Where In The Hell Are Black Folks On The Issue Of Health Care And Health Insurance?
Where are the black folks in health care debate? All that crazyiness and drama at the town hall meetings on health care and RARELY is a black face seen. In fact, the only black folk I have seen is Ken "I'm Protesting Against Health Insurance, But I Don't Have Any Myself" Gladney and some strange sista wearing a fanny pack sitting next to some white dude shouting at a Democratic Senator that he was lying about health care reform. What's up with that?
Of all the Americans in nation, we need to be shouting the loudest about health care and health insurance. You don't have to believe me, just read here, here, here, here, and here. Voting for Obama is not enough, you have to do something!
3 comments:
Awomen.
Professor Tracey,
I hear you and like many black bloggers I think a lot of us at some point or another ask, "Where are all the black folks on X issue?"
Some of us have become so apathetic we don't participate. We know this. But what I have learned volunteering at a non-profit is those who need the most are so caught up in their day to day struggles that they don't see beyond their immediate needs.
And then there are those of us who are committed to a variety of causes, already stretched thin fighting on some other front that you don't hear us on others.
While we might not be visible, it doesn't mean we're not engaged.
The truth about the healthcare debate is that race is a factor.
Glen Beck (yes! I know he is batshit crazy-but he is the voice of white paranoid America) said that Obama's plan was part of his reparations conspiracy. That comment is just nutty,but people actually belive that nonsense.
There is no way I'd show up at a townhall meeting where angry, paranoid, gun loving white people gather.
I am in the fight for healthcare. I want a one payor system. So, I am doing my work behind the scenes. I contact my elected representatives. I talk to people. I educate myself.
I don't need to be in crowd or on camera acting a damn fool to get my point across.
I have health insurance because I have a goverment job. I have Lupus but I am healthy-thanks to my lifestyle choices(exercise, vegan, don't smoke, healthy weight, avoiding unecessary stress by asking myself "is this situation/person/arguement worth losing my kidney function?") and regular check ups and labs.
I battle the insurance company more than the disease. If I lost my insurance, I'd be part of the uninsurable crowd the insurance industry practices have created.
The Republican party of "Just say no to anything Obama says or does" and naysayers are on the wrong side of history with this one.
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