Citizen Cartwright

AP: Racial health disparities harming African Americans

"From birth to death, Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared to their white counterparts. They have higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, higher incidence of asthma during childhood, more difficulty treating mental illness as teens, and higher rates of high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease and other illness as adults,” says The Associated Press, which spent a year examining the issue.

 

Key takeaways:

 

— African American women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States, almost three times the rate for white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And African American babies are more likely to die, and far more likely to be born prematurely, setting the stage for health issues that can follow them throughout their lives.

 

Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, according to the CDC and advocacy groups, such as underlying health conditions. But more doctors and experts point to the role of structural racism that's created inequitable access to health care, implicit bias and discriminatory care.

 

— More than 12 percent of African American children nationwide have asthma, compared with 5 percent of white children.

 

With asthma, especially for children, where you live makes all the difference, says AP. And where you live often depends on your race. 

 

Across America, nearly 4 in 10 African American children live in areas with poor environmental and health conditions compared to 1 in 10 white children, AP says.

 

– The United States has a shortage of mental health providers who understand the roles that racial identity and racism play in shaping young African Americans' mental health. Between 1991 and 2019, African American adolescents had the highest increase of any group in suicide attempts, at nearly 80 percent.

 

— About 56 percent of African American adults have high blood pressure, compared to 48 percent of white adults. 

 

Only 32 percent of white adults with high blood pressure have their condition under control with medication, but the level for African Americans is even lower, at 25 percent.

 

Among white people, the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease is projected to decrease over time, says AP. Yet significant increases are projected among people of color, especially African Americans and Latinos.

 

— About 14 percent of African Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s, compared with 10 percent of white Americans, according to the CDC. The trauma of experiencing racism is believed to be a contributing factor, AP says.

Good news from around the world on quality of life and more

Thanks again to the reader who alerted me to Future Crunch, an Australian purveyor of “intelligent optimism” that sends out a free electronic newsletter every two weeks.

 

Here is the July 25 issue, citing progress on poverty, health, equality, climate-friendly energy use, and environmental protection.

Honoring independent Russian paper Novaya Gazeta as it suspends publication

"The Russian newspaper that helped define fearless journalism in the post-Soviet era and whose editor shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year suspended publication on Monday, leaving Russia without any major media outlets critical of the Kremlin as it wages war in Ukraine,” reports The New York Times.

 

The suspension came a day after editor-in-chief and Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov spoke with Ukrainian President Zelensky in a group interview with Russian journalists that was quickly banned by state media watchdog Roskomnadzor, says The Guardian.

 

When I go to the Novaya Gazeta website, I’m seeing articles posted Monday but am unable to click through to them.

 

“We have received another warning from Roskomnadzor,” Novaya Gazeta’s editorial board said. “Following this, we will suspend the publication of the newspaper online and in print until the end of the ‘special operation on the territory of Ukraine.’”

 

Novaya Gazeta held out longer than any other independent media outlet based in Russia under President Putin’s crackdown on what remained of the country’s free press, says the Times.

 

Novaya Gazeta helped blaze the trail for Russian investigative journalism after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, donated part of his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to help the paper buy computers when it was founded in 1993.

 

Six of the paper’s journalists were murdered in its three-decade existence, including Anna Politkovskaya, the celebrated Novaya journalist who had covered Chechnya extensively and who was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building.

Civil rights icon Andrew Young, still optimistic after 90 years

The pastor and former aide to Martin Luther King who became a congressman, mayor of Atlanta, and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is being honored in the runup to his 90th birthday Saturday.

 

Over the years, he’s experienced some stuff.

 

Young was beaten while marching for civil rights in 1964 and was with Martin Luther King when King was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39.

 

Young went on to become the first African American from Georgia sent to Congress since Reconstruction when he was elected to the House in 1972.

 

I heard him give a speech when he was mayor of Atlanta in the 1980s. He said that, as an African American, he was afraid to drive through Atlanta when he was young. And now he was mayor.

 

“Everybody who’s Black has got to be optimistic,” he told The New York Times earlier this week. “People do give up. And people do despair. But there’s nothing about the culture that came out of slavery from Africa that let the people give up.”

 

On Wednesday, Young preached from the pulpit of First Congregational Church in Atlanta, wearing a blue and yellow necktie to honor the people of Ukraine.

He described white supremacy as a sickness, saying, “You don’t get mad with sick people. You try to help them.”

 

He said he wished the kingdom of God would find its way into the heart of Vladimir Putin, and he described the challenge of the moment as “loving those who are unlovable.”

