Normally, I don’t quote directly from anything I read, but the American Cancer Society recently released “Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2009-2009″ was pretty clear. So:

“African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the US for most cancers. The causes of these inequalities are complex and are thought to reflect social and economic disparities more than biologic differences associated with race. These include inequalities in work, wealth, income, education, housing and overall standard of living, barriers to high-quality health care, and racial discrimination.

“Although the overall racial disparity in cancer death rates is decreasing, in 2005, the death rate for all cancers combined continued to be 33 percent higher in African American men and 16 percent higher in African American women than in white men and women, respectively. Furthermore, African Americans bear a disproportionately high burden from other diseases as well. Life expectancy is lower forAfrican Americans than whites among men 69.5 vs. 75.7 years) and women (76.3 vs. 80.8 years).”

That pretty much speaks for itself.