One of the problems with the on going health care debate is the lack of sexiness associated with it. There is no doubt that there is a serious health care crisis in this country and that poor people and people of color are the most effected and hurt by its shortcomings.
But we rarely get a chance to have serious debate about the inequities and the racism associated with the health care industry. Because, like social security and other complex government programs, the issues can be so difficult to grasp. It’s not like there is some famous white person in a public forum saying disparaging things about people of color. Or, some white police officer on the nightly news kicking some poor black man’s butt. That would be sexy racism, racism that’s tangible and obvious. Racism we can put a finger on, and that we can scream and protest about, because it’s right there for all of us to see it.
Recently, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour cut back Medicare access for the poor citizens in his fine state. As a result of this little stunt, Mississippi once again has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. And what race do you think most of those poor Mississippi infants belong to? This is a subtle form of racism, it’s health care racism, the non sexy type. When large pharmaceutical companies refuse to make certain drugs available to poor African countries or poor American citizens who clearly need it, make no mistake, there is a form of racism going on here as well. They are watching out for their bottom line, and not the welfare of other citizens, and I would argue that it’s because they don’t think that those citizens are relevant.
I live in the Philadelphia area, where I am sorrounded by such pharmaceutical giants as Smith Kline, Merck, and Astra Zeneca. I see up close and personal the type of wealth and power that these companies have and it’s scary. These companies make millions and millions of dollars from their drugs, but still do not make their drugs available to the people that really need it in our society. Unless of course, they are paying through the teeth into some type of health plan. These companies claim they need the millions of dollars for research. But the truth is, when these drugs finally come to market, they are not available for everyone. So the millions spent on research and development only benefit a certain segment of the American population.
I recently had a chance to look at Barack Obama’s health care plan, and although it was someone short on certain specifics, it was at least a start. His plan for a form of National Health Insurance Exchange is an interesting one. He creates a new health care insurer and seems to be abandoning Medicare all together. I think it’s good that it is a public plan which would allow everyone to buy in. Poor people, small business,large business etc. Of course I have some issues with it, because it doesn’t specify if the plan is mandatory or not. And, it seems to leave room for major insurance companies to slip in through the back door and negotiate for their own benefit. This is the plan as I see it, but maybe there is a Barackodite in the Spear that can put me in check about exactly what the plan entails.
I would also go a step further than Barack, and require it to be mandatory. And I would also put limits on what certain larger insurance companies can do. I would insist that cost remain below a certain threshold,so that it would truly be affordable to those who do not have the means to put allot of money into the plan. I would also make it available to certain agencies such as “Head Start”, and other community social groups.
Many of us are fortunate enough to buy into health plans via our employers, so our monthly contribution for full health coverage is minimal. But there are far too many people of color in this country living without proper health care. Many African Americans and people of color world wide are constantly denied proper health care and proper information, which has caused us as a people to have a shorter life expectancy than those in the majority population. There are other factors effecting our health as well, such as where we live, (Environmental racism, another non-sexy topic for another day)and the lack of proper funding for research with deceases that effect us as a people.
I am glad for the AfroSpear, which gives us a forum to talk about these non sexy issues. Issues which are so crucial to our survival as a race, but which are not being talked about by anyone else. Except of course maybe a few politicians who use it as a talking point to attract a certain block of voters.
Let’s keep health care and other issues such as environmental racism in our cross hairs. Because it we don’t, no one else will.
Peace.
I like Edwards’ plan better–it is mandatory, and includes more things outside of the horribly corrupt HMO/private insurer situation we have now. Obama’s doesn’t go far enough, and i’ve heard Hillary’s is even weaker (she was burned in the 90s and now won’t go there anymore, i guess). This had analysis of Obama’s plan: http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/05/the_obama_plan_.html
Until we separate healthcare from employment, we’ll continue to be in trouble.
Field, much truth in your post! In Canada we have universal health care and it’s mandatory. There is a move afoot though to have more private health insurance companies based plans. However we have a strong, but waning socialist bend to our society and politics, so there is pushback to this move. It has more to do with free trade than anything else. Private U.S. health care firms have even threatened to take the Canadian government to court because they say our government health care doesn’t provide for fair (trade)competition.
BTW…. I am looking forward to your post on “Environmental Racism”…. hmmmm….
amberglow, thanks for that link. I love the statement about seperating healthcare from employment.
Asa, you are right about countries like Canada and many of those in Europe. But I think that here in the U.S.A., big business rules. And there aren’t too many businesses that are bigger than the drug companies.
Environmental racism is a real problem. I went to school in South Louisiana, and you should see all the huge chemical companies lined up in the poor black neighborhoods. There is even a name for it: “Cancer Alley.”
It’s really sad, and I will be writing about it soon.
The discussion on healthcare in America is a critical one. The proposed official AfroSpear/AforShphere position statement on national universal health care is equally important.
I respect the hard work of Francis Holland and other AfroSpear/AfroSphere members regarding the drafting of the proposed official sfroSpear position statement. I’m however concerned that the AfroSphere is under 100 members and we should wait to build the membership up and run it through the expanded membership for consensus.
I’ve always been concerned for national groups and organizations that don’t have significant constituencies speaking for larger groups of people. We should not place ourselves in a position of saying we represent a blogging constituency base, when at this point we are growing. Taking positions is great, but we should take postions once we have a larger constituency. Then our position will have more meaning, more backbone, more authority. My thought is a position statement can be drafted however, a national conference would be the best way for our position on major issues to be approved by the larger group and communicated to the public. At some point we should have a national conference.
Thoughts?
” At some point we should have a national conference.
Thoughts?”
@ AAPP
mark bey: I agree with what you said, we need to have regular brainstorming sessions on exactly how to move forward, design plans and assign roles and responsibilities.