Dalai Lama on restoring peace in Ukraine

"We need to develop a sense of the oneness of humanity by considering other human beings as brothers and sisters. This is how we will build a more peaceful world," the Dalai Lama says on his website.

 

"Problems and disagreements are best resolved through dialogue. Genuine peace comes about through mutual understanding and respect for each other’s wellbeing," he says.

Here are 99 good-news articles. Please send more.

Many thanks to the reader who sent me "99 good news stories you probably didn’t hear about in 2021,” from Future Crunch, a team of science communicators based in Australia. 

 

Another reader recently said they appreciate it when there are “uplifting” articles in this blog.

 

In this time of polarization and pandemic, I want to reach out for inspirational and aspirational news. 

 

I also want to reach out personally to people who think differently than I do. If you have recommendations of groups that are focusing on our common humanity, please let me know.

 

Here, encouragingly, is a 24-page list of groups (and some TED talks) focused on easing polarization in the United States, from the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. If you’ve had positive experiences with any of these organizations, again, please let me know.  

 

My own experience with political polarization began long ago, at home. I come from a large and aggressively opinionated extended family. When I was young, my “hang 'em all” uncles drove me crazy.

 

As I got older, I realized that my uncles were basically sweet guys who were angry and grieving because their town — which, when they were young, had been part of the equivalent of Silicon Valley — was now part of the Rust Belt. I started to focus on the love I felt for them and not on the content of their rants.

 

I wasn’t raised with unconditional love, but I think I’ve recently come to understand what it is. I love everybody — everybody, no exceptions — as a member of our human family. At the same time, some people’s behavior is harmful to the human family and has to be stopped.

 

Hey, reader, I love you! Have a good day!

U.S. elected to U.N. Human Rights Council that Trump quit

The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday elected the United States to the Geneva-based council that the Trump administration quit in 2018 over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform.

 

The Biden administration says American interests will be better served with the United States as a member of the 47-nation council, seeking change from within.

 

The United States' three-year term starts Jan. 1. China and Russia began terms on the council this year.

 

The council is considered the world’s most important human rights body, says The New York Times. While it has no criminal enforcement or sanctioning powers, the council can conduct investigations that help shape the global image of a country. It also can exert influence on a nation's behavior if it’s considered to have a poor human rights record.

 

But the council has a wide array of critics who say that many of its elected members are human rights abusers themselves and that their presence undercuts the legitimacy of the council's work, says the Times.

 

Many critics also object to a permanent item on the council’s agenda about rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, which has become the basis for its numerous resolutions condemning Israel.

 

“The Council provides a forum where we can have open discussions about ways we and our partners can improve,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after the election. 

 

“At the same time, it also suffers from serious flaws, including disproportionate attention on Israel and the membership of several states with egregious human rights records,” Blinken said. “Together, we must push back against attempts to subvert the ideals upon which the Human Rights Council was founded.”

 

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement: “The United States should not be lending its legitimacy to a body that includes perpetrators of human rights abuses like China, Venezuela, and Cuba. Additionally, the council continues to disproportionately spend the majority of its time and attention persecuting our ally, Israel.”

 

President Biden took office pledging that human rights would be at the center of his foreign policy.

And his administration hasn’t shied away from criticizing China over Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan and calling out Russia, says Reuters.

But Reuters says its review of the Biden administration's record so far shows that "concerns over human rights in other countries had several times been pushed aside in favor of national security priorities and engagement with foreign powers.”

 

Here is a list of the members of the council for 2021.

 

Besides the United States, the other new members elected on Thursday were Kazakhstan, Gambia, Benin, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Paraguay, Honduras, Luxembourg, Finland, Montenegro and Lithuania. Cameroon, Eritrea, Somalia, India and Argentina were re-elected. 

The rise in hate crimes against Asians

For most of the last year, Asian-Americans have sounded the alarm over the rising discrimination they've experienced and witnessed, fueled in part by racist language and false claims about the coronavirus by former President Trump and other public officials, says The New York Times. 

 

In 16 of America’s biggest cities, the number of reported anti-Asian hate crimes increased nearly 150 percent in 2020, according to an analysis from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino. The advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate released a report this week saying it had received more 3,800 reports of verbal harassment, civil rights violations, and physical assault from March 2020 to February 2021. 

 

Then came the fatal shootings of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in Georgia on Tuesday.

 

Many people in America are ignorant of the history of Asian-Americans, which isn't taught well enough in schools, says Erika Lee, a professor of history and Asian-American studies at the University of Minnesota.

