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Race and Health Care: New Report Shares Insights on Black Californians

EVITARUS, a Black-owned Los Angeles-based public opinion research firm, is conducting the three-phase study for CHCF. The firm has extensive experience polling California’s diverse constituencies and maintains long-standing relationships with Black-led community organizations and media.

Published

4 years ago

February 2, 2022

Oakland Post

California Health Care Foundation interviewed 100 Black Californians for its study on discrimination in the summer of 2021. Graphic courtesy of California Black Media.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

In keeping with its commitment to ending health inequities, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) released the first phase of a three-part study documenting how race and racism shape the health care experiences of Black Californians.

The report, “In Their Own Words: Black Californians on Racism and Health Care,” was written by health services researcher Dr. Linda Cummings. The study synthesizes hour-long interviews with 100 Black Californians conducted from June to August 2021.

According to Katherine Haynes, a senior program officer serving on CHCF’s People-Centered Care team, “The project is to understand the interactions between racism, health and healthcare.” The first phase “is in-depth interviews that are really designed to gain a deep understanding of Black Californians’ perception of racism in this state’s healthcare system and its impact on them.”

CHCF’s main objective is to advance meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of California, specifically individuals who are financially challenged and whose needs are not well served in the healthcare system.

“Dr. Linda Cummings wrote the report, and we did the research. We designed the study, performed the data collection as well as the data analysis that supported Dr. Cummings and her findings,” according to Shakari Byerly, EVITARUS managing partner. “It was a thorough recruitment process and screening of those that indicated an interest in participation. The participants also received an honorarium (of $125) for their participation.”

Findings from the first phase cautioned that just having a Black physician did not automatically result in better care. Negative experiences with Black physicians and other health providers of color can be an obstacle to health care, too.

“It is the subtle, the microaggressions that happen within the health care field. So, I am resistant to get help unless I feel comfortable with the person who may or may not look like me,” a 33-year-old Black woman from the San Francisco Bay Area said. “But I also have been discriminated against a lot from Black physicians as well.”

Cummings wrote that more than half of the respondents said that, at some time in their lives, they had been unhoused, without a stable place to live, or stayed with a family member or friend because they did not have a place of their own.

Notably, the study highlighted that the participants took their health care seriously.

“The respondents really spoke about how they were taking action to pursue health, advocating for themselves in the health care system and taking steps to protect themselves from harm in the health care system,” said Haynes.

Nearly all the respondents (93%) had some form of health insurance. The majority were covered through employer-sponsored plans at 40% or Medi-Cal at 26%, the study reports.

The mix of participants also reflected the ethnic diversity of Black Californians. The majority of respondents identified as Black or African American (83%), Black and multiracial (6%), African (5%), Afro-Caribbean (4%), Afro-Latino (1%), and Black-Native American (1%), Byerly said.

“Everyone identified as Black, but we recognize that people come from different backgrounds,” Byerly said. “It supports our research design to make sure that we show a full range of our community in California.”

Byerly also shared that 62% of the participants said they have experienced “some type of discrimination” based on their background while getting healthcare for themselves. About 59% said they were treated unfairly while getting healthcare for a family member, she added.

Phase II of the ‘Listening to Black Californians’ study examines “structural issues” in the health care system gleaned from focus group discussions with Black Californians and key health care stakeholders,” Haynes said.

The third and final phase of the study will be a statewide survey of Black California residents. It will be crafted to evaluate the extent to which the Phase I and Phase II findings are represented in the general Black Californian population.

“The second phase, with 18 focus groups, was completed right before the winter holidays. The third phase, we hope, will have over 3,000 Black-Californian participants,” Hayes said. “The final report is expected in the summer of 2022.”

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Oakland Post: Week of July 8 – 14, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 8 – 14, 2026

Published

17 hours ago

July 12, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

1 week ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org