By Anis Shakirah Mohd Muslimin
[email protected]

Racial inequality is everywhere, including in health care.

Health-care activist Byllye Avery gave a lecture at the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Thursday to talk about why black women’s health matters. Her activism has bought black women together for a national discussion of their health.

Avery said health issues among black women in the United States are finally coming to light and being talked about openly.

“Over the past 32 or 33 years or so, we [black women] are starting to be heard. Except now, we are talking more about the negative things,” she said. “So we’re now trying to shift and talk about what healthy black women do, rather than always talking about what unhealthy black women do.”

She opened her talk by recalling her husband’s sudden death at age 33, and how that served as the catalyst for her commitment to work to improve the health of the African-American community.

In 1974, she cofounded the Gainesville Women’s Health Center in Florida, which fought for abortion rights for women.

“A black woman came, and we couldn’t help her, and six weeks or so after that, she died of a self-induced abortion,” Avery said, as she recalled what motivated her and two of her friends to open the center in her home state.

Avery said one of the main lessons she learned from her experience at the center was realizing black women were not returning for annual reproductive health examinations.

“How do I get black women to come in for black woman care?” she said.

According to data from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, maternal death rates for black women have grown from 14.5 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2014.

Chelsea Hicks, a UI graduate student in public health, said she thought the lecture was informative because it was about a topic people do not usually talk about.

“She [Avery] challenged me to vocalize more on what I’m experiencing or will experience regarding black women’s health,” Hicks said.

In 1983, Avery founded the National Black Women’s Heath Project, which is now known as the Black Women’s Imperative.

It is an organization that has been devoting its time to help improve the health and wellness of America’s 20 million black women and girls through advocacy and public policy, health education, research, and leadership development.

“Health is one of main reasons which we see racial inequality manifest itself,” said Jessica Welburn, a member of the lecture panel and a UI assistant professor of sociology and African American studies.

Welburn said the first step to narrowing down the gap between races is through awareness, and she noted that Thursday’s lecture helped highlight the issue of disparity faced by African Americans.

“Living in a state that is not as diverse, and living in a city that is reported to be liberal, we have a tendency to neglect talking about racial inequality,” she said.

Welburn said schools should be providing equal educational opportunities and an inclusive environment to its staff, faculty, and students.

“It requires everybody to collectively come together and acknowledge, whether or not they like it, racial inequality is a part of our community and because we live in this community we are part of racial inequality,” she said.