The thing that folks should remember is this no one is going to give us freedom on a silver platter and no one will give us membership that is diverse and intelligent we must recruit and then continue to build the Afrosphere into something that can bring about change.
To make this happen it is going to take work that I dont see happening currently everyone registered with the afrospehre forum should take it upon themself to recruit self motiviated intellectual talent that will be willing to work on these issues.
The more serious and self motivated people we recruit the less work any given individual will have to do as thier will be more talent to spread the work around.
No one is going to save us except us.
…And so what happens if we just build up a huge body of non-motivated people? That’s all she wrote?
” And so what happens if we just build up a huge body of non-motivated people? That’s all she wrote?”
mark bey: Pretty much.
Freedom comes with a price and responsiblity. The responsibility is the fact that all who are concious are obligated to work towards change, the price is the sweat and inconvience of working, writing researching when no one else appears to be showing the same committment.
Freedom and better lives will not come on thier own.
…And so what happens if we just build up a huge body of non-motivated people?
Powerful question, but no that is not all she wrote.
—
I would tend to believe there’s a body of bloggers out in the AfroSphere who are motivated “for whatever reason” or they would not be blogging.
As you know better than I, blogging in many ways is about expressing ones opinion. A way of expressing ones thoughts. There are millions of Black Youth of MySpace, Black Planet, BET and other popular websites expressing opinions on key health issues like AIDS, at risk behaviors, dating, sex, etc. Many of these folks have opinions and are very motivated to express their opinions. Those youth should be in the mix. We have not even attempted to outreach to that sector of the AfroSpear yet. There are also senior organizations connected to community technology centers, who we have not even outreached too. They are also a key group who would be impacted by our Policy position. Let us not rush to make policy position without reaching out.
I believe we must develop strategies to reach out to those groups of young people, (and seniors) and include them in the conversation. Will we get millions, maybe, Black Planet did, AOL, SenioNet and other groups did. Why not the AfroSphere? It will take time. Do we need to take positions on big ticket items with less than 100 members nationally. NO. Should we take positions with thousands of members. YES. But with 100 or so members, yes, draft plans, but let us wait on voting until we have more membership, more engagement, more conversation, and expansion.
You see, I’m not of the belief that the talented tenth should create position papers for the masses so that the masses (grass roots) will buy into the positions of the talented tenth. Mine is a 90 degree different approach. The talented tenth should build vehicles of opportunities for voices to be heard. “If we build it they will come.” Let us build the vehicles.
I believe those who are sick and tired of being sick and tired must have a voice. Social change happens when those who have been excluded, become included. If we move forward with developing “position papers” without developing an initial broad base constituency we become just another disconnected elitist organization who have many intellectual answers – but liimited common sense approaches on building a movement that includes – the masses.
But that’s just my opinion.
AAPP great and wise comments my brother. I co-sign with what you said.
I think for the most part, we are all pretty much on the same page; but like everything new, we are having some growing pains as this thing builds.
I have been reading the post by Asa, and some of the e-mails and position papers etc, and I am encouraged.
The ideas, commitment, and knowledge that is on display by the members of the “Spear” should make us all proud.
My only hope is that we always communicate, be honest with each other, and never lose sight of our goals.
Peace.
As a recent blogger on one of my blogs said, “I Come in Peace.”
My comments were not made to insult the great work completed thus far. I am not yelling fire in a crowded theatre, I’m saying let us bring our people along as we build this powerful movement called the AfroSpear/AfroSphere. I understand that we all could be doing our own thing blogging. Yet, we have all learned that there is more power in a group than there is in the individual.
I truly respect and appreciate what everone has been doing. Hopefully my comments in some way are part of our conversation to work through stuff.
Thanks again FN, ASA, Sylvia, MarkBey, AmberGlow, FHolland, and members of the AfroSpear/AfroSphere.
” As a recent blogger on one of my blogs said, “I Come in Peace.”
My comments were not made to insult the great work completed thus far. I am not yelling fire in a crowded theatre, I’m saying let us bring our people along as we build this powerful movement called the AfroSpear/AfroSphere.”
mark bey: I agree with you.
I’m very much for this initiative, AAPP:
I think that this is an excellent start for what we need to do and how we need to build our network, to integrate more voices, and to create a strong netroots force of all members of the African Diaspora. And I think that the forum, the PageFlakes site, and the Google group are all great seeds for this network of voices and discussion to grow.
The question is what to offer and how to offer it. I do not think we should stifle our discussion while waiting for others to join, and while I don’t think you’re directly saying that, I can see how some of our action-oriented members can read that statement in such a way.
I feel a little upset when I see people who want to join asking how and already feeling unwelcomed. We’re supposed to be in our recruitment phase, and people are already sharing feelings of alienation. How can those of us who are already members of AfroSphere/AfroSpear go about rectifying that?
I really think that all of us should discuss this group’s goals and why we’re coming together. And put it in a group statement. I did write the mission statement for this site, and I’m glad that many folks seem to appreciate it. But perhaps our purpose statement is the purpose statement we should be discussing and collaborating on. Our goals. What we expect this project to accomplish. Either specific or vague. I think once that’s decided, and people in the group reach a point that we all feel comfortable sharing it on our spaces as boldly as we share that spear icon, we will see more people willing to approach this group with less hesitant questions and more willingness to act.
I didn’t mean to sound so cynical with my “what if people join and that’s it” question, but I think that we should share what motivated us to come together and put so much of our spare time into this project. We care deeply about this group, and no one is paying us for participating; we derive no special halos or anything. Why did we join? What makes us want to stick with this project? We should all highlight that common thread we’re holding onto and share it with others. We recognized it. Others will recognize it too.