Page 2--The Portland Observer-June 12, 1991
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
ers
By Benjam in F Chavis, Jr.
Racism In U.S. Health Care
W e have in the past applauded Dr.
L ouis W. Sullivan, the U.S. Secretary
o f H ealth and Human Services, for his
courage and forthrightness in speaking
the truth about the state o f health in the
U nited States. At a recent meeting in
M inneapolis o f health care profession
als, ethicists and physicians, a review
o f the tragic Tuskegee Project was
undertaken to ascertain w hether or not
the health care system in A merica is a
racially ju st system.
T o the chagrin of some and the
support o f others, Dr. Sullivan con
firm ed, “ There is clear, dem onstrable,
undeniable evidence o f discrim ination
and racism in our health care system.
Each year since 1984, while the health
status to the general population has
increased, black health status has actu
ally declined. The decline is not in one
or two health categories; it is across the
b oard.”
O ver fifty years ago, hundreds of
A frican Am erican men were deliber
ately subjected to a federal study on the
long term effects o f untreated syphilis
in A labam a which was called the T us
kegee Project. The subjects o f the study
w ere not told that they had syphilis by
the medical researchers. In other words,
the federal governm ent sponsored ex
perim entation on human beings which
ultimately caused death and great suffer
ing.
O ne would think that this type of
travesty in racial justice and human dig
nity would not be possible today in the
1990's in the United States. Yet, given
the current trend o f increased institution
alized racism in the social fabric o f the
nation, some medical authorities warn
that, possibly, projects like the Tuskegee
Project could be repeated and justified in
an effort to secure needed m edical re
search.
According to Isabel W ilkerson of
the NEW YORK TIMES, “ Now, as AIDS
looms as a far deadlier threat than syphi
lis to im poverished minority groups, and
with no cure in sight, scientists are strug
gling with the ethical questions raised by
the Tuskegee experim ent and the w eak
nesses o f current efforts, like informed
consent and peer review , to protect pa
tients from exploitation.’ ’ W ilkerson also
stressed that the medical establishm ent
in some quarters view this m atter with
urgency. Some doctors are now advocat
ing segregating by race organ transplants
and blood transfusions. In other words,
race is em erging once again as a m ajor
factor in ethical as well as medical d e
cision-making.
G iven the fact o f the high infant
mortality rate, low birth weight, lack
o f prenatal care, and decreasing life
expectancy o f African A mericans, in
addition to the current cutting of medi
cal and health care outreach programs
to the African American com m unity,
the situation is indeed critical. Fortu
nately, Dr. Sullivan and others who
are com m itted to addressing these
problem s are not remaining silent.
The delivery o f health care in this
nation should not be determined by
race or socio-econom ic factors. We
must say no to all researchers who
would try to justify the immorality of
racist human experim entation. The
health care system must be made more
inclusive and more just in the provi
sion o f m edical treatm ent as well as
preventive m edical programs. A na
tion that discrim inates and limits the
standard o f health o f its own citizens
because of race or any other factor is
a nation whose national life is doomed.
The Sad Ironies At a Summer’s Beginning
O ne o f the things that one learns
from years o f activism is that history
has a way o f using current affairs to
validate and guide the conduct o f those
o f us in the human race. Therefore,
despite the irony o f the matter, it was
those guideposts o f history that I recog
nized immediately as I headed to the
prem iere o f Jungle Fever, ju st hours
after being called by the Reverend W il
liam Cooper and Mrs. Ernestine Ewell,
who informed me that a 17-year-old
young man named Alfred Ewell, a high
school football player and honor stu
dent, had attended a party on the first
Saturday in June in the Atlantic Beach
section o f Queens, New York. W hile
there, he began socializing with a young
w hite female.
Mr. Ew ell, who is Black, was
im m ediately confronted by a young
white male who loudly protested the
fact that he was socializing outside of
his race. They argued for a while, and
the matter was reportedly resolved. Hours
later Ewell left the party, and was sit
ting on the board walk on Atlantic
beach when he was attacked by a white
mob with bats, who beat him into a
coma. He lies now at the point of death,
even after receiving extensive brain
surgery.
