black…MYstory

By being in the corporate workforce over the years, I have noticed that subtle racism abounds. A lot of “open-minded” people have some very interesting notions about people of color. A lot of us may have seen it as prejudice or unconscious racism but, these never quite seemed to capture the essence of the problem. Now, a study published in the American Psychologist has offered a phrase with I think articulates these views quite nicely — “racial microaggressions”.

These microaggressions, according to the study, can actually be more damaging than many acts overt racism because these microaggressions, instead of coming from adversaries, are often coming from friend, neighbors and co-workers. As a result, hurt and confusion abound.

However, beyond hurt feelings, there are more damaging results on a societal level:

The implications extend into the forensic realm. Studies of police and probation officers show that they often use racial cues to assign blame. An African American who commits a crime is likely to be seen as inherently bad or criminal, while a white person who commits a similar crime is more likely to be excused based on external factors, such as peer influence, poor parenting, or mental illness. Recommended punishments differ accordingly, resulting in greater likelihood of arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment for African Americans.

The unconscious nature of these biases helps to explain divergent rates of arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment despite a lack of conscious racist intent on the part of criminal justice professionals. (Other forces, of course, include persisting economic equalities.) Interestingly, the race of the professional is irrelevant. African American police and probation officers engage in just as much negative racial stereotyping of African Americans as do whites.

It is good to see that the questions about how subtle racism undermines society are being asked. This is a tougher issue to tackle but, if it continues unacknowledged and unchecked, we will never get to the heart of why racism continues to thrive today.

Popularity: 22% [?]

For the longest time, you couldn’t get Wall Street to market luxury cars or financial services to black people but, there was no shortage of ads for cigarettes or cheap liquor. So, I vividly remember the big cigarette billboards for brands like Kool’s and Newport. Better yet, anyone remember the ads in Ebony magazine that showed glamorous and sexy black people smoking these cigarettes? And the cheap liquor! Are you old enough to remember Billy Dee Williams doing commercials for Colt 45? How about the bad-a$$ Schlitz Malt Liquor bull commercials? How about the radio spots and billboards done by your favorite rappers for St. Ides malt liquor?

Often the cigarettes had more tar and nicotine and liquor had a higher alcohol content than the stuff marketed to white consumers. In fact, some of these thing were specifically created for black consumers.

Growing up, a lot of us knew this and thought it odd that you could get 40 ounces of rotgut for less than a 20-ounce Coke in some stores. Something just so not right about it that we avoided the stuff like the plaugue. Sadly, not enough of us did and I had some family members and family friends die of lung cancer and deal will illesses related to alcoholism.

The things I saw about me were, by no means, unique to me, my city or even my state.

Today, I see where the families of two people have brought a $1 billion dollar lawsuit against Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco, R.J. Reynolds and Liggett Group.

The families of Annie Swain, who died in 1994 at age 80 and Dorothy Oliver who died in 2000 at age 72. Both died of acute cardiopulmonary failure and other cardiovascular problems. In the suit, they state that these companies’ marketing to black consumers was “meticulously planned and executed with clear racist intent.”

Now, regardless of how some feel about lawsuits such as these, we do need to ask how these companies manufacture and market their products to certain communities.

To get an idea of the marketing they are referring to in the suit, check this out:

The suit says the companies’ targeted marketing included billboards in African-American neighborhoods, sponsorships of sporting events, endorsement deals with African-American celebrities and saturation ad campaigns in publications such as Ebony, Jet and Essence.

Cigarette brands were even created specifically for the African-American market, including the “X” cigarette from Philip Morris and the “Uptown” from R.J. Reynolds. Both brands were later withdrawn. The Uptown was sold in packs of 10 and had higher tar and nicotine levels.

Harris said that comedian Jay Leno once joked that R.J. Reynolds chose the “Uptown” name “because the word ‘genocide’ was already taken.”

The suit says the companies sold cigarettes with “complete and utter disregard for health and human safety, and in a systematic and deliberate manner meant to addict and ultimately kill as many smokers as possible, especially African-Americans.”

Honestly, I don’t know where this suit will go but, I hope that it opens up another dialogue about how cigarette and alcohol makers target black consumers with their products.

Popularity: 67% [?]

I’ll confess something — I hate going to the doctor. As a result, I don’t go as I should. But, I’ll make you a deal. If you go, I’ll go. I think we all want to be around for our loved ones and just because we don’t go to a doctor, any illnesses we have will still be there.

In a study by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 243 patients were reviewed. The results give a clear picture of why we, as black men, need to bite the bullet and get to our doctors. It’s clear that many of us are either operating under an illusion of invincibility or live under a cloud of denial.

The researchers, who presented their results at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, say this is alarming. African-American men have a higher incidence rate, are diagnosed later, and have a higher mortality rate from prostate cancer than Caucasians.

“A group that underestimates the risk of having cancer is likely to underestimate the value of early detection and thus skip the whole process,” said study author William Dale, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine/geriatrics at the University of Chicago, “which may explain, in part, why African-American men are so often diagnosed later and thus have worse outcomes.”

