The claim that African Americans die from heart failure at a rate twice that of white Americans is widely cited in both medical literature and popular media. This 2:1 mortality ratio has been invoked by medical researchers to guide the search for race-based drug development and therapy for heart failure; by biotech corporations and financial journals exploring the economic potential of such drugs; by professional associations seeking to advise their constituents; and, of course, by scholars and commentators of all stripes arguing over the appropriate use of racial categories in science and medicine. Nonetheless, this statistic is wrong. The most current available data place the age-adjusted ratio of black:white mortality from heart failure at approximately 1.1:1 (CDC 1998, n.d.).1 Uncritical acceptance and promulgation of inaccurate data may be distorting current efforts to address the real health problems associated with heart failure and also lends credence to those who argue that race can and should be used as a biological category.