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6th Day March 01, 2013 |
“Communication – Cooperation – Collaboration” Volume 7, Number 24 |
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The Coalition, Inc. Board of Directors Gary R. Adams (President/CEO), John E. Churchville (Treasurer), Members: Abu Mashkuwr Naadim Abdulkhabir, Josephine Blow, Stanley Daniels, Nijah Famous, Lansana Koroma, Abdul Malik Raheem, Lewis Williams Table of content For Our Children … 02 This Week … 03 Employment and Training Opportunities … 04 Health Matters …05 Green Piece … 13 Grants, Scholarships & Instruction… 13 SpotLight … 15 Arts for Awareness … 17 Coming Up …17 Computers and Technology … 18 A Hand Up … 19 Word-of-the-Week … 20
Page 02
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If you would like to report on a recent community event, feel free to send us a brief account of what happened in document format, and we will share it with our readers. Send your information to: News From The Coalition, Inc.
All entries for submission should be received by noon, the Monday prior to publish date and in Press Release form.
Page 03
No one boasts of what belongs to another. - Ghanaian Proverb
We are proud to announce that News From The Coalition, Inc. is featured on the internationally acclaimed site Eight Cities Map which is read in more than One hundred eighty countries! Click here: EightCitiesMAP Choose “Philadelphia’s Online Community “Newsletter” from the menu.
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“People involved in a revolution don't become part of the system; they destroy the system... The Negro revolution is no revolution because it condemns the system and then asks the system it has condemned to accept them...” – El Hajj Malik El Shabazz
If you have a favorite relevant quote, why not share it with our readers. send to TheCoalitionNews@gmail.com We will credit you with the submission.
JOIN THE COALITION, INC! To join The Coalition go to: TheCoalitionInc.net and download a copy of the Pledge of Commitment and return it to us the.pa.coalition@gmail.com
Page 05
"We live in a confused...sick, neurotic nation."..."I'm sorry to have to say to you that the vast majority of white Americans are racist, either consciously or unconsciously." - Dr. Martin L. King jr.
If you would like to report on a recent community event, feel free to send us a brief account of what happened in document format, and we will share it with our readers. Send your information to: News From The Coalition, Inc.
All entries for submission should be received by noon, the Monday prior to publish date and in Press Release form.
Page 06
The dearth of Black males in the homes, schools and neighborhoods leaves Black male children no alternative models. Blindly they seek out one another as models, and in their blindness end up in trouble – in juvenile homes or prisons. But fate and the dynamics of racism again play a vicious trick because the young males only become more alienated from their manhood and more feminized in such settings. They are given orders by men to whom they must submit; they wait passively to be fed three meals a day by men; and finally, they have sexual intercourse with men. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, THE ISIS PAPERS
JOIN THE COALITION, INC! To join The Coalition go to: TheCoalitionInc.net and download a copy of the Pledge of Commitment and return it to us the.pa.coalition@gmail.com
Page 07
"No
sane black man really wants integration! No sane white man really
wants integration!"… El Hajj Malik El Shabazz If you have a favorite joke or quote, why not share it with our readers. send to TheCoalitionNews@gmail.com We will credit you with the submission.
We will be spotlighting members and organizations weekly, if you wish to have your organization spotlighted, forward to us information on your primary mission, your current projects and/or how you would want other members of The Coalition to be involved. Many of us are already being a support to one another, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
Page 08
Integration without self-awareness is assimilation... resistance is futile...Madu
If you would like to report on a recent community event, feel free to send us a brief account of what happened in document format, and we will share it with our readers. Send your information to: News From The Coalition, Inc.
All entries for submission should be received by noon, the Monday prior to publish date and in Press Release form.
Page 09 I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence. Malcolm X
If you have a favorite relevant quote, why not share it with our readers. send to TheCoalitionNews@gmail.com We will credit you with the submission.
