Urban Health Crisis the United

Urban Health Crisis

The United States is plagued by two extreme social classes: one that can afford and has everything and another that has nothing. The lower social class suffers most in terms of health. The nation is suffering from an urban health crisis that only seems to be getting worse as time passes by. This urban health crisis is due to the lower social class's lack of accessibility to proper nutrition, their constant exposure to violence, and their easy accessibility to illegal drugs. In order to improve the lives of all Americans it is essential to produce a culture where everyone has the same equal access to the same resources that can bring equal health prosperity.

Food deserts have become a common phenomena among urban centers across America (Rose et al. 2009). Lack of access to healthy food leaves the lower class at a social disadvantage. If there are no other options, then people will most certainly go toward the option that is most convenient to them. A food center that provides less healthier food will be chosen rather than one that provides food that can actually be beneficial for their health. This is not only because individuals do not know any better, but because people always tend to buy food where it is most convenient, location is a huge factor in that. Supermarkets provide options that are easy to stock, easier to be made, and that will indeed provide individuals with the choice of getting to pick something that will not be bad for them. But once these supermarkets are no where near the urban centers, this leads the lower class to have a higher rate of illnesses brought on by poor nutrition (Kinenberg 2001).

A lot of the times, the food options available to individuals living in isolated urban communities will be at a higher cost. These individuals that are already struggling to get by, will indeed pick a cheaper option, even if it is at cost of their own health. Aside from not having access to food that will be a healthy and safer option, there is also the issue of the pricing of the food that they do have access to. Unfortunately, it can get expensive to eat healthier and to be able to do that would mean spending alloted funds on food that can serve more people if they pick cheaper options. Another issue with this is that in not having a supermarket around or in close enough vicinity in urban areas, they are forced to buy food from smaller local markets that actually raise the prices of their food products because markets know that they can (Rose et al. 2009). This has a detrimental affect on a person's health as people will sacrifice health for a cheaper price.

Health management goes beyond the nutrition that is ingested. Environment plays a big role in the urban health crisis that currently plagues the nation. Stress is a common factor among those living in urban or inner city areas. Stress can be a greater killer itself than the constant violence that these individuals are exposed to (Kinenberg 2001). Events that make people fear for their lives causes the body to react in ways that recognizes that it is not normal. Once the violence dwindles down in neighborhoods, people feel safer and they in fact feel healthier. In the Wire (2002), this is depicted all too keenly when drugs are given a free pass and the violence moves to a secluded area of the neighborhood (Hamsterdam 2004). Neighbors comment on how much safer they feel and how much less violence there is. Knowing that one does not have to constantly deal with facing the violence everyday will indeed bring more people to take care of themselves more as they do not fall into the mentality of lack of control about their surroundings. If they recognize that their neighborhoods are safer and therefore they feel that their fate is more in the control of their own hands, then they may be able to also accept the fact that being healthier is actually within their reach.

Aside from the violence that contributes to an urban health crisis, illegal drugs only add on to that notion (Bourgois 2008). However, it is the illegality of drugs that actually bring the greater health risk to the urban population (Straight and True 2004). A drug like marijuana that has no real documented proof of the danger that it can cause or that it will permanently be damaging to an individual's health is being sold with drugs that do have documented health risks, like crack, heroin, and meth (Hamsterdam 2004). If someone goes to buy marijuana, they are exposed and offered other stronger drugs, increasing the chance of their usage, increasing their health risk. This is something plaguing urban communities and keeping them at a level that can be difficult to overcome.

The notion of drug usage also have resounding affects on the urban community and on their health. Simple possession or usage of marijuana, because of its illegality, can send an individual to prison, and once they get out, they are forever tainted by their offense. This prohibits them from finding a decent job, a safe job, or any job at all. This all directly affects their health and well-being. Getting a job in a hazardous environment will be more lenient to individuals who have criminal records, because their health is being put at risk, but at that point, individuals may feel like they have no other options. As was shown in the Wire (2002), someone who is unable to get employed, may be forced back into the same route that brought them to prison in the first place (Homecoming 2004). Having no other alternatives, individuals fall right back into the vicious cycle that not only put their lives at risk, but most importantly, their immediate health.