“…They reflect “durable inequalities” along racial, socioeconomic, and gender lines that structure our lives from birth (Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, ; Tilly, ). The long reach of American inequality profoundly shapes older adults' life expectancies, their relative levels of health, the social ties they can call upon, how they make sense of their circumstances, and even how they die (Abramson, ; Carr, ; Hayward & Gorman, ; Umberson, Crosnoe, & Reczek, ; Umberson, Thomeer, Williams, Thomas, & Liu, ). Although most aging Americans face a set of similar challenges associated with the physical and social predicaments of growing old in a youth centered society, they do so in starkly unequal contexts, with unequal resources, after a lifetime of exposure to inequality (Abramson, ).…”