We are proud to announce that News From The Coalition, Inc. is featured on the internationally acclaimed site Eight Cities Map which is read in more than One hundred eighty-five countries! Click here: EightCitiesMAP Choose “Philadelphia’s Online Community “Newsletter” from the menu.
Page 10 Hereeeeeeeeeeeeees... Kathy’s Korner!
As I quizzed my grandson on the names of the states, he was only able to identify about 40 of them. In an effort to inspire him, I said, “In my day we could name all of them AND their capitals.” To which he responded, “Yes, but in those days there were only thirteen.”
(Kathy Parsons is a regular contributor.)
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Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. Malcolm X
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I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color. Malcolm X
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When a violent minority that crosses color lines comes to believe that killing those you know or do not know is a reasonable solution to problems, we are in need of another vision. Stanley Crouch
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In the name of peace they waged the wars. Ain't they got no shame? Nikki Giovanni
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We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. Malcolm X
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Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. Maya Angelou
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Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action. Philip Randolph
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When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire... or preserve his freedom. Malcolm X
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I believe that it would be almost impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. Malcolm X
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I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street. Malcolm X
WORD-OF-THE-WEEK confute \kuhn-FYOOT\ To overwhelm by argument; to refute conclusively; to prove or show to be false.
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Greetings Coalition Family!
…The 13th Amendment states, “involuntary servitude and slavery is abolished except for those duly convicted of a crime.” The “exception clause” leaves slavery still in effect for those convicted of crimes. Today America, with 5% of the world’s population, has 25% of the world’s prisoners. Those prisoners have been “duly” convicted of crimes and are therefore slaves. There are presently 2.5 million prisoners in the United States of America and another 5 million under the control of the criminal justice system. These numbers are unprecedented in the history of human beings on the planet earth. There are more black men under the control of the criminal justice system than there were in slavery in 1850, 10 years before the civil war. African Americans continue to occupy the base of the social and economic pyramid. You can see them lined up outside of the criminal courts in every state in the country. You can go into those courtrooms and watch them processed as though they are on a conveyor belt into the prison system, or to the clerks office to be stripped of their meager wealth by imposition of fines and surcharges and sent to perform unpaid labor called “community service.” What has changed? The struggle for change is unending, something we must come to realize. The new form of slavery (from private ownership to state ownership) is the new Jim Crow and has the same intent and purpose, to rob us of our labor and to keep us powerless. By placing us in these cages they have managed to do all of the things they did to us in slavery, apartheid and now mass incarceration. State and federal governments have taken our right to vote, weakened the ability of our communities to assert their interest in the political process, fractured our families, turned our schools into feeder systems for their modern slavery, and turned our communities into open air prisons. The question now becomes “How must we change” to address the unfinished struggle of the Abolitionist movement of the past. The work I do as an organizer and community activist requires me to stay in student/researcher mode. My life experience has convinced me that we live in a world of perpetual change and chaos. This state of reality requires us to live in the world as though we are students, critical thinkers, always prepared for change. But, we can’t merely be critical thinkers on our own. There is an urgency in building unity and struggles with others of like mind, to build the strongest force possible to challenge mass incarceration. Source: Roland Sheppard’s we page
"Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having their legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple." - Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.
We each hold a piece to the puzzle.” – Dr. John Elliott Churchville “Communicate… Cooperate… Collaborate”
FOR OUR CHILDREN“It is easier to build children than it is to repair men.”…Frederick Douglass
Attention Pre K Parents!!! ----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
Office of Specialized Services of the School District of Phila.The
Office of Specialized Services (OSS) is committed to the
educational, social, physical, and emotional well being of
students within the School District of Philadelphia. The OSS
provides comprehensive special education, behavioral health,
school health, and prevention/intervention programs.
215-400-4170 On the www.cap4kids.org/philadelphia website
Please also remember that this and all content on CAP4Kids can be translated into almost any language using the flags at the bottom of each page. Thanks. ----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
THIS WEEK
Top of Form THE HARVEST 4th ANNIVERSARY Open Mic & Showcase Experience!
