Diversity: Keeping DC Walmart Free

Local rapper Head-Roc has a message for Walmart

Diversity: Keeping DC Walmart Free

By: Tamara Braunstein

Local rapper Head-Roc released a new track last week calling out the social justice issues of allowing Walmart to infiltrate some notoriously impoverished neighborhoods in DC.

The video, produced by Empower DC, is shot in black and white and relies heavily on imagery reflective of the Chocolate City moniker, especially small, minority-owned and operated businesses. Subtitles are provided, but one of the most interesting moments occurs around the 1 min. 23 sec. mark, when Dr. Jared Ball, “the Funkinest Journalist,” cuts into the track with the “Three Walmart Commandments”:

1. Move in and crush competition by underselling
2. Pay workers nothing and block unionization
3. Take all that money, put it into the Walton Family Foundation, and turn that into political influence to protect yourself and make even more

Mr. Head-Roc goes on to rap that “the Walton families are big contributors to bigoted representatives and senators…results in Black and Brown casualties.” Despite Walmart’s conspicuous self-promotion to win our approval, it’s clear from this video that some residents are aware and wary of the big-box’s intentions. But what does it mean on a broader scale?

Has Walmart become just another embodiment of DC’s classic racial socio-economic disparities debate?

HPV Vaccine: A Diversity Issue?

Gardasil is currently the only FDA-approved HPV vaccine for both males and females.

HPV Vaccine: A Diversity Issue?

By: Tamara Braunstein

This week, a CDC panel endorsed males ages 13 to 21 receive the HPV vaccine, previously recommended for females between the ages of nine to 26.

Backlash against the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ decision is anticipated, mostly due to the fact that the Human Papillomavirus is contracted via sexual transmission. However, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and about 75 percent of sexually active women will contract it during their lifetime:

“Most will overcome the infection with no ill effects. But in some people, infections lead to cellular changes that cause warts or cancer, including cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancers in women and anal cancers in men and women. A growing body of evidence suggests that HPV also causes throat cancers in men and women as a result of oral sex.” (The New York Times)

Whether or not people want to acknowledge that children and teens are engaging in sexual behavior (they are, and it’s not always safe), the risks that accompany those decisions persist. And the consequences, it seems, are not equally distributed.

According to the CDC’s own data, Hispanic and Black women have the highest rates of cervical cancer and resulting death rates in the country. Most recent data from 2007 indicates that compared to a national rate of 7.9 percent of females with cervical cancer, 7.5 percent of White women, 10.5 percent of Black women and 11.5 percent of Hispanic women contract the disease.

Not all female-specific cancer is a result of HPV. But from 1998 to 2003, HPV-associated vaginal cancer rates were also significantly disproportionate against Black and Hispanic women as well. The numbers are less skewed for men. During the same time period, HPV-associated anal cancer rates for men reached 1.2 percent for Black men, 0.8 percent for Hispanic men and 1.0 percent for White men.

Even if the new recommendations do prove a “hard sell,” it bears mentioning that in a study among low-income children, boys reported their first sexual experience at a younger age (average 12.48 years old) than girls (average 13.16 years old). And by the way, aren’t low-income youth considered a high-risk population for contracting STDs? So aren’t low-income minorities even more at-risk? I thought so.

Instead of discussing the moral dilemmas in advocating that youth – regardless of gender or sexual orientation – receive a vaccine that can play a significant role in preventing the spread of a serious infection and potential disease, maybe we should be discussing how to make the vaccine more accessible and affordable for the populations already disparately affected?

Millions of Americans Fear Hunger

Millions of Americans Fear Hunger

By: Pam Taylor

Food insecurity is on the rise. More than 17 million Americans, 14.6 percent of US households, are fearful of going hungry. Alright, so maybe US hunger doesn’t present like the gruesome pictures we see of starvation in the Sudan, for example, but it is nonetheless both scandalously and dangerously high for a nation with our resources. And it is also completely unnecessary. Other developed countries don’t tolerate such widespread hunger, and especially among children.

Although a family might get SNAP, the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits or a wage check, many still have to skimp on groceries, and they run out of food around the 20th or the 25th of every month. Food-insecure families also buy cheap and non-nutritious food. Poor nutrition damages heath, especially in little kids. When people don’t get enough food, the available nutrition goes to vital organs like the lungs; it doesn’t go to the brain.

