648
years." In a sample of two people,
life may be divided between 0 years
and 70 years to reach an average
of 35; but in the large Negro popu–
lation of the United States it is not
50% that dies under one year of
age but only approximately 4% -
even though this is a rate 90%
higher than the white rate. The
fact of the matter is that most but
not all of the seven year differential
in life expectancy between Negroes
and whites in the United States is
accounted for by infant mortality.
It
is worth emphasizing the "not
all." While it is quite true, as Mr.
Mailer points out, that there has
been very little progress for life ex–
pectancy beyond age 40 (regardless
of race) in the last 50 years, the
fact is that at
almost every age
from 0 to 65, including the ages
past 40, the Negro has a lower life
expectancy in the United States
than the white. Put more bluntly,
a Negro in the United States at
any age is likelier to die sooner
than a white man of the same age.
The death rates for virtually every
major grouping of diseases, at any
age, is higher for Negroes than for
whites in the United States.
This is obviously in very large
measure - if not entirely - due to
the circumstances of life for the
black American - that is, miser–
able housing, over crowding, inade–
quate nutrition, greater exposure
to infectious disease, discrimination,
social and psychological stress, and
all the rest of the dreary litany
that is so familiar to us.
It is just not true in the United
States that Negroes and whites
have equally healthy bodies; at any
age, the Negro is likelier to suffer
illness - or at least to die from the
illnesses he suffers. I do not know
what Mr. Mailer means by "the
Negroes have become on the aver-
LETTERS
age physically superior . .." What
is the criterion of physical superi–
ority? It cannot be in growth and
development; inadequate nutrition
and faulty medical care have seen
to that. It cannot be in life ex–
pectancy. The implication is that
there is some sort of intrinsic or
genetic physical superiority in Ne–
groes, however obscured it may be
by the effects of environment and
faulty medical care. On the basis
of our present knowledge, this is
as ridiculous as the contention that
Negroes are intrinsically inferior
and whites superior. There is just
no scientific support for claims of
racial superiority and inferiority no
matter which race we are talking
about.
The most profound admiration
for American Negroes - for the
ability to survive, somehow, to
some extent, in the face of brutal–
izing, bitter, discnminatory biologi–
cal, social and physical environ–
ment - does not require statistical
manipulation nor genetic mytho–
logy. It would be tragic if we let
anything obscure our confrontation
of the glow and systematic damage
our social order wreaks on black
Americans, just as it would be
foolish if we made longevity the
test of the quality of a social order.
After all, whites in North Dakota
live longer than anybody in the
United States, and I doubt that
Mr. Mailer would be interested in
the thesis that rural North Dakota
represents the epitome of Western
civilization.
Finally, I do not know what Mr.
Mailer means by "America's medi–
cal civilization." Discrimination and
injustice in medical care are a sig–
nificant and disgusting feature of
American life, but the basic harm
that is done to blacks in the United
States has nothing to do with medi-
