Racism and Healthcare | Newsweek Entertainment

What's Race Got to Do With It?

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Director Ellie Lee looks at two urban neighborhoods—Richmond, Calif., and Seattle—for a segment called "Place Matters." The Richmond area bears the hallmark lack of access to fresh food and safe streets that defines urban blight. In the Seattle community, leaders and government are working to create an area that promotes the health of its inhabitants. The differences in the residents' futures is stark, says the film. "If you lived in Richmond, you'd be 30 percent more likely to live into old age than if you lived in Seattle. In Richmond, your child would be six times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than if you lived in Seattle."

The most damning indictment of the U.S. health-care system comes in the last two segments. "Collateral Damage" explores the effect on the lives and health of Marshall Islanders in the South Pacific since the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Testing Site was located there—dislocating thousands of people, destroying their traditional way of life and resulting in a rise in tuberculosis and other diseases encouraged by squalid living conditions. And "Not Just a Paycheck" compares the socio-economic and health repercussions of an Electrolux factory closing in Greenville, Mich., with those in a Swedish community that had endured a similar factory shutdown. Hospital visits in Greenville tripled due to depression, alcoholism and heart disease. In Sweden, there was barely an increase in head colds: citizens there are protected by their country's generous social-welfare programs.

Some of the stories in "Unnatural Causes" are not entirely surprising (especially after Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko"), but they powerfully reinforce the fact that where you live can predict not just how well you live but also how long. According to the producers, more than 120 organizations from The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' Health Policy Institute to the Chi Eta Phi nursing sorority have begun to use this film as a teaching curriculum. Once you check out the series, you'll see why.

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Thank you for your feedback. I can see your point. I admit I live a very comfortable life now. But when I was a child in Asia, we did not have running water in our house. We had a public platform with 6 faucets and 60 families share them. We had to stand in line to wash our vegetables. Often we went to the creek to wash vegetables, and people were dumping trash upstream.

Having multiple low paying jobs is not a solution. To get ahead, it requires smart planning, e.g., delay child birth, have fewer kids, get education, learn marketable skills, take care of one's health. My mother only went to school for a week. She could barely write her name. With 6 children, she also made hairnets at home to supplement income. She had no stove and had to make fire everyday. yet she cooked fresh vegetables for us everyday,

I do not know how many Americans living in the conditions you described. I have seen public housing. They have running water, refrigerator, flush toilet, hot shower. Much better than the rich people's houses in the place I came from. If you are referring to the living condition of poor foreigners who came her to seek a better life, I am sorry. They will have to endure the hardship for a while. When I came to the US I lived in a poor house where only the poor foreign students lived. Yet I did not ask the US government to help me, because I had chosen to come here myself.

Small kitchen space is no excuse for a poor diet. To save money, once I lived in a 250 sq ft apartment next to a university. The counter top next to the kitchen sink was only the size of a notebook. yet I cooked my healthy meal everyday.

I agree that people without a car can't go to stores. (I did not have a car for many years.) I also agree that inner cities have crummy supermarket. But most Americans do not buy fresh produce anyway. I have been watching people's shopping cart at the check out line for 30 years. I often see people paying over $100, yet their carts are only cans, bottles, and packages. The only vegetables they would buy is a bag of garden salad and two tomatoes. Even when broccoli is on sale for $1 a bunch , few would buy it. The produce prices are so high because low sale volume causes spoilage. In a poor military town nearby, fresh produce is much cheaper due to a large Asian population who like vegetables.

Americans do not like healthy food. School cafeterias have to serve pizzas instead of broccoli because students do not eat the latter and it just gets wasted. It is true that most poor people are unhealthy. But obesity, diabetis, heart problems, cancers, etc. are NOT limited to poor people.

To sum up, I came from EXTREME poverty, but I rose above my station, because I am from a culture which emphasizes self-empowerment. Had I been born to a poor family in the US, I am very sure that I'd be poor, obese and sick today.

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Posted By: SPORTLOCK09 @ 05/12/2008 5:42:25 PM

I pay $690 a month for healthcare for my son and myself. I want free healthcare, housing, education too. Is it a race thing why I can't get these things for free also? So much for having ambition, the people across the street from me are living better then I am and have more kids, section 8 housing paying the rent and free medical. Not to mention nobody has a job there either. Do I feel sorry for them? Hell no, I'm jealous of them. The situation makes me bitter, and the crime makes me cling to my guns. Sh it Obama was right! Just not right on the reason's white men are bitter at the government.
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Posted By: whaleback1 @ 04/23/2008 12:38:38 PM

Sorry for the repeated posting. I received an error message after each submission, saying something like "Your comments cannot be accepted at this point. Please wait for a while and resubmit again"
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Posted By: whaleback1 @ 04/23/2008 4:46:48 AM

Thank you for your feedback. I can see your point. I admit I live a very comfortable life now. But when I was a child in Asia, we did not have running water in our house. We had a public platform with 6 faucets and 60 families share them. We had to stand in line to wash our vegetables. Often we went to the creek to wash vegetables, and people were dumping trash upstream.

Having multiple low paying jobs is not a solution. To get ahead, it requires smart planning, e.g., delay child birth, have fewer kids, get education, learn marketable skills, take care of one's health. My mother only went to school for a week. She could barely write her name. With 6 children, she also made hairnets at home to supplement income. She had no stove and had to make fire everyday. yet she cooked fresh vegetables for us everyday,

I do not know how many Americans living in the conditions you described. I have seen public housing. They have running water, refrigerator, flush toilet, hot shower. Much better than the rich people's houses in the place I came from. If you are referring to the living condition of poor foreigners who came her to seek a better life, I am sorry. They will have to endure the hardship for a while. When I came to the US I lived in a poor house where only the poor foreign students lived. Yet I did not ask the US government to help me, because I had chosen to come here myself.

Small kitchen space is no excuse for a poor diet. To save money, once I lived in a 250 sq ft apartment next to a university. The counter top next to the kitchen sink was only the size of a notebook. yet I cooked my healthy meal everyday.

I agree that people without a car can't go to stores. (I did not have a car for many years.) I also agree that inner cities have crummy supermarket. But most Americans do not buy fresh produce anyway. I have been watching people's shopping cart at the check out line for 30 years. I often see people paying over $100, yet their carts are only cans, bottles, and packages. The only vegetables they would buy is a bag of garden salad and two tomatoes. Even when broccoli is on sale for $1 a bunch , few would buy it. The produce prices are so high because low sale volume causes spoilage. In a poor military town nearby, fresh produce is much cheaper due to a large Asian population who like vegetables.

Americans do not like healthy food. School cafeterias have to serve pizzas instead of broccoli because students do not eat the latter and it just gets wasted. It is true that most poor people are unhealthy. But obesity, diabetis, heart problems, cancers, etc. are NOT limited to poor people.

To sum up, I came from EXTREME poverty, but I rose above my station, because I am from a culture which emphasizes self-empowerment. Had I been born to a poor family in the US, I am very sure that I'd be poor, obese and sick today.