The Mystery of Black Infant Mortality
Recent studies have shown that poverty, education, access to prenatal care, smoking and even low birth weight do not alone explain the racial gap in infant mortality, and that even black women with graduate degrees are more likely to lose a child in its first year than are white women who did not finish high school.
Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Center for Disease Control
More at New York Times.
Nicholas Eberstadt wrote about this in his book The Tyranny of Numbers. He cited several factors.
Also, there is some theories that genetics could play a role — at least for premature delivery which results in low birth weight, which is what generally causes infant mortality.
This is strange.
Another factor is the rate of multiple births (higher for blacks).
I really would like to see more statistics on infant mortality in general from other countries, but many of them still don’t do a good job of tracking it.