This month we're celebrating FOUR YEARS of poems, songs and amazing live art! WE WANT YOU THERE TO CELEBRATE WITH US!!! Join
Spoken
Soul 215 as we get free at the Tri-State's largest Open Mic and
Live Arts Experience. Wed,
6 March 2013, 7:00 pm ----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
WOMEN MAKE FREEDOM
How Women of Color Use Art to Promote Social Change
MODERATOR: Filmmaker, Aishah Shahidah Simmons
How do women "make freedom" using their art? How do artists and writers make social justice an integral part of their work? How do women of color use their various art forms in an effort to do away with forms of injustice and inequality?
In partnership with Free Library of Philadelphia's One Book, One Philadelphia, please join Art Sanctuary for a panel discussion, performance, and reading that will explore the diverse ways women of color use their art forms to promote social change and advance the causes that affect women on a local and international level.
Panelists: Visual Artist/Muralist/Educator, Michelle Angela Ortiz Filmmaker/Multi-Media Artist, tiona.m. Performance Poet/Teaching Artist, Pat McLean Writer/Editor, Debra Powell-Wright Fiber Mixed Media Artist/Curator, Betty Leacraft Plus, surprise guest performers.
Wednesday, March 6 at 6:00PM Art Sanctuary, 628 S. 16th Street, Philadelphia PA 19146 Free! Space limited. Reservations suggested:
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING OPPORUNITIES
PLBC Virtual Job Fair
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
Philadelphia Job Fair Monday, March 4, 2013, 11AM - 2PM Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West 4010 City Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19131 http://www.coasttocoastcareerfairs.com
Valley Forge Job Fair Tuesday, March 5, 2013, Job Fair 9:30AM - 2:30PM Classes 8AM - 3:30PM Valley Forge Casino Resort 1160 First Avenue King of Prussia PA 19406
King of Prussia Career Fair Monday, March 18, 2013 11AM - 2PM Crowne Plaza Hotel Valley Forge 260 Mall Boulevard King of Prussia, PA 19406 https://www.nationalcareerfairs.com
Philadelphia Career Fair Monday, April 8, 2013, 11AM - 2PM Crowne Plaza 4010 City Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19131 https://www.nationalcareerfairs.com
The Diversity Job Fair of Philadelphia Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 10AM - 1PM Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel 640 West Germantown Pike Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462 http://www.catalystcareergroup.com
HEALTH MATTERS
The Physical Toll Of Racism
(BlackDoctor.org) -- This is not new news to you, but statistically, black males in America are at increased risk for just about every health problem known. African Americans have a shorter life expectancy than any other racial group in America except Native Americans. In the past, some researchers have blamed it on poverty -- one of the most powerful determinants of health – but now researchers are beginning to examine discrimination itself. Racism, more than race, may be cutting black men down before their time. It is possible, they believe, that the ill health and premature deaths can be laid -- at least in part -- at the feet of continuous assaults of discrimination, real or perceived. "We have always thought of race-based discrimination as producing a kind of attitude," says Vickie Mays, psychologist and director of the UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training and Strategic Communication on Minority Health Disparities. "Now we think we have sufficient information to say that it's more than just affecting your attitude. A person experiences it, has a response, and the response brings about a physiological reaction." The reaction contributes to a chain of biological events known as the stress response, which can put people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and infectious disease, says Namdi Barnes, a researcher with the UCLA center. That protective response includes the release of cortisol, often called the stress hormone. It increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels and suppresses the immune system. Those are all good things when it comes to fleeing a wild beast or a suspicious sound in a dark parking lot. But for many African Americans, these responses may occur so frequently that they eventually result in a breakdown of the physiological system. "This whole phenomenon of cumulative biologic stress is real," says Nicole Lurie, director of the Rand Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. Racism, Davis says, is something a black man lives with, although these days, teaching tennis to, mostly, wealthy white people,he doesn't often feel its sting. "Sometimes there's stress, but you've got to keep on living," he says. Still, the Compton native has troubling memories of being pulled over by police as a young man for no apparent reason, and worries that such things could still happen to his boys. "When I was a kid, we never went through Culver City," he says. "They'd watch you go in, sometimes stop you. I don't want my kids getting stopped because of the color of their skin. They're good boys." Having survived a childhood of poverty, with eight siblings, an alcoholic father and a churchgoing mother who kept the family centered and straight, the thought of sudden illness at this comfortable point in his life didn't enter his mind. Although neither Davis nor his wife thought the 6-foot-3, 250-pounder who plays tennis for a living