Dale and colleagues collected data on what 243 patients expected from their biopsies and their anxiety levels while waiting in a urology clinic. The average age of these patients was 63. Almost 40 percent of the men were African-American. Fifty-six percent had at least a college education level.

Despite being referred for biopsy because they were known to be at increased risk for prostate cancer, usually due to a blood test, 55 percent of the African-American men at the time of prostate biopsy said they had a zero percent chance of having prostate cancer (i.e. that it was impossible). Only 20 percent of the Caucasian men said this.

Of the African-American men in the clinics whose biopsy results were available to the researchers, 70 percent were subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer (compared with 50 percent of the Caucasians). Those who had more anxiety about prostate cancer were less likely to have cancer than those who were less worried.

So, let’s get to a doctor soon, okay?

Popularity: 21% [?]

This past weekend, I commented to my wife that the sky is not nearly as blue as I remember from my youth. I also told her that I don’t remember us having smog alerts in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area when I was growing up. We don’t want to admit it but, we are going too far. We are polluting the air to the detriment of not only ourselves but, more importantly, our children.

While I was not particularly moved by it, it was interesting to not that, after years of denying its existence, George Bush finally admitted that global warming is real, is a problem and the U.S. needs to do something to reduce emissions. But, of course, we weren’t watching his hands as he was telling this because, his actions belie his words. So, while his mouth was saying one thing, his hands were busy authorizing measures that will actually reduce the monitoring of climate change from weather satellites.

A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that American scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space.

They’ve been using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago. It was intended to gather weather and climate data. But the Pentagon has decided to downsize and launch four satellites instead of 6 satellites.

The reduced system will now focus on weather forecasting. Most climate instruments needed to collect more precise data over long periods are being eliminated.

So, how do you know that a problem is really being addressed if you can’t measure the actions/inactions taken to address it? It’s simple — you don’t know and that’s the issue.

Popularity: 39% [?]

To call Hurricane Katrina a catastrophe was too mild. To call the levees breaking a disaster fails to capture the severity of the problem. To call what happened in the days to follow “neglect” fails to capture the depraved indifference of our government to the plight of the people. To call the nearly two years that many of these families have been stuck in limbo “willful ignorace” would be a lie as we, in this country, know that the promises were never kept to the families. And, today, as the death rate climbs in New Orleans, we face another moral dilemma that screams for our attention.

Yes, I said the death rate is climbing. You may ask, “how?”. You may wonder why, almost two years later, we would see a spike in the death rate there. While there is some debate, it is believed that the increase in deaths is tied to physical and psychological stresses from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The bodies are no longer being dragged from houses and buildings toppled by Hurricane Katrina, but nearly two years later many in the medical community think the storm is still killing.

Storm survivors are dying from the effects of both psychological and physical stress, from the dust and mold still in dwellings to financial problems to fear of crime, health experts and officials say.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Katrina is still killing our residents,” Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard said this week.

“People with pre-existing conditions that are made worse by the stress of living here after the storm. Old people who are just giving up. People who are killing themselves because they feel they can’t go on,” Minyard said.

Furthermore, there is a really telling number in all of this:

But New Orleans medical officials say that jump, from 11.3 per 1,000 deaths to 14.3 per 1,000, — a leap of more than 25 percent — was anything but slight. Moreover, the report doesn’t take into account evacuees who died while away from the city and were returned for burial.

Over the past several years, we have become a country that’s learned not to care about average people. We can blame the victim with an ease that would make any sociopath proud. This is still a huge moral dilemma for all of us so, what are we going to do? Better yet, when are we going to start holding people accountable for not getting the victims of Hurricane Katrina the money that’s already been collected on their behalf and get these families the financial and medical help they so desperately need?

Popularity: 24% [?]

Sadly, this is no real suprise. It was clear that the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan passed by the last (Republican) Congress, was nothing but a big payoff for drug companies. Now, the signs of who’s really benefiting from this “benefit” are all too apparent.

The AARP is now warning that the health of African Americans and Hispanics is at risk due to high drug prices. According a a nationwide survey of 2000 adults, 40% of African Americans and 38% of Hispanics have trouble paying for drugs.

What this means is that the financial strain of food, clothing and shelter has led some to make some tough decisions about whether or not to buy the drugs they need.

So, perhaps it’s time we need to push back on Congress to push for real health benefits that actually does something good for the people.

Popularity: 28% [?]

The word “eugenics”, at its Greek root, means “good genes”. The idea is to create a society where human physical and mental defects no longer exist. To some, in passing, this may sound like a noble idea. But, often, the words belie the actions needed to achieve such a goal. Even more importantly, it needs to be asked “who determines what a defect is?”

If you ascribe to what certain folks in the eugenics movement believe, such “defects” could include poverty and ethnicity.

We all know about the Tuskeegee Experiment, in which black men, who had contracted syphillis, were allowed to go untreated for the purpose of determining what the long-term impacts of the disease were. All the while, these men were told that they were receiving treatment when, instead, they received placebos.

