RACISM: A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Blood drive 

Alliance for Cultural and Ethnic Harmony Event

MLK Day event

On August 5, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared racism a public health crisis in Michigan, evidenced by the number of Black people being infected with and dying from COVID-19.  

If the New Testament’s 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is the barometer for loving, a look at the state of public health in America and its effect on Black people signals an unloving that has historically and indelibly communicated to African Americans: WE HAVE NO NEED OF YOU.

 

REHEARSING: EXPOSING THE ROOT

 
 

17th and 18th Centuries

Chattel slavery in America rendered the Black body inhuman, subject to overwork, sexual assault, and ill treatment.

 

20th Century

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (book and movie)

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

“Miss Evers’ Boys” (movie)

The true story of the U.S. Government's 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, in which a group of black test subjects were allowed to die, despite a cure having been developed.

Fannie Lou Hamer (article)

Hamer, like many poor Black women at the time, was sterilized without her knowledge or consent.

19th Century

James Marion Sims, “The Father of Gynecology” 

Sims experimented on enslaved people with Vesicovaginal Fistula, a tear between the vagina and bladder, often due to sexual assault, causing extreme incontinence and severe pain. Seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds were operated on for hours, down on their knees, propped up by their elbows, head resting on their hands, often many times. Once “perfected” on Black enslaved women, the method was then used to treat white women—with sedation, of course.

Eugenics: “The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement

 

21st Century

Pain Management Myth (article

Flint, Michigan (article and movie

The 2020 documentary film “Flint,” based on five years of research into a Michigan auto town where tens of thousands were drinking water into which poisonous lead had leached, tells the story of how officials failed to respond.

COVID-19 (article)

“There is a saying: ‘When America catches a cold, Black people get the flu.’ Well, in 2020, when America catches coronavirus, Black people die. Blacks in about every state with racial data available have higher contraction rates and higher death rates of COVID-19.”

Re-Minding: Sowing new information that renews thoughts, beliefs, and actions toward the dismembered parties

COVID-19: Operation Build Trust

  • Exemplary informed consent

  • Do research with those who understand the risk, knowing their community will have “fair access to the vaccine.” 

  • Provide credible evidence that the vaccine has been thoroughly vetted by not just the public but also by underrepresented people groups prior to approval. 

  • Offer adequate medical care to participants who may be injured during the trial or experience adverse effects due to the vaccine, regardless of insurance coverage status.

 
 

Enter: Doula

  • A doula is a trained companion who is not a healthcare professional and who supports another individual through a significant health-related experience, such as pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and breastfeeding. 

    Mothers with doulas are

    • 28% less likely to have Cesarean sections (reducing risk associated with major surgery)

    • 31% less likely to use synthetic Oxytocin (labor-inducing medicine, e.g., Pitocin)

    • 9% less likely to have pain medicine (i.e., epidural)

    • 34% more likely to rate their birth experience favorably

    EVERY TEEN BIRTHGIVER SHOULD HAVE A DOULA. We need to train, certify, and mobilize Black doulas into our communities for the sake of Black birthgivers and their babies. 

 

Presenting: Doula as Pro-life Agent

  • Black women are dying exponentially in childbirth.

  • Black children are dying disproportionately at birth. 

  • Black women are most likely to get fibroids, cysts, and other complications that lead to the need for early sterilization (hysterectomy).

  • Black people are most likely to be misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed by non-Black doctors.

 

Mental Health Access

 

Re-Membering: Exercising loving practices that explicitly communicate to Black people, “We Have Need of You” 

Community Accountability Models: 

  • Oversight Committee of Freedom Fighters, including attorneys, physicians, mental health professionals, and key stakeholders in the community 

  • Restorative practices

  • Whistleblower protections

  • Litigation representation 

  • Methods to ensure anonymity 

  • Accommodation of varying communication styles

  • Equity-based training