could be seriously sick, a day after the first symptoms, an MRI showed that he had suffered a mini-stroke. He was lucky. A transient ischemic attack is a kind of low-level warning that conditions are ripe for a more serious stroke unless the patient follows medical advice, most typically blood-thinning drugs, improved diet and exercise. Death comes soonerTHE shorter life expectancy of black men has been an inflexible truth since slavery. The gap has slowly narrowed throughout the last century, and the most recent improvement is attributed to lower accident and homicide rates, along with life-sustaining treatments for AIDS, all of which afflict a greater proportion of black men. Still, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and most cancers strike black men sooner, and cut them down more often, than white men. And the higher incidence of disease among black men is set against a backdrop of an increased incidence of poverty, which carries with it a multitude of health problems. Violence, including accidents and homicide, lays its claim on black men early. Homicide is the leading cause of death for black men ages 15 to 34, followed by unintentional injuries. (For white men those ages, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death, followed by suicide.) In every decade that follows, for every leading cause of death, the rates of disease for black men are disproportionately high. Once they become sick, they are more likely to suffer worse consequences and die sooner of the disease. It adds up to an average life span for black men that is 6.2 years less than for white men, and 8.3 less than the national average, 77.8 years, for all races and both genders. The major culprit in the black-white mortality gap is cardiovascular disease. The death rate from heart disease is about 30% higher among blacks than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The prevalence of diabetes is about 70% higher, and diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart disease. High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for heart disease in African Americans, and some researchers have speculated that the cause is genetic. About half the people in the world are salt sensitive, but about 80% of African Americans are salt sensitive. That means that a diet high in salt is more likely to result in high blood pressure. But blacks living in African countries have few blood pressure problems, casting doubt on a genetic link. "Salt sensitivity is completely related to potassium intake," says Dr. Karol Watson, cardiologist and co-director of preventive cardiology at UCLA. "And that's related to fruit and vegetable intake." More veggies equals less salt sensitivity. But fresh produce is hard to come by in poor neighborhoods. Poverty and lack of access to health care, more significant among blacks, open the doors to a host of hazards. Poor people smoke more, exercise less and are more likely to be victims of accidents and violence. "There's a whole boatload of things that are in the environments where they're more likely to grow up," Lurie says. "HIV, crime, that kind of stuff. There's a lot of extra dying going on from trauma." Anyone living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood has health disadvantages, says Dr. Roshan Bastani, director of the Healthy and At Risk Population Program at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "It's where you live, what kind of work you do, what kind of food you eat, access to physical activity, where you go for health care," she says. "It's kind of a vicious cycle that gets worse and worse." About 25% of African Americans live in poverty, compared with about 8% of whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent report, and about 20% of blacks are uninsured, compared with about 8% of whites. And those African Americans who are poor are more likely to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods than are poor whites, according to a March 1998 report in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Only 6% of poor whites live in high poverty areas, while 34% of poor blacks live in such areas, where risks of violence are higher and access to fresh, healthy foods and safe places to exercise are lower. Vance Pierre, 45, of Inglewood says he encountered more than a few risks in his youth, including getting run over by a car. As a teen, he and his friends thought it was fun to jump in front of oncoming cars to make them swerve. "I'd be drinking like a 40-ounce, and I'd say, 'Hey, watch this,' " he says. "A couple of times I couldn't get out of the street in time." His father died of alcoholism, and today Pierre says he doesn't drink anymore. He also knows the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, and sometimes will make a meal of all vegetables. But more often, he says, it's convenient to eat out at places like McDonald's or Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. Mysterious disparitySTILL, all the socioeconomic factors together don't fully explain racial disparities. Researchers S.L. Isaacs and S.A Schroeder, in a study reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, New England Journal of Medicine, found that people earning $15,000 a year or less from 1972 to 1989 were three times more likely to die prematurely than those earning $70,000 or more. But at the lowest levels of income, less than $10,000 a year, black men still had a 21% greater risk of death within the study period than