“Although people have long assumed that higher socioeconomic status bought better health, that was not as true for blacks as it was for whites, says Arline Geronimus, a public-health professor at the University of Michigan. Now that is changing. “The convergence is due to more affluent, educated blacks living longer while less-affluent, less-educated whites are not living as long. It shouldn’t be interpreted as though we’ve made great strides,” she says.”