 

There's also a stereotype that people of Asian descent are economically and educationally successful, which can lead to the incorrect assumption that the discrimination they face can’t be that bad, says the Times.

 

In fact, some of the Asian-Americans who've been subjected to the most vicious violence have been people living on the socioeconomic margins. They tend to be invisible to much of society, which only furthers a widespread dismissal of anti-Asian violence, says Chris Lee, a founder of Plan A Magazine, an online journal focused on Asian-American culture and politics.

 

The marginalization of Asian-Americans has a long history.

Chinese immigrants who built the railways and mined gold in the 19th century were shunted into Chinatowns in San Francisco and other cities, redlined by financial institutions and often left to fend for themselves, says the Times.

 

Further immigration from China was restricted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first immigration law to target working-class immigrants from a specific country. It was followed in 1917 by the most restrictive immigration law in the country's history, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, nearly eliminating all arrivals from the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

For decades, Japanese residents in the United States were kept out of white neighborhoods through covenants written into real estate deeds; tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.

 

Asian ethnic groups, though distinct from one another, have at times been lumped together under the umbrella of an Asian-American identity. But the anti-Asian violence that's come during the pandemic seems to have solidified a greater sense of solidarity among a group that's diverse in income, religion and culture, says Will Lex Ham, an actor who's helped lead a campaign of awareness of violence against Asians.

“As long as we share the same physical features, we are being treated the same in this country,” Ham says.

 

On Friday, President Biden and Vice President Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold national office, are to visit Atlanta, "consoling a community whose growing voting power helped secure their victory in Georgia and beyond,” says The Associated Press.

 

On Thursday, witnesses at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing called for a shift in public rhetoric surrounding the coronavirus and foreign policy, as well as the passage of hate crime legislation to address rising discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.

 

“The conversation we are having today is long overdue, and it is vital that Congress shine a light on this issue,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said. “The last congressional hearing held on violence against Asian Americans was in 1987, in this subcommittee.”

 

Here is a brief list of national and community-focused organizations you can contribute to, from Vox.

Global freedom declines for 15th year, report says

Nations doing worse outnumber those doing better by the biggest margin since the negative trend started in 2006, according to the annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties released Wednesday by Freedom House, a Washington-based pro-democracy think tank and watchdog.

 

The report downgrades the freedom scores of 73 countries, representing 75 percent of the global population.

 

And “those affected include not just authoritarian states like China, Belarus, and Venezuela, but also troubled democracies like the United States and India,” Freedom House says.

 

India drops this year from the category of “free" to “partly free,” meaning less than 20 percent of the world’s people now live in a free country — the smallest proportion since 1995, the report says. 

 

The political rights and civil liberties in the world’s largest democracy have been eroding since Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014, Freedom House says. His Hindu nationalist government has presided over increased pressure on human rights groups, rising intimidation of academics and journalists, and bigoted attacks — including lynchings — on Muslims. The decline deepened after Modi’s reelection in 2019, and the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic featured further abuses of fundamental rights.

 

"While still considered free, the United States experienced further democratic decline during the final year of the Trump presidency,” says Freedom House. "The U.S. score in Freedom in the World has dropped by 11 points [in the 100-point scale] over the past decade, and fell by three points in 2020 alone. The changes have moved the country out of a cohort that included other leading democracies, such as France and Germany, and brought it into the company of states with weaker democratic institutions, such as Romania and Panama.”

 

While still considered free. 

 

Well, we can’t say we don’t know what we’re up against. Let’s hold hands and do what we can.

 

Here is the report.

Why you and I should care about worker abuses on palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia

Palm oil is in half the products in grocery stores and most cosmetic brands (though it can be hard to tell, since it’s on labels under more than 200 names), says The Associated Press. 

 

It’s also in paints, plywood, pesticides and pills. And in animal feed, biofuels and hand sanitizer.

 

Most palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where plantations are the size of Kansas.

 

Conditions for workers can be horrific, including slavery, child labor and sexual abuse, says an AP investigation.

 

AP is running an article this morning on abuses of female workers in the palm fields. An article on labor abuses in general ran in September and is linked to above.

 

If you’re short on time, this video with AP investigative reporter Margie Mason provides the key information.

 

As you know, I want to let you know what’s happening and leave it to you to decide what you want to do. I took a quick look online, and there are organizations working to prevent the exploitation of palm oil workers, in addition to the groups that address the environmental impacts of palm oil plantations.