A00286 - After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes: A Life in the War Zone

 

  • Mat,

    Thank you for your sage advice.  It is a formula which has guided my life since 1973.  Below is a link to my bio.  If you read it you will find that I spent almost 40 years working in the War Zone that is known as Richmond, California.  I suspect that there are few who can match that level of commitment.  Additionally, if you read further, you will find that I spent 34 years as a noted volunteer for the West Contra Costa (Richmond) YMCA and 17 years as a noted volunteer for the YMCA of the East Bay -- the Oakland based YMCA.  I doubt few can match that record as well.  At Richmond, I spent my career trying to make sure that black men were not killed by police.  I think I did a fairly good job there. 

    To address the violence, it was during my tenure as the Interim City Attorney in 2005 that we implemented a program that identified the potential shooters in our community and brought them together in a program that gave them a stipend to steer them away from shooting people and to focus on improving their lives. That program had mixed results.

    However, professionally, I found that the devastation of the community caused by drugs and the war on drugs and the violence associated with both was something that I could not address very well from the city attorney's office.

    That is why I became so deeply involved with the YMCA.  It was a good organization that was doing grasssroots work in the community.  It was the Richmond YMCA that hired psychiatrists and psychologists who tried to deal with the trauma that occurred when hundreds of young black men are killed or wounded during a year.  That trauma effects more than just those who are shot. We did a good job but we did not have sufficient resources to deal with all the trauma that there is.  I wish you could have heard some the reports that I heard.  They are heartbreaking.

    Our Richmond YMCA was also one of the first YMCAs in the nation to sponsor a daycare program in the local high school.  Teen pregnancy is a reality and to address the issue we placed a daycare center in the local high school so that teen mothers could continue their education while parenting their child.  Still the lives of those teen mothers was not ones that would stress free lives.  That is not what happens.

    I am also proud of the fact that it was the Richmond YMCA that gained such a great reputation for local day care centers that the State of California gave the Richmond YMCA the responsibility of running 40 daycare centers throughout the State of California from Yreka in the north to Fresno in the Central Valley of California.  Our little YMCA provided daycare for not only inner city mothers but also for farmworkers up and down the state.  

    Our Mission and Values | YMCA


    I encourage everyone who can to find a YMCA or an organization like the YMCA and to dedicate themselves to helping the organization achieve what it strives to achieve.

    So Mat, the bottom line, is that I spent my entire life following what you suggest and, based on my vast experience, I can tell you that it is not enough.  There are forces that exist within the community and from without that make progress on these issues next to impossible. This not "victimization", it is a statement of what is.  I do encourage everyone to read Isabel Wilkerson's Caste and Ta-Nehisi Coates article for the Atlantic magazine entitled, "The Case for Reparations".  Those works can provide some perspective of the forces that have worked against progress being made.

    I also suggest Mat that there is still time to become more familiar with the complex issues set forth in "Unnatural Causes" and to more deeply understand how complex the situation really is.  Seek and ye shall find.  Until then,

    Peace, my brother, Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins
    Wilsonville, Oregon
    June 29, 2024

    On Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 08:56:49 AM PDT, Mat wrote:


    You want to see progress in the community? Step out of the ivory tower and get some boots on the ground. Make some personal sacrifices to help lift others up 

    1) offer one's educational prowess to tutor
    2) offer one's business success to mentorship
    3) go out of one's way to buy from black owned businesses, even if it may cost a little more (shop shopping Amazon, Walmart & Target and go to that small boutique in the city)
    4) volunteer at youth groups to mentor the next generation
    5) stop moving out of communities and help develop within said communities. Cannot have gentrification if all the properties are occupied and maintained

    This is just a starting block, but would definitely start producing results. Problem is (and I myself have been guilty at times), folks don't want to put in the effort, or are too short term self absorbed to worry about others



    Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device


    -------- Original message --------
    From: Bob
    Date: 6/29/24 11:26 AM (GMT-05:00)
    To: 
    Subject: Re: After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes: Low Birth Weights for African American Babies

    It is interesting to me that pointing out the way that racism impacts life in these United States can be classified as victimization. Is recognizing the way that racism affects decision about funding schools, or providing city services victimization?
    Racism operates in so many subtle and not so subtle ways in the US. I have experienced the way the daily and constant barrage of racism can affect one's health. 
    Bob

    On Saturday, June 29, 2024, 08:19:01 AM EDT, skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com> wrote:


    Mat,

    I spent my professional career in the City of Richmond, California.  It is the home of the Rosie the Riveter National Park, but for most of my career it was known as being the city which topped the list of cities with excessive homicides.  One year we had over 61 homicides and led the nation in that category for cities under 100,000.  When you have that many homicides, it is a "war zone" and the impact of those deaths last for generations.  Improving diet and changing lifestyle choices was nonsensical in addressing the violence that existed.  Similarly, the psychological impact of living in a racist society does have extraordinary medical impacts that result in a myriad number of medical issues.  I do encourage you to view "Unnatural Causes" and see for yourself what those issues are.  