whites. And in a Feb. 9, 1990, study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., researchers compared black and white death rates per 100,000 people 35 to 54 years old and found the black rate 2.3 times higher. When they adjusted the data for known risk factors such as smoking, alcohol intake and diabetes, the gap narrowed to 1.9 times, and when they adjusted further for income, it narrowed to 1.4 times. How people live, die and get sick depends on economic class as well as race, but all of the adjustments combined didn't completely explain the black-white mortality gap, leaving about a third of the problem unexplained, the researchers found. The reasons behind that final third remain a mystery. "Life expectancy for everyone is increasing, but the disparities are not getting better," says Lurie of Rand. Seeking to explain that gap, researchers have grown increasingly interested in the theory, based on a growing body of evidence linking stress to poor physical health, that racial discrimination can result in unremitting stress. That additional, ongoing stress might explain some of the still mysterious gap. For a black man, a stress response to discrimination can be triggered by something as subjective as feeling suspicious eyes on him in a department store. "That can be annoying," says Michael Johnson, 38, of Inglewood. "You know you've got money in your pocket to pay, and somebody is following you around. We've all felt that. But you get so used to it, you're numb to it." In one of the first studies to examine the effect of discrimination on lifestyle behaviors, researchers looked at 3,300 adults, black and white, from a range of income groups, ages 18 to 30, and followed them for 15 years. The study, published in the Aug. 13 American Journal of Epidemiology Advanced Access, found that 38% of whites reported feeling discriminated against in housing, education or work, while 89% of blacks reported such feelings of discrimination. Regardless of income or race, all who felt discrimination were more likely to have unhealthy behaviors, including smoking, drinking and use of marijuana. "When people feel they're treated unfairly," says Dr. Luisa Borrell, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and author of the study, "they're going to find a way to cope with that unfair treatment." Stress of racismPEOPLE feel and respond to discrimination in similar ways, though the experience of discrimination is more common to blacks. Among blacks, it's more commonly felt among men, the researchers found. Mays was lead author on a paper published in the 2007 Annual Review of Psychology that examined studies looking at the responses of the brain and body to race-based discrimination. Experiences of racial discrimination can set the brain up for what's known as the fight or flight response. While that biological response can be life-saving, too much of it sets people up for heart disease, diabetes, obesity and infection. If it happens over and over again, in large doses of vulgar taunts or small doses of perceived slights, parts of the brain become overwhelmed. Two things can happen. The brain can shut down the release of chemicals and people respond with a kind of numbness. Under production of cortisol can result in depression and is linked to asthma, allergies, and rheumatoid arthritis. Or it can fail to shut down, leaving the body at a continuous state of heightened alert. "Let's say something occurs where you follow me around in a store," Mays says. "I think that's racist. My blood pressure goes up. I get upset. Then I go to a different store. Someone appears to start following me. I am primed from a previous experience and I feel it again. We call it a micro-assault." According to research into stress, such emotionally packed memories are held in a part of the brain called the amygdala, which regulates fear responses through the release of hormones such as cortisol. "Amygdala-driven stress responses are fight-or-flight based, tailored to survive now, ask questions later," says Billi Gordon, a postdoctoral researcher at the UCLA center. The chemical release happens quickly, aiming for a quick, life-saving response. There isn't even enough time to consult the cortex, the logical part of the brain. Cortisol readies the body for the immediate danger, taking resources away from the some of the body's longer-term resources, such as control of the immune system, while increasing blood pressure and blood sugar levels. That's fine for the short term, but if it happens again and again, over a lifetime, the continual assaults of racism can result in a greater vulnerability to infection from a weakened immune system. In the long run, it places the body at increased risk for inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease and possibly obesity and diabetes as a result of repeated changes to the regulation of glucose, says Barnes. Over time, the disruption of cortisol control can get even worse. At first, the release of the hormone acts as an anti-inflammatory agent in the body. But if the body continually overloads with cortisol, the protective system shuts down and then actually reverses, increasing inflammation, which is linked to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and possibly diabetes. "One of the most dangerous things that can happen to the body is when the cortisol signal is compromised or no longer working. It remains in a heightened state," Gordon says. Mays believes, and argued in the recent