It seemed ironic as I sat and watched
Spike L ee’s film -w h ich also centered
around an interracial affair that iso
lated a Black man and a w hite woman
from their families and com m unity--
that what is being dealt with cinem ati-
cally by Lee is realistically being paid
for by Ewell. The m atter o f interracial
relations or m arriage is not the debate
that I w ant to enter at this point. The
matter o f justice is still unanswered,
and until one can deal with the basic
prem ise o f equal protection under the
law and justice for all, any academic
debate on interracial relations is fruit
less and really leads to nowhere.
W hether one agrees with Ewell
socializing outside o f his race or not, no
one has the right, based on skin color,
to pulverize and brutally beat this young
man to the point o f death.
And it doesn’t explain why the
police departm ent would wait two days
before they told the family that the
word “ nigger” was used at the party
during the initial argum ent and at the
subsequent beating, and that they knew
all along who the main assailant was,
which gave him several days to get a
lawyer before he on his own surren
dered. W hy didn’t the police do what
they do in our com m unities-go in and
kick the doors down and arrest him?
This blatant double standard took
place in the contest o f another strange
iro n y -a fte r agreeing to work with Rev
erend C ooper and others tow ards ju s
tice for the Ew ells, I sat in the studios of
CNN, debating the C ivil Rights Bill
with two people from different parts of
the country as I waited to leave to go
visit young Ewell in the hospital.
They are debating civil rights by
claim ing the issue is no longer racism
but quotas, while yet another young
man lies in yet another hospital bed in
yet another pool o f blood from yet
another racial whipping with yet an
other police precinct acting like they
are paralyzed in trying to seek his as
sailants. It seem s that history has a way
o f using our children to nudge us to
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ward reality, because if we needed any
validation that there is some Jungle
Fever out here, or any reminder that
there is an absence o f civil rights for
some, then nature has used Alfred Ewell
to bring that point home loud and clear.
I stood over his bed with his w eep
ing mother, looking at pictures o f him
when he was healthy on his hospital
bed wall, as he lay there with tubes
plunged in all parts o f his b o d y -c o m a
tose, unable to m ove, unable to open
his eyes and look at the mother who
brought him into this world. I had not
been in a hospital since my own hospi
talization from a stabbing from another
racist, and it was a strange mixture o f
rage and helplessness that encompassed
my own spirit as I looked down on
Alfred Ewell.
And the questions repeatedly came
to mind: How long? How many more
hospitals m ust I visit? How many more
mothers must I com fort? To how many
more children must I try and explain
why they are the victims of our lack o f
guts in forcing the nation to deal with
the issue that DuBois raised at the
beginning o f this century, and that is
the issue o f race, the subject o f color.
We cannot go into the 21 st century
without it being resolved once and for
all. Either w hite Europeans and A m eri
cans m ust be civilized on the race
question, or we must make those altera
tions necessary within the global vil
lage to isolate people of color from
people o f barbaric natures and have
nations unto ourselves. But it can no
longer continue on this collision course,
where our children become the casual
ties o f a m isfit society, an unjust ju d i
cial process and a failing societal ar
rangement.
Alfred Ewell is yet anothcrchapter
in a sick book. Enough is enough. Too
often we have said “ this is it.” But we
really do n ’t mean that, because if we
did, we would have stopped it a long
time ago. There are those who operate
only out of 10-90-day anger. There are
others that lock themselves into aca
demic and philosophical cop-outs. And
there are others who stay on the battle
field trying to fight the good fight, until
racism dies an ugly death.
As for me, despite the controversy,
despite the editorials and TV com m en
taries, despite being threatened and
abused and m isused, even by a judicial
system which now even its own ju d i
cial panel has adm itted is racist, I ’ve
decided to stay on the battlefield be
cause the Alfred E w ell’s are real to me,
so real that I look at a six-inch scar
every morning when I brush my teeth
to remind me that w e still have not
solved the problem and history still has
no conclusion to the question of race.
g;:“:“.:;:;:::-’’
B y Professor McKinley Burt
Parents Have To Think (And Act) Positive
W ell, we got past that little intro
spective excursion o f mine, so let’s get
back to the ranch this week. W e can
still head them off at the pass. W hen I
was listing those many support m echa
nisms that parents could use in devel
oping interest in science, I om itted an
important source. “ Edmund Scientific
Co., 1991 Annual Reference Catalog
for O ptics, Science and E ducation,”
101 E. G loucester Pike, Barrington, NJ
08007-1380.