    It is not "victimization", it is a pathology that exists.

    Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins

    On Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 05:05:25 AM PDT, Mat wrote:


    How is "it is a result of racism" & not a personal (albeit maybe subconscious( choice of lifestyle and diet NOT crying victimization?



    Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device


    -------- Original message --------
    From: skipjen2865@aol.com
    Date: 6/29/24 7:57 AM (GMT-05:00)
    To:
    Subject: After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes: Low Birth Weights for African American Babies

    Mat,  

    I do not know about the researchers in "Unnatural Causes" but I was able to find this link on internet

    Living in a 'war zone' linked to delivery of low birthweight babies (medicalxpress.com)

    In my contemplation about "Why Haven't We Made More Progress?", I look at the lack of progress on such an issue as low birth weights for African American babies and I wonder if we tend to ignore the problem that simply living in the United States presents.

    By coincidence, I was on a plane yesterday flying up to Portland, Oregon, so that I can attend the Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon.  By chance, I sat next to a high school student from Portland who happened to have been born in Ghana.  Her family has been in this country for twelve years now and her sole goal in life is to become an orthodontist so she can return to Ghana.  Despite the financial and educational benefits that she has received in this country, she believes that her life will be better only if she returns to Ghana.

    There may be a reason why DuBois left the United States and why so many educated African Americans yearn to return to Africa.  There is something that may be missing in this country that sadly contributes to the health outcomes that exist.  It is not victimization, it is statement that living in the United States for African American women may be filled with stress that is similar to being in a war zone.  And it is this reality that sadly is killing African Americans on a regular basis.   That is a hard reality of life ... not a story of victimization.

    Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins





    On Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 04:26:43 AM PDT, Mat wrote:


    So in essence Skip, if you are saying that chronic stress and life experiences strongly contribute to small birth weights & premature children, there should be ample evidence that children born in WW2 Europe, 1990's Bosnia war & Rwandan Genocide (to name a few) should also have had alarming #'s of premature & smaller sized births, correct? Have these academics found such evidence in their studies? 

    Yet internationally, birth weights are on the rise. Almost a full pound since the 1970's, according to the Journal of Medicine. The NIH has also reported a direct correlation between inadequate dietary intake (whatever that is exactly) & infant birth weights. 

    We really have to cut out the victimization mentality & start facing some brutally honest truths about ourselves. 

    The first step in any recovery is admitting there is a problem. 



    Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device


    -------- Original message --------
    From: skipjen2865@aol.com
    Date: 6/27/24 4:11 AM (GMT-05:00)
    To: 
    Subject: Re: After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes: Low Birth Weights for African American Babies

    Mat, 

    According to the researchers, diet is not responsible for the disparity between black and white women nor is the availability of  health care.  The disparity regarding low birth weights for African American women and white American women even holds for affluent African American women when contrasted to poor white American women.  As noted in the program,

    "... African American mothers with a college degree have worse birth outcomes than white mothers without a high school education."

    Instead of genetics, the researchers note that

    "Recent data suggests that chronic stress associated with being a minority, particularly being African American, for some biological reason, increases the risk of delivering a premature, low birth weight infant."

    "When you have a reaction to a situation in your life that makes you anxious or gets you stressed out, you not only have a psychological or emotional reaction to that, you also have a body reaction."

    "And if that stress is chronic, constant, and you just can't escape it, over time that chronic stress, the chronic activation of that response, creates wear and tear on your body's organs and systems so that you create this overload on these systems so that they don't work very well."

    "Researchers believe stress can effect pregnancy outcomes in several different ways.  Stress hormones are part of the intricate chemistry of pregnancy under normal conditions.  When those hormones reach a certain level they may help trigger labor.  But what might happen if you went into pregnancy already overloaded with stress hormones?"

