I was asked to complete a survey about my experiences with Kaiser Permanente’s website. At the end, there’s a text box for comments. I wrote:
By most counts more Americans die from suicide than from prostate cancer. Whites, especially white men, are at higher risk for suicide (as you state on your site). Black men are at higher risk for prostate cancer. So WHY does a search for “suicide +white American” yield only 16 results – but a search for “prostate cancer +African American” yields 48 results. That’s THREE TIMES as many articles about a disease that takes fewer lives than suicide. So, either you don’t care as much about suicide as about cancer or you don’t care as much about whites as blacks. What gives?
Trying to use other terms, besides “white Americans,” makes no difference in the search.
Based on quick google searches, each year around 30,000 Americans take their own lives. It’s no secret that white men (especially older ones) are at highest risk. Meanwhile, prostate cancer claims around 29,000 Americans. I don’t expect to get an answer, but it would be interesting if I did. Perhaps there’s a logical explanation. If they provide one, I’ll share it with y’all.
December 21, 2012 at 8:10 am
I would venture to take a guess that the few black males who regularly visit physicians leave the office and never return after hearing that the doctor wants to mess with their “mah dik”.
I did know the difference in incidence and death rates, which means when the nearly all white “Prostate Cancer Awareness” people hold out their can, my money will stay in my pocket.
December 22, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Black men are twice as likely to get the cancer and more likely to die from same. Black men are scared to death of the digital rectal exam and refuse to go to the doctor after age forty for that reason alone. When the disease is finally found it is too late. Black men refuse to get the digital rectal exam because in their own minds they have been violated in a homosexual manner and are less of a man for it. Nothing worse than a black man in the hood thinking in his own mind he is less than a man.