paper, that scientists know enough about people's reactions to racial discrimination and also the body's response to stress to link the two. "The literature is building," she says. "It's downward synergy," Gordon says. "Each time you have a micro-assault, it accumulates and each one changes the person's sense of self-worth. You are constantly feeling a little bit different. Over a long period of time, it's like the water that undermines the sea wall." One of the foremost researchers on the health effects of stress, Dr. Bruce McEwen, head of the Harold & Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University, has written in his book, "The End of Stress as We Know It": "Stress hormones acting on the hippocampus can engrave important experiences into our long-term memory, but excessive or chronically elevated levels of these same hormones can damage the very part of the brain that shuts them off." No single 'X factor'WHETHER that process can be directly linked to experiences of discrimination is unproven. But Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine, whose early work with McEwen helped chart the effect of stress on the brain, sees it as a plausible theory. "To my knowledge, no one has looked at the relationship between being an outgroup [racial or otherwise] and things like cortisol levels, but it makes perfect sense. It's a corrosive, permeating experience of lack of control -- the very definition of chronic psychosocial stressor," he says. "That's a sure pathway to poor health." Mays and her colleagues, and others studying the causes of racial disparities, believe this may be happening in great numbers to minorities in the United States, and in the greatest numbers to African American men. "This may be the explanatory variable," Mays says. "For African Americans, it may not be just diet, or that you don't walk enough." Studies keep pouring out showing racial disparities in health. A recent one in the September 2007 Annals of Epidemiology found that even in the so-called stroke belt of Southern states, where all races and both genders suffer the highest rates of stroke in the country, African American men are stricken at the highest of the high rates. The study's lead author, Dr. George Howard, chairman of the department of biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is not ready to finger discrimination as the primary cause. "It's a whole toxic cocktail of bad things, but if I had to pick one, it would be socioeconomic status," he says. "It's clear that racism plays a role, but I don't think it's the 800-pound gorilla." No one factor, including the possible biological toll taken by the accumulated insults of racism, will rise to the level of 800-pound gorilla. Attacking the problem, Lurie says, means looking beyond medicine to every aspect of society. "Ultimately, to make a real difference in life expectancy and health disparities, you have to simultaneously attack social and nonmedical determinants," she says. Recent prioritySTATISTICIANS have been taking note of the corrosive effect of race on health status for more than a century. But it's only since 2000, when President Clinton proposed and Congress allocated $150 million to establish the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, that understanding the complex reasons and working to correct the gap have become a national priority. The center supports basic, clinical and population research on health disparities and has funded more than 100 universities and academic institutions, including UCLA, as well as hospitals and community health centers to help establish programs examining health disparities. It provides loans to doctoral students doing health disparities research, so far contributing to the efforts of more than 1,000 professionals. In March 2002, the Institute of Medicine released a report, "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care," that for the first time mapped out the scope and depth of racial disparities in health. Poverty creates a vicious cycle, one that tennis coach and stroke survivor Davis, born into a large family in Compton, has escaped. His sons, in their Ladera Heights home with weekly backyard barbecues and plenty of sidewalk space for running and skateboarding, are protected from poverty's worst health consequences. These days, Davis takes his medication. He says he's trying to eat better, but Carrie rolls her eyes, setting off a good-natured marital debate about actual quantities of sausages consumed versus vegetables. And he's still trying to figure out what kinds of exercise to add to his professional routine that can be sometimes rigorous, other times little more than throwing balls back to students. As long as there is racial discrimination, scientists say, there is the potential for added stress that just may prove to be the mysterious variable in the shortened lives of black men. But when it comes to the health of their sons, the Davises, like so many parents, worry most about the boys' love for junk food, bacon and red meat. By John Williams, BDO Staff Writer
source: http://www.blackdoctor.org/articles.aspx?counter=27604 ----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site ----- |
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SpotLight On Our Efforts
Education Campaign
The All- African People’s Revolutionary Unification Party is organizing an education campaign around the topic of, “The Development of Humanity; with an emphasis on Women, especially African Women.”
