Re: Staggering Death rate for black pregnant women

[Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol@xxxxxxx>]

At 02:27 PM 8/27/99 -0400, kelley wrote:
>well wojtek, how 'bout thinking of it in terms of institutional and
>structural racism?  i mean, you just wrote eloquently about whole/part and
>cultural determinism and radical analysis, so i think you could understand
>that, while no one necessarily sets about to discriminate or harm
>individuals necessarily [tho that happens], institutional racism means that
>entire sections of urban inner cities have no hospitals, few physicians and
>when they do they have poor quality and understaffed public hospitals, and
>ambulances sometimes won't venture into neighborhoods.  etc.   have you
>ever had to use public health care and insurance?  i'm eligible and have
>been but i won't use it; not after the horrors my sister went through.  you
>get shoved around, mistreated, snarled at, are made to wait incredibly long
>hrs, and have absolutely no power to demand better treatment even when
>you're smart enough to know what should be done.

kelley, i also had the dubious pleasure of using public health care system
in this country, after all doctors (including the Rutgers clinic where i
was eligible) I called refused to see a very sick child because he did not
have health insurance.  although my reaction to the long waiting hours was
my long diatribe against american capitalism directed to other patients -
they were white, blacj and hispanic but largely unimpressed by my diatribe.

you see, i'm white or rather caucasian (i'm not 'white' in the american
meaning of the term) and i could not get health insurance for a child
because i did not have enough money.

Moreover, I had a very similar experience in austria - a country of which
i've never been a citizen - and obtained treatement without any problems
and without charges. that is, btw, one of the reasons why i genuinely hate
the us and suck up to the europeans (another is the fucking us religiosity).

so where does the race enter here?  all i see is class bias - the fact that
the american ruling class and liberals want to sweep under the rug.
'racism' seems a more plausible explanation for them because it is more of
an individual attitude than a systemic factor.  the so-called black leaders
and reverends like it because they can win popularity among poor blacks
without being too radical and upsetting the ruling class. imho, it is a
conveneient distraction from radical politics.





>
>wojtek, do you teach?  have your students trek to a neighborhood you'd
>consider poor then have them count the number of adverts for cigs and
>booze.  have them look at the billboards.  the corner markets.  everything.
> then have them go to a suburban neighborhood and check it out or even to a
>wealthier city neighborhood and check it out.  also have them count the
>number of liquor stores and look at how much shelf space is devoted to what
>kinds of products.  yeah yeah demand and all that but the ads....  now if
>some yuppie can be easily persuaded that s/he absolutely NEEDS that jeep
>grand cherokee then i suspect same holds for everyone else.
>

kelley, i live in an empowerment zone in downtown baltimore and in addition
to having a sinceure at jhu i also teach at a 'black' college (morgan
state) - again what divides my students is not race (most of them are
black) but class (those coming from middle class do considerbaly better
than the other).

i've also seen'em all - billboards, corner markets, liquor stores etc -
they are all over poor sections of the city, some of them 'black' other -
'white'.  i also ocassionally go to the burbs (to buy stuff, mostly) i do
not stay there long because i get depressed quickly - but long enough to
see that burbs are populated by white, black, asian etc, folks who drive
suvs and are scared as shit each time they drive them past city limits.

so again all i see is class.

ah there is also 'racism' cried loud by corrupted balitmore politicians
(who happen to be mostly black) especially when they face prosecution for
corruption or elections which make them suddenly rember about their urban
(mostly black) constituents -- while most of the other times they are busy
transfering public money to corporate elites (school vouchers, stadiums,
luxury hotels).

wojtek

ps. if i described to you a section of a town in my native poland occupied
mostly by underclass, and the behavioral patterns of the inhabitants
without mentioning their skin color (all-white) - i'm pretty sure you would
think i am talking about mostly-minority (black or hispanic) ghetto in the us.