This FREE, 188-page publication
lists hundreds o f science instruments
and supplies for experim ents and learn
ing by the older student (High School),
or any w ho have dem onstrated a defi
nite motivation and aptitude. Now, these
instruments or kits are more expensive
than the starter or introductory m ateri
als you w ould obtain at O M SI, but this
is the next best step for the com m itted
student (and parent). W e are talking
about a lot o f OPTICS: microscopes,
lenses, prisms, collim ators, mirrors,
cam eras, telescopes and supporting
com ponents, as well as bio-medical
equipm ent, chem ical kits, scales, m ag
nets, and weather and solar monitors.
Right in line with this escalation of
the gam e should be a request for FREE
catalog NO. 59047-X from “ Dover
Publications Inc.,” 31 East 2nd Street,
M ineola, NY 11501. This smaller,
general publication lists quality paper
backs from $ 1.00 to $9.95. W hile there
is only a small SCIENCE SECTION,
there is a provision for obtaining FREE
with your first order, the giant * ‘Com
plete D over Catalog o f Books in ALL
FIELD S” (You must list your requests
for this time, ‘No. 59069-0’ on your
order form). I’ve been ordering from
this firm for thirty years, and find
them the cheapest source o f good
books in the country-science, tech
nology, language, novels, music,
m ystery, ethnic history, travel, etc.
While these two sources are defi
nitely ‘class acts’, please don’t ne
glect your public library (I’m talking
about ‘you’ as well as the child). I
and a lot o f my peer group practi
cally ‘lived there’ when we were
k id s-a n d we were the ones who or
ganized the neighborhood science
clubs and ‘garage laboratories’-w h o
made soap, perfumes, radios, soap
box derby carts, chemical gardens,
telescopes (and stink bombs). And
even with the terrible discrim ination
and racism , when you checked out
the same peer group at the class
reunions years later, you found the
chem ists, doctors, biologists, engi
neers and technicians (the hum ani
ties as well).
1 know that it’s tough out there,
but are you ready for this? ‘ ‘ Il’s been
tougher!” It is ju st that now our ex
pectations are higher as well they
should be. However, our ‘stage de
signer’ has become the all powerful,
all knowing MEDIA, and 24 hours a
day we are saturated with a defeatist
litany from the prophets o f ethnic
gloom and doom. The successful
African American parents and their
high-achieving children are usually
ignored as yet a new ‘sociology-of-
the-disadvantaged’ is developed to
support the financial aspirations of
hungry grantsmen and previously-failed
educators. The many notable achieve
ments and m ethodologies o f successful
black and while educators and “ Schools
o f E xcellence” in the innercities get little
play amid the ‘shock’ headlines and gory
scenes o f ghetto trauma.
This means, o f course, that the soci
ologists, psychologists, anthropologists and
other behavioral scientists are determ ined
to get their share o f the financial pie when
the federal governm ent - as surely as it
must - finally addresses the problem. Just
last month one group announced that it
was “ developing structured paradigm s”
around their pet euphem ism or catch
phrase,“ BEHAVIORAL PO V ERTY .”
This ploy, of course, ensures that those
blacks beyond the perim eter o f dollar-
defined poverty, may, nevertheless, be
psychologically defined as probably m or
ally deficient and, therefore, ju st as dys
functional. We see that there will remain
only a small sector o f the pie for effective
education.
I say all o f that to say this. It is going
to take all of the energy, com m itm ent and
tutoring that parents and our com m unity
organizations can m uster if our children
are to make it in this technological (and
treacherous) world. This is why so many
o f my articles this year have been about
‘supplem ental’ activities and resources
the parent (or surrogate) can bring to bear
on the educational process. A nd in the
schools themselves, the children should
be directed and motivated to those special
programs that have been proven to en
hance their academ ic achievement:
“ MESA, T A G ” and the like. D on’t flag
in your efforts.
News From Bob Packwood
Republican Senator Bob Packwood
received notification from the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NM FS) that
two species o f salmon would be pro
posed to be listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA). The fall
Chinook salmon and the spring and sum
mer Chinook salmon o f the Snake River
are those being listed. The spring and
sum m er chinook are being considered as
one unit, rather than two separate spe
cies.
These species o f salmon exist in the
C olum bia River drainage. The coho
salmon which lives in the low er Colum
bia River was not proposed to be listed.