This will include understanding the “modes of production.” In the history of humanity there has been five major types of production relationships known to humanity: communalism, feudalism, capitalism, and socialism leading to communism. There is a severe lack of understanding about the modes of production because it is not taught in educational institutions. The reason it is so important to learn about the modes of production is:
1. It deals with who is in power in society and therefore gives you the reasons why certain things are a certain way. It shows the necessity of struggling for power.
2. It shows the most important changes in human development and gives people a weapon to affect change in the people’s interest.
3. It shows that women were in the leadership of society for over 90% of humanities history.
4. It shows that for over 90% of the history of humanity, human beings did not exploit and oppress each other and it refutes the idea was at war from the beginning.
5. It shows when exploitation and oppression started and what it takes to get rid of exploitation and oppression.
6. It shows the importance of human labor. It confirms that the people are the makers of history and not individuals and there is honor in being a common person.
7. It gives an organized way of understanding history and is a liberating force for the people who learn it.
These are a few reasons to learn about the modes of production. The people who learn have a big responsibility to share and teach the information with as many other people as possible. We do not own the media or the educational institutions in the society so it is on us the powerless masses to get this information to the people. As a start we suggest reading the book, Class Struggle in Africa by Kwame Nkumah. The way to have the biggest impact is to read and discuss the book collectively.
History is a weapon. It can be used to inspire or demobilize the people. History in the hands of the masses of the people will be guided by the love of justice and truth. The masses of the people have never been the oppressors; they have been the oppressed. The masses have no reason to hide the truth, but someone who has oppressed the people does have a reason to hide the truth.
We call on all oppressed people to organize because organization is a potent weapon of the oppressed. Our goal is to become so organized that we can do in one day what previously took us 20 years. In order to do this everyone must join an organization that is working for the people.
P.O. Box 23074 Oakland , CA 94623-0074 U.S.A.
Phone: (415) 789-7360
Email: ForAfricanWomen@att.net
Website: http://hometown.aol.com/forafricanwomen/myhomepage/index.html
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
OpportUNITY, Inc @ The Willie
G. Williams Community Center
A Construction Training Program
Providing Human Services
1016-18 South Street
Philadelphia,
PA 19147
Office: 267-297-8006
Cell:
267-579-6301
Email:
opportunity1016@gmail.com
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
Family Survival Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization provides cultural, educational, spiritual and economic tools needed to create a positive and lasting legacy within the African American community.
Family Survival Inc., a 501(c)3 organization, was founded by Brothers Rashie Abdul Samad and Rashie Abdur Rahim after realizing that the key to reclaiming the African American community lies in re-establishing connection with Africa, it's art, history, culture, economy and people. The program started with exposing young people to the culture of African music and art, as well as learning the basics of business. While the founding principles remain intact, the program has expanded by partnering with other community organizations and businesses in the spirit of umoja (unity) to ensure our collective Family Survival. Together, these organizations will make an even greater impact on the youth and elders in the community for the benefit of whole.
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
ARTS FOR AWARENESS
I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. Pauline Kael
1310 No. Broad St. Phila
Every Thurs. 9pm to 1am
Poets
Rappers
Singers
Spoken Word Artists
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
COMING UP
How to Start a
Nonprofit
This
is a free workshop that will help individuals start and grow
sustainable nonprofit organizations.