    "Stress can also constrict blood flow in the placenta, which could limit fetal growth and may lead to premature delivery.  Chronic stress may also contribute to serious inflammation inside the uterus, which can trigger premature labor.  Research suggests it's not so much stress during pregnancy that may determine the health of a mother's baby, but the cumulative experiences of the mother over the course of her entire life, regardless of race."

    *****

    In essence, Mat, it is the life experiences of women which appear to impact the rate of viability of pregnancies.  And, from the perspective of the researchers, African American women appear to have had chronic stress in their lives which impacts the birth weight of their babies.  Ultimately, from the perspective of the researchers, the source of this chronic stress stems from the racism that African American women must contend with throughout their lives.

    It would be nice if someone had some other verifiable justification for the disparity in low birth weights for African American women.  If someone does have one, please do let us know because this is a tragic health problem that continues to persist even after the advent of Obamacare and despite all the social progress African American women have achieved during the last few years.  

    Take care everyone.

    Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins  






    On Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 12:15:26 PM PDT, Mat wrote:


    "So within one generation, women of African descent are doing poorly.  This to us really suggests that something is driving this that's related to the social milieu that African American women live in throughout their entire life."

    Since these women didn't fall within this spectrum when they first got here, as opposed to later generations....it sounds like it may have to do with diet and Healthcare than with anything genetic 

    Sent from my T-Mobile 5G Device


    -------- Original message --------
    From: skipjen2865@aol.com
    Date: 6/26/24 8:46 AM (GMT-05:00)
    To: 
    Subject: After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes: Low Birth Weights for African American Babies


    Over the weekend, I became a grand uncle again. By my count, that makes number 10.  In viewing the photos of this latest addition to the Jenkins legacy, I was once again struck by the miracle of life, especially African American life.

    Recently, I revisited the PBS series entitled "Unnatural Causes".  The second episode of the series was entitled "When the Bough Breaks" and it profiled the racial disparity that pertains to low birth weights for African American babies.  The opening line for the episode reads"

    "Several years ago, two physicians in Chicago set out to solve a mystery: why do African American women have babies that are born too small, at twice the rate of white American women?"

    The two doctors looked at socio-economic factors as being the underlying cause for the disparity.  However, to their surprise, even affluent African American women were prone to having underweight babies.  As the program noted

    "We were very surprised to find that the gap actually widened as education and socioeconomic status improved and then began to look at it from a bigger perspective and broader perspective, and really started to realize, well maybe it's something about lifelong minority status which is the driving factor here."

    The conclusion these two doctors reached was "There's something about growing up as a black female in the United States that's not good for your childbearing health" and that "racism is taking a heavy toll on African American children even before they leave their mother's wombs.  It's an idea that's slowly gaining acceptance."

    Later on in the episode, the researchers note that African immigrant women had birthweight rates comparable to United States born white women which appears to eliminate any genetic factor the disparity in birthweight rates between blacks and whites. However, as is noted:

    "... African immigrants to the U.S. and white women born in the U.S. had similar pregnancy outcomes.  So if there is any genetic pre-disposition for low birth weight babies, it's doubtful that it falls along what we call racial lines.  It turns out that when African women immigrate to the US, it takes only one generation before their daughters are at risk of having premature babies at a significantly higher rate and with poorer birth outcomes."

    "So within one generation, women of African descent are doing poorly.  This to us really suggests that something is driving this that's related to the social milieu that African American women live in throughout their entire life."

    ******

    The documentary "Unnatural Causes" is a 2008 snapshot of a perplexing problem pertaining to low birth weights for African American babies.  That was over fifteen years ago, but as evidenced by the March of Dimes report set forth below, the underlying "social milieu" does not appear to have changed.

    Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins




    ----- Forwarded Message -----
    From: skipjen2865@aol.com <skipjen2865@aol.com>
    To: 
    Sent: Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 01:50:25 AM PDT
    Subject: After 50 Years Why Haven't We Made More Progress?: Unnatural Causes



    15 years ago, a very important series appeared on PBS concerning certain inequities in health care and health outcomes.  The series is entitled "Unnatural Causes" and watching it left a profound impression on me.



    It has been fifteen years since the series came out and the problem and its solution seems to be well known.  And yet, fifteen years later, reports such as this continue to appear


    In response to my post concerning the tragedy surrounding the occurrence of so many in custody deaths like George Floyd, a white Amherst classmate of mine asked me how I felt about what I had just wrote.

    My response, in light of the carnage that seems to be occurring, is to ask these questions: "What do you think I should feel?  And what should I say about it?"

    Peace,

    Everett "Skip" Jenkins




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