Monday, September 22, 2003
We need to program our kids to succeed, the Africana studies director said.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The fate of black people in the Unites States is tied to the fate of black people everywhere, especially those in Africa, an educator says.
"Two Continents, One People," a conference Saturday at Youngstown State University, was a straightforward response to the urgent need for Africans and black Americans to understand they share a common heritage, said Dr. Victor Wan-Tatah, director of Africana Studies at YSU. The need is great, he said, for black people everywhere to identify with each other and discuss what can be done together to solve problems they share.
The daylong event, the first annual conference for African and black American dialogue, featured YSU professors, health-care professionals, ministers, educators from Warren and Youngstown schools, and others. Topics ranged from economics, education and community development to health care, social issues and religion.
Distorted images
Wan-Tatah said that too often, the media presents distorted images of Africa, such as labeling it "the dark continent" and focuses on poverty, famine and AIDS. "That's not the entire story," he said.
Blacks in the United States have an opportunity to help Africans through education and health care. Young people exposed to positive role models can succeed, he said.
"Poverty shouldn't be an excuse," Wan-Tatah said. "We need to program our kids to succeed."
Using a variety of medical studies, Dr. Joan Boyd, YSU department of health professions professor, and Dr. Nathaniel S. Doe, of the Kidney Group in Youngstown, discussed health-care issues that affect Africans and black Americans.
Doe said health problems for black Americans mirror those for Africans, with Africans' problems "multiplied to the 10th power."
HIV infections
Blacks in the United States account for 50 percent of new HIV infections reported -- "an alarming number," Doe said. Of the 42 million people with HIV worldwide, 30 million live in Africa, he said.
Doe called HIV-AIDS a major health crisis, with 10,000 contracting the virus each day in sub-Saharan Africa. A global movement is needed to improve health care worldwide, Doe said.
In July, The Institute of Medicine reported that minorities in America are discriminated against regardless of income and education, Boyd said. The disparity can be traced to several reasons, among them limited access to health-care facilities, lack of insurance and mistrust -- "medical apathy."
Boyd said she has found in her own experience that pharmaceutical companies, for example, have not aggressively marketed new drugs for osteoporosis to blacks, assuming that it is not a black condition. Osteoporosis, she said, is not a disease related to gender or race. It's related to age.
Statistics
Boyd, quoting statistics for the Mahoning Valley, said:
U70,000 people are without health insurance.
U30,000 suffer major depression.
U21,000 have work disabilities.
U32,000 have recent drug abuse problems.
U22 percent of the children live in poverty.
UThe Valley has the highest percentage of senior citizens in the state, putting a strain on the local health-care system.