Date and Time:
Thursday, March 21th, 2013
10:00-11:30AM
Location:
Urban League
121 Broad Street, 9th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
For more information, please call Dean Iezzi at (267) 331-5971 or email him at marketingassistant@missionincdevelopment.com.
* * Outside PA * * *
COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY
Free online journal focuses on technology for
nonprofits
Technology can help nonprofits
create the change they want to see in
the world. But even with daily evidence of world-changing innovations
and applications of technology, it's difficult for nonprofit leaders to
know how to apply it to their missions.
NTEN:Change,
a free online journal from the
Nonprofit Technology Network, provides the guidance and practical considerations nonprofits need to
make the sound investments and decisions that will help them meet
their goals.
Free subscriptions are
available here.
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
Group offers low-cost web access to nonprofits
Mobile Citizen, a provider of mobile broadband for education and nonprofits, will offer a Technology Assistance Grant program beginning in January to provide non-profit organizations with affordable access to the Internet.
Available only in Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia, the grant includes reduced-price service from Mobile Citizen, with unlimited usage for only $10/month or $120/year per account. It bundles Mobile Citizen’s wireless broadband, powered by WiMAX, a fourth generation (4G) technology from Clearwire Corporation with a variety of benefits available only to grantees, including:
-- 12 months of service from Mobile Citizen extended to 15 months at no additional charge. With this, nonprofits receive three free months of service per account.
-- Dedicated Mobile Citizen Customer Care customized for non-profit organizations.
-- A free one-year membership to NTEN, a nonprofit technology network, ongoing information and news as well as access to a support community.
-- A choice of additional benefits including an educational webinar series.
For more information, email Free Trial.
www.mobilecitizen.org/grantphiladelphia
----- Coalition members! Activate ‘Your’ web link on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
A HAND UP!
"None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps. We got here because somebody bent down and helped us." - Thurgood Marshall
America’s Original Savings Network
As amazing as it may sound many people do not realize how easy it is
to LEGALLY stop paying for their groceries! This is how the one hour
television show began for the company whose website is at:
A: All of our coupons are actual manufacturer coupons. Fewer and fewer retailers accept coupons that are printed from your computer because of a huge increase in counterfeit coupons. Actual manufacturer coupons which we issue are accepted everywhere that coupons are accepted.
Q: Can these coupons be doubled?
A: Yes. These are
manufacturer issued coupons and may be doubled in any store that
offers double coupons.
Q: What are the face values and the expiration dates
of these coupons?
A: Being manufacturer coupons, the
manufacturer determines the face values of the coupons. We
currently stock coupons ranging in value from 40 cents to 5.00
dollars. The coupon expiration dates are generally valid for 90
days.
Q: How can I use $1,000.00 worth of coupons in 90
days?
A: With our program, you get to choose the coupons you
want, when you want them. This way you never have to worry about
the coupons expiring.
Q: How do I choose the coupons I want?
A: Each
coupon book contains coupon request slips which you fill out and
send in. Those coupons are then mailed to you.
-----
Coalition members!
Activate ‘Your’
web
link
on The Coalition, Inc. web site -----
Sister Phile Chionesu, organizer of the Million Woman March,
“Nu Day Resurrection and Liberation" Show LIVE each Saturday evening 10:30 PM--12:00 midnight EST.
"NU Day" is heard in Philly and, worldwide, through the internet at: www.blogtalkradio.com/empresschi Or you can tune in via podcast at 646-652-2232
Call in and give your thoughts, comments, opinions at 1-646-652-2232
Civil Alert Radio with Sabir Bey- Every Tuesday 9:30 p.m. EST (6:30 P.M. PST)
Format Style: Open forum along with special invited guests.
Listen via your cell: 858.357.8450 On the web: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/civilalert
Check out our Web site!
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Wake Up Call // "S.O.S."! // Choices // 21st Century Signs of the Times
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