However, medical racism and classism did not stop there. The supporters of eugenics, for more than forty years, carried out programs of sterilization on populations they considered unworthy. This was not just a couple of crackpots carrying out a scheme. Some 30 states across the country had eugenics laws on the books. Also, this is not some ancient history. For example, in North Carolina, this practice was carried out from 1929 to 1974. Most of the victims were poor women.

Imagine a young girl whose transgression was being an unwed mother. Now, because of this, some group decides that she doesn’t pass the class, color or morality test so, they decide that, after delivering her baby, she should be sterilized. This is what happened to Elaine Riddick. Her story was far from unusual. North Carolina sterilized more than 7600 women, men and children. In only 500 cases is it clear that the patient knew what was happening to them. More than 60% of those sterilized were black women and girls.

North Carolina is just one of five states to have issued formal apologies for this practice and our federal government, just like with most atrocities against people of color, has not acknowledged, much less apologized, for its complicity in this practice.

So, when people ask why black folks have issues with trusting those in the field of medicine, they should keep stories like this one in the backs of their minds.

Popularity: 100% [?]

I have been toying with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. I have done this, off and on, for months at a time, only to go back to eating meat (and gaining more weight due to bad food choices). However, more and more, I am thinking that this is the way to go. Apart from the obvious health benefits of a diet more rich in fruits and vegetables, there is another consideration for me — I believe that people are playing too many games with our meat supply.

It’s bad enough eating the beef and chicken in this country as it is (believe me, I enjoy steak and home-fried chicken immensely), without worrying about if what they have been fed could be of serious risk to me.

Still fresh in our minds are the stories of the hundreds (or was it thousands?) of pets that died from contaminated food. Well, it now appears that the same stuff that killed these pets is making it into our food supply as well.

Today, it is being reported that tainted wheat flour from China has made its way into feed given to farm-raised catfish in the U.S. This comes on the heels of recent contaminations to feed for swine and chickens.

Now, the FDA is saying there’s nothing to fear here but, under the Bush administration, the FDA has suffered under concerns of credibility. In fact, last summer, the FDA was called on the carpet over allegations that it was altering scientific reports to favor industry. So, the billions of dollars generated by the meat, poultry and fishing industries could be playing heavily into the “nothing to see here” message.

At the end of the day, I have enough to worry about without being concerned as to whether or not somebody is looking the other way as contaminants are being fed to my child. So, this whole vegetarian thing, while not perfect, is sounding more appealing to me.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I am honest enough to say that HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest health threats our community has ever know. We need to confront this issue head-on if we hope to stop an epidemic which places black women as the most at-risk group in this country to contract the disease.

However, I am also honest enough to realize that society place a stigma on people with HIV/AIDS and virtually otracizes them.

So, when I ready about that, by year’s end, all 50 states will have databases that track all the AIDS patients in their states, some red flags went up. These databases will have the names of patients and this is what concerns me. I am worried that people who may really need treatment will be reluctant to do so for fear of their information being leaked.

I believe that a person’s health is an issue between that person, their family and the physician(s) treating that person. I don’t believe we need some giant database that could be used as a virtual “leper colony” , in which we begin identified those we want to marginalize.

Sadly, this will be a reality later this year. I just hope that those in charge truly understand the ways in which this information could be abused.

Popularity: 18% [?]

It appears that the mess that was seen at the Walter Reed Army Hospital (see here, here and here) was not unique. The horrible conditions under which some soldiers were (ware)housed, has some looking at veterans’ care with a new sense of scrutiny.

The latest news on this is that the Pentagon is now investigating a veterans’ home in northwest Washington, DC. This comes as a result of a report issued by the Government Accountability Office, which highlighted some alarming conditions at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

In the report, the GAO stated that residents of the homes were admitted to Walter Reed with “serious pressure wounds” and, in one instance, a patient was admitted with maggots — yes, maggots — in a wound.

The chief operating officer of the facility, Timothy Cox, takes exception to the report indicating that the patients of his facility “may be at risk” and called the claims of the report “without merit”, labeling them as “inflammatory allegations.”

But, then, he basically confirms these allegations:

During a tour of the home yesterday, Cox confirmed that a resident had been found in August with maggots in a leg wound. Cox said the man was “noncompliant and combative,” and did not want his dressing changed.

Cox said the dressing should have been changed anyway. Eight employees were eventually fired because of the incident, he said. The man, who was 87, later died of causes unrelated to the wound. “It was an isolated incident,” Cox said.

Cox said the reports of human waste in the rooms may have stemmed from an outbreak in February of highly contagious norovirus, which infected more than 100 residents. “When you’re sick with vomiting and diarrhea, sometime you miss the john,” he said.

But, this is probably most telling:

Cox was hired from private industry in 2002 to bring down costs. In the past three years, the workforce has been cut from 736 to 447, and the operating budget has been reduced from $76 million to $54.7 million, according to figures provided by the home. The maintenance staff has shrunk from 127 to nine, despite a rising population, according to the senators’ letter.

So, once again, veterans get the short end of the stick. This is just one more example of the lack of Congressional oversight that has been typical during Bush’s tenure. I shudder to think of what else will come out in regards to veterans’ care.

Popularity: 17% [?]