Not surprisingly, food insecurity affects both African American and Hispanic families disproportionately — 25 and 26 percent, respectively, compared to 11 percent of white families. And among female-headed households, it’s a staggering 35 percent. See Infographic: The State of Food Insecurity for more startling facts.

More than 13 million children and another 3.5 million seniors are living in poverty in the United States, the leading cause of this nation’s hunger. Yet, we toss about 263 million pounds of food every day — edible food! Hunger in America. Of course, not everybody is buying my concern. Tom Sowell says we are victims of “media hysteria,” when it comes to hunger. Of course, he doesn’t buy America’s dismal poverty stats either. The 'Hunger' Hoax.

Citizen Camera

The nine minutes of grainy video footage George Holliday captured of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King 20 years ago helped to spur dramatic reforms in a department that many felt operated with impunity.

(George Holliday)

Citizen Camera

Twenty years ago today a citizen with a conscience and a camera videotaped a handful of LA Police Department officers battering Rodney King with their clubs while King lay prostrate on the ground, helpless, unarmed and nonthreatening. The next day, the footage aired on a local news broadcast and then spread with alacrity to national TV.  At once, millions of Americans saw what many African American males and their families already knew: Black males were targets of police brutality. 

It would be useful to see if conditions have improved, gotten worse or reached an untenable plateau, but the Department of Justice website does not report current and historic data on police brutality.  So, we’re left with the memory of King’s beat down.

 

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-king-video-20110301,0,2855868.story

Social Inequities in Full Effect

Social Inequities in Full Effect

The experience of Jamie and Gladys Scott proves that race, gender, income and geography play a major part in determining health and wellbeing. The African American sisters who were released from a Mississippi prison in January after spending 16 years of their life sentence for an armed robbery conviction are in bad shape. The list of their socially-induced pathologies is long – double-life sentences for each; kidney failure; obesity; lack of access to needed health care; single, early parenthood; family destabilization; low education attainment; and so on.  Being poor, black, and female in the Deep South didn’t work out well for the Scott sisters.  Let’s keep pushing for social justice.

Highlighted Clip for Friday, February 25, 2011:

"Ex-convict sisters too overweight to share kidney"
By Melissa Nelson and Holbrook Mohr
A proposed kidney transplant that won two Mississippi sisters their freedom from prison can't take place until one quits smoking and they lose a combined 160 pounds.

While GOP Deflates Government Budget, Consumer Costs Rise

While GOP Deflates Government Budget, Consumer Costs Rise



It’s no wonder so many Americans are against GOP-proposed budget cuts; at the same time that policymakers are slashing funds for consumer services, both the cost of living and the national unemployment rate continue to rise. In January, the cost of food, energy, clothing and travel rose dramatically with more increases expected this Spring.  Likewise,  the more than 9 percent national unemployment rate is expected to remain steady for the rest of the year. Nonetheless, House Republicans continue to endorse budget cuts that ultimately hurt struggling Americans as the answer to our nation’s economic woes.

Highlighted Clip for Thursday, February 17, 2011:

"Consumer prices, unemployment claims rise"
Consumers paid more in January for everything from food and gasoline to airline tickets and clothing. The price increases reflect creeping but still-modest inflation. Another report showed that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, one week after claims had fallen to the lowest level in nearly three years.

Remembering Reagan: Some Important Things We Can't Forget (That He Did!)

Remembering Reagan:

Some Important Things We Can't Forget (That He Did!)

You can't miss him! He's all over your TV, radio, newspapers, and computer screen again. Ronald Reagan is back in the news, garnering lots of press, praise, fond memories, and accolades from his conservative friends, admirers, and benefactors in celebration of what would had been the Gipper's 100th birthday. But what many of these commentators choose to ignore is the fact that Reagan also chose to ignore some major facets of the American public. Namely, the poor and those suffering from the AIDS epidemic at the time.  

Via the Website Mother Jones: "Reagan's Toll on the Middle Class", by Josh Harkinson

In the lead-up to what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday on Sunday, conservatives have been trotting out all manner of panegyrics to their patron saint and his creed of trickle-down economics. For 90 percent of the people in this country, here's what should matter:

WATCH: "The Failure to Act: The Reagan Administration's Deliberate Failure to Address the Aids Epidemic"