The New York Times Magazine: The Hidden Toll on Black Mothers and Babies

The disparity in death rates has everything to do with the lived experience of being a black woman in America View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. Friday, April 13, 2018 [The New York Times]( [NYTimes.com/magazine »]( [The New York Times]( Friday, April 13, 2018 [Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis]( By THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE [Linda Villarosa writes this week's cover story about the profound disparity in black maternal and infant mortality.]( Linda Villarosa writes this week's cover story about the profound disparity in black maternal and infant mortality. LaToya Ruby Frazier for The New York Times We’re shaking things up and making some changes to our weekly newsletter. Tell us what you think by emailing us at [magazine@nytimes.com](mailto:magazine@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback%20NYT%20Mag). And thanks for reading. Dear Reader, I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s been an extremely newsy one, with [Mark Zuckerberg’s appearances in Washington]( the [president’s lawyer’s office being raided]( and the [threat of military action in Syria](. Sometimes, during these intensely eventful weeks, it can be difficult to pay attention to any stories that aren’t, in some fashion, about Donald Trump. But I do hope you’ll make some time for this weekend’s cover story, by Linda Villarosa. It’s an important one, about the [profound disparity in maternal and infant mortality]( between black mothers and their babies and white mothers and their babies in the United States. After close to a year of deep reporting, Villarosa, one of the most tenacious public-health reporters writing today, has some answers to a question that should shock and shame us all: Why are black women and their babies more than twice as likely to die during or after childbirth as their white counterparts? Villarosa tells the story of Simone Landrum, a black woman who endured the terrible experience of delivering a stillborn baby. When she becomes pregnant again, Landrum enlists the help of a doula to support her through the pregnancy and delivery. Villarosa follows their journey, while also providing undeniable evidence of the societal pressures that contribute to high rates of infant and maternal mortality among black people. With striking photographs by the renowned photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier, this story is one you cannot miss. There’s more I hope you’ll read in this week’s issue, some of which I’ve highlighted below. Onward, Jake Silverstein Editor in Chief [AMERICA’S POET]( Ruth Franklin profiles Tracy K. Smith, the poet laureate of the United States. (I love that the official title is Plotus.) Though this isn’t a political post, Smith is considered a representative of the government, and at a time when the country is bitterly split along political and racial lines, Smith considers it her mission to use poetry as a shortcut to honest conversations between people in places where writers don’t usually go. “I’m interested in the way our voices sound when we dip below the decibel level of politics,” Smith says. [TRUMP NEEDS A BIG CROWD]( Of all presidential candidates, it is safe to say that no candidate has ever delighted as visibly as Donald Trump did in campaigning to be president. This could be why Trump is still holding rallies — about 20 thus far — a year into his presidency. The magazine’s politics editor, Charles Homans, attended as many of these rallies as he could, and writes incisively about observing Trump on the stage where he seemed most himself. [DATA BUST]( Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by Congress this week for Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In the process, Facebook was acting as a sort of representative for other questions our society is struggling to reconcile about tech companies and our private data. In this week’s On Technology column, John Herrman breaks down how we got here and what the collapse of the data boom might look like. [WHAT NIXON WANTS]( Cynthia Nixon has won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony, but rather than go for an Oscar, Nixon has decided to run for governor of New York. In this interview with Jazmine Hughes, Nixon talks about legalizing marijuana, courting the black vote and what her opponent Andrew Cuomo might do if he loses. (“I think he could do very well in corporate America.”) [How to Make a Weeknight Grain Bowl That Is Actually Delicious]( By FRANCIS LAM A functional meal can still be vibrant. [Diagnosis: A New Series From The New York Times and Netflix]( Help Dr. Lisa Sanders get to the bottom of unsolved medical mysteries. This week: What is causing this woman’s severe muscle pain? [Rhodesia’s Dead — but White Supremacists Have Given It New Life Online]( By JOHN ISMAY Through memes and apparel, the far-right has found new ways to drum up racist sentiment, harking back to colonial Africa. [Letter of Recommendation: AliExpress]( By ALICE HINES It’s less a shopping experience than a way of mainlining late capitalism. If you enjoy our newsletter forward this email to a friend and help the magazine grow. Getting this from a friend? [Sign up to get the magazine newsletter](. 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