Public hearings on the listing pro
posals have been scheduled in order to
NMFS to receive broad public input to
ensure that the adm inistrative and scien
tific record is accurate. The final deci
sion on whether or not to propose a list
under the endangered Species Act must
be made within 12 months.
In light o f this, Senator Packwood
stressed, “ It is vital that the different
u se rs- the aluminum workers, farmers,
sport fishermen, barge operators, dam
o p e ra to rs- of the Columbia River keep
working on a consensus for multiple uses
o f the river while striving for a long
range plan to restore the salmon runs.”
Senator Packwood is a m em ber of
the Commerce Com m ittee which has
jurisdiction over fisheries issues.
AMALGAMATED PUBLISHERS, INC.
PORTIA
Are • The • Proud • Sponsors • Of
Reinvestments
Community
Its’ Time To “ Heal Our Land:” African
Americans Must Build for a New Tomorrow
Jonathan Bulter, the popular South
African guitarist and vocalist, in pre
scribing a cure for the pain and agony of
the apartheid system, sings the compel
ling lines, “ we must heal our land.”
Since Africans arrived in America wc
have faced the challenge of building
community out of deverse peoples up
rooted from our original cultures by
slavery. The ever present reality of ra
cism and brutal economic exploitation
has always complicated the vital task of
forg ing a common peoplcncss and com -
munity as Africans in America. Wc
have never quite been welcome here,
but somehow, Africans in America have
taken the basic strengths that wc brought
with us from our ancestral homeland
and struggled to survive and sustain
ourselves as a people.
Whether it was the Black church
and the mutual aid and benevolent so
cieties which grew out of the black
church;” the “ African Free Schools”
which we evolved to educated our own
children when white society refused to
do so; the organizations of resistance
which we crated to fight against slavery,
segregation and discrimination; or the
Black press as an independent voice to
articulate our own interest and needs;
the magic of our music; or their enormous
strength of the African family, African
Americans have engaged in a perpetual
.......
Omission
W e deeply regret the omission of
credit for the article responding to Cana
dian Health Care System in our last is
sue. That credit goes to Sharon Gary-
Smith.
struggle to survive and build/sustain com
munity. Obviously the struggle to build
community has been ongoing given the
nature of the United States as a racist
and exploitive society.
The horrendous depth and magni
tude of the crisis we now face makes it
imperative that African Americans con
sciously focus on the need to continue
the vital process of community build
ing. African Americans arc still largely
unwanted, unwelcome and increasingly
not needed in this country. Witness the
recent increase in immigration quotas
which will allow 400,000 skilled (mostly
white) and wealthy people to come into
the United States.
The U.S. still prefers to bring in
people from foreign lands instead of
investing the resources required to up
grade the “ skills” and “ wealth” of
Africans in America. With the excep
tion of a small number of acceptable or
symbolic Blacks who arc included so
that the masses can be excluded (inclu
sion lor exclusion), this is still incon
venience to be tolerated. Only our exer
cise of POWER prcvenLs our total oblit
eration in this country. Wc are still or
own best hope for the survival and de
velopment of African Americans.
So we loo must heal our land, our
people, our community. African Ameri
cans must counter the abuse and neglect
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"Reinvestments in the Community" is a weekly column appearing
in API publications throughout the USA.
* * 1
I
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of the racist exploitive state in the U.S.
with a passionate commitment to have
concern, compassion and tender, love
and care for our people. We cannot
leave the children unattended, unedu
cated and detached from family. We
must overcome the recklessness and
callousness of a wilding generation of
young people by demonstrating with
deeds of care and kindness that we are
absolutely wild about them. They are
our future.
We cannot leave the flower of our
nianhtxxl and womanhood to waste away
in Amcrican’s’s prison warehouses. They
are the victims.qf the violence that be
gets violence, the crimes that beget crime.
They arc our brothers and sisters, our
family and wc must fight for their re
lease and prepare a HOME for them
when they return.
Finally, we must heal our land, our
community because we must prepare to
fight. America must be put on notice
that wc will not fall prey to her schemes
of neglect and genocide. We will not die
or go away. It is a decadent America
which must die and out of its demise
must rise a new nation. And it is we,
who have suffered most, who must lead
the resurrection of a new and humane
society. Africans in America must heal
our land, our community so that we
might live to build a new tomoriow.
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