was in town, and we hiked arond quite a bit of San Francisco.
I love San Francisco. When I got on the BART (subway/train) from the airport to go to my hotel, I felt what can only be described as relief in the diverse bunch of people in the train with me. It felt like I was coming home: being back in a big city, with loads of people of different races and backgrounds all around. (South Bend is mostly biracial white/black, and at Notre Dame I see mostly white). San Fran also has tons of diverse neighborhoods, and I loved being there.

I also got to see Hannah (entry 1 Hannah) in Chicago for a day over the weekend. She was in town a few days before she started training with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and so I stayed with her and her college roommate (who I know from my visits to Chicago and her visits to PA). We spent a lot of time yarn shopping (Hannah just took up knitting) all over Chicago. A highlight of the trip was Friday night going to Twisted Spoke, a "family biker bar" that I have heard a lot about. The South Shore Line train from South Bend has a stop right in Hyde Park, and I decided I could definitely live in Hyde Park some day. Hannah told me it's one of the few neighborhoods welcoming to interracial families in all of Chicago.

My life here is so different than it was for the summer. I come to work, and I love my work, and stay there long hours. Sadly, I haven't cooked much, but I plan to take that up again. I miss my house from the summer a lot with such a great kitchen. I have watched so much TV recently (catching up on seasons 1 and 2 of Six Feet Under), something I did almost none of this summer! I am still working at making friends, meeting people, and finding a church, so there is not tons of time hanging out with people that so characterized my summer.
The first week or two I got into a funk at least once a day, and I wanted to jump in my car and drive back to Houston. Eventually I'd snap out of the funk and the lump in my throat would go away. Lately, I haven't had funks so much. I miss everyone and everything so much, but I have adjusted some to my new quieter life. I'm pretty busy with work, and that has helped. And sometimes I'm just too tired from missing people to be sad about it.

I met the rest of my cohort (what they call our group of incoming sociology grad students), and they seem nice enough. I also need to move into my real apartment, where I'll be for the rest of the year. I have taken most of my stuff there, but haven't unpacked or really moved in yet. I'll do that this week, I suppose.

Hopefully this is update enough on my life here. I know this was long, sorry I have hardly posted for two weeks! And if you are reading this, I probably miss you a whole lot. I'm sorry if I haven't returned your calls. (Sometimes I'm busy, and sometimes I'm worried I'll just start crying from missing you.) Thanks again for everything.

a better comparison than apples and oranges

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Yesterday my sister and I were talking on the phone, and this was part of our conversation.

Monica: I saw A Cinderella Story the other day and realized that I really love Hilary Duff.
Valerie: What? You like Hilary Duff?
Monica: Yeah, and after seeing Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen I realized I like Hilary Duff even more than I like Lindsay Lohan.
Valerie: WHAT? Are you implying that you like A Cinderella Story more than you like Mean Girls?
[side note: Mean Girls is one of the funniest movies ever, and a new favorite of mine.]
Monica: Well, they aren't really comparable movies. Mean Girls is funny and sattirical, and A Cinderella Story is cute and sweet. That's like asking me which I like better: Florida or chocolate cake.
[pause]
Monica: Okay, so it's not exactly like that...

On the road

I have spent many days on the road. My parents were into driving vacations when we were little, so we drove to Florida many times, to Canada twice, as well as countless trips to North Carolina and Kentucky. We did fly out west a few times for vacation, to Arizona, California, and Washington state, but each time we got there, rented a car, and drove like there was no tomorrow to see all of the state.

This week, for the first time, I spent several days on the road by myself. Even before I started driving, I noticed that my car smelled vaguely like a banana (David agreed with me on this). Unable to locate the source (and being pretty confident there was not actually a banana in there), I resigned to the fruity smell for the duration of the trip. When I stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Arkansas, they had Yankee Candle scented car fresheners. I was ecstatic and bought one. It is melon scented, so now my car smells like a fruit salad.

With hours and hours on the road, pretty much every possible thought crossed my mind. Amidst periods of extreme boredom, I also had periods of deep pondering. One of my questions: is there such a thing as fate? How can I be sure to not lose my hope? Will I find friendship in this new phase of my life?
I discovered that indeed, there is such a thing as Fate: it's a small town in Texas. And never fear, I also found Hope and Friendship in Arkansas, "The Natural State".

At one point, I decided to count the number of pickup trucks I saw. I counted for ten minutes somewhere near Dallas, and saw 66 trucks (I estimate they were about 1 of every 2 cars). Six hours later in Arkansas I waited until traffic was similarly light and saw 32 (I estimate they were 1 of every 4). I didn't count again until I was into Indiana, and there I saw 16 pickups out of 100 cars.

In the midst of my deep musings, I pondered the plight of Arkansasians. For one, what do you call them? Arkansians? Arkansasians? And secondly, they seem to be not so creative in naming their cities. Texarkana. Arkadelphia. What's the deal with place names that are half their state name and half the name of some other place?

Missouri was perhaps my most eventful state. First there was the car problems and my 3 hour stay in rural Missouri (which was 3 hours too long, I might add) that left me with a messed up muffler, hundreds of new mosquito bites, and a free flashlight from a random guy who stopped to help. Next, there was the Gateway Arch (that is, Gateway to the West) in downtown St. Louis, originally built as a tribute to US western expansion. The Gateway Arch is actually part of a national park called "The Jefferson Expansion Memorial National Park". It is complete with an underground museum that documents American westward expansion. Now, perhaps it's just me, but I felt that this museum and park were both completely absurd. Westward expansion of the United States meant the obliteration and/or subjugation of American Indians (the museum clearly documented all of this, showing when treaties were formed and broken with the American Indians, when they staged uprisings, when they lost battles). Personally, I was a bit uncomfortable having a national monument celebrating that very westward expansion. But hey, that's just me.

Illinois was the least interesting state I went through. Maybe I was just so bored and tired of the inside of my car by the time I got there that I stopped paying attention to anything. The only really remarkable thing about Illinois was that when I got out of my car at a gas station, it was about 70 or 75 degrees (as opposed to the 90+ degrees it had been in Texas all the way through St. Louis); I shivered and started worrying about my next few years.

My last bit of important info I gained from my trip is that if you are looking for the largest selection of saddles anywhere, you can find it in Texas just outside Texarakana. And a sight you would never want to miss, the College Football Hall of Fame, is located right near me in friendly South Bend, Indiana.