The Crisis by the Numbers\n<\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California<\/a> have been diagnosed with diabetes \u2014 above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California\u2019s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n According to the California Health Care Foundation\u2019s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years \u2014 due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.\n<\/p>\n Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association<\/a>, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a whole bunch of Black folks that don\u2019t tell you that they have diabetes \u2014 or don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. \u201cThey die from the complications. That\u2019s heart attack, that\u2019s stroke, that\u2019s 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis\n<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,\u201d said Rock.\n<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 or outside at night.\n<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 and blaming patients misses the point.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,\u201d Lang said. \u201cBut the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n What the Body Needs \u2014 What Communities Are Denied\n<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.\n<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that\u2019s being constantly stressed,\u201d Lang said. \u201cIt\u2019s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.\u201d She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week \u2014 breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.\n<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey need access to healthy foods and medication, too\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.\n<\/p>\n These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.\n<\/p>\n Control Through Community\n<\/p>\n Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained \u2014 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.\n<\/p>\n Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to do for self, period,\u201d he said. \u201cHealth is wealth. We have to eat to live.\u201d\n<\/p>\n And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.\n<\/p>\n \u201cDiabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California<\/a>\n<\/p>\n This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation\u00a0\n<\/p>\n (CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/p>\n![\"LIVE!](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/make-it-plain-white-house-featured-web-300x156.jpg\")
<\/a>TrendingLIVE! : Make it Plain at the White House<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Crystal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FeatureStory_Photo_2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784161503_229_08750309ced619ab978055f601876a8f3ddb76c1d9a1c4545fad8a162235377e.png\")
<\/p>\n