Racial ethnic disparities in health have been long noted in the United States. In describing these differences, we will be attentive to the role of gender and present gender differences whenever the data are available. It has recently been argued that although black women lag behind other social groups on some societal indicators, they are nonetheless rapidly becoming a “model minority” on a broad range of indicators.6 For example, black women have a higher rate of college enrollment than black males but also than whites and Hispanics. In addition, they also have lower suicide rates than black males and whites and low rates of crime, cigarette smoking, alcohol use and the use of illegal drugs.
