Iesha Crawford

November 12, 2015

CMJ 390
Assignment # 8 (Unnatural Causes)
Is Inequality Making Us Sick?
Unnatural Causes is a documentary series that explores the effects of social factor on
health and health care in the Unite States. The primary factors that Unnatural Causes
focuses on are race, socioeconomic standing, geography, and gender in relation to the
well-being and life span of Americans. Each of these factors is examined to help answer
the question, is inequality making us sick? The series displays a short documentary
each week over a seven-week duration (Events Information/Unnatural Causes , 2015).
On Wednesday, November 5, 2015, a portion of the Unnatural Causes series was shown
at Grand Valley Sate University. This series was titled Collateral Damage. In this
series, the primary focus was on a group of people called the Marshallese and the
Marshall Islands. Over the course of 60 years, the Marshallese have been forced to vacate
their home island of Kwajalein and move to an island called Ebeye. The main reason for
the eviction was to allow the United States military to build a base and test bombs and
explosives.
Ebeye is a mile long and an eighth of a mile wide but it is home to over 10,000 people. It
is overpopulated and spaces are very tight, making it the perfect place to house infectious
diseases such as tuberculosis. Although precaution and preventative measures such as,
informing neighbors of infected individuals and providing medicine are being taken, it is
hard to control the disease because of the living situation on Ebeye Island. Houses are
extremely close together and 20 plus people occupy one space. That is why the rate of
tuberculosis is 23 times that of the United States.
Many factors contribute to the poor health of the Marshallese. One of the main factors is
poverty. The stress alone from living in poverty is enough to make one sick. Another
factor is broken immune systems. The Marshallese dont have health insurance or money

to go to the hospital when they are sick. The biggest factor is the long relationship with
the U.S. Although the military base is one of the main sources of income for the
Marshallese, it is also whats killing them, according to the information presented in the
video.
The U.S took Kwajalein, turned it into a state of the art military base with a golf course,
country club, small department store, and upscale health care. They allow only a few
Marshallese contractors to reside there.
The contrast between the two islands is a reminder of how inequities in wealth affects
health, said Aja, peer educator.
If you are interested in learning more about the social factor on health and health care in
America, the next series will be presented Thursday, November 12, 2015 from 6:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, room 2266.

References
Events Information/Unnatural Causes . (2015). Retrieved from Grand Valley State
University: ). http://www.gvsu.edu/events/unnatural-causes-36:5/