Black Men Must Answer The Questions Of Life

 Black men whether we realize it or not Life ‘living’ imposes questions on us: Why am I here? Who am I? Where am I? How am I? What am I doing? Answering ‘Life Questions’ is called ‘Responsibility’.

Black Boys Don't Get A Pass in Racist America

“There’s a false assumption that Black boys are valued and get a pass when they are small but this is not true; they are targeted in a racist manner just like adult Black men. Studies show as early as preschool Black boys are disproportionately expelled. From K – 12 Black boys are disproportionately placed in special education, overly prescribed psychotropic medications, suspended more from school, have more negative encounters with the police including death, and are super ‘overly’ placed in the juvenile justice system.” - CNK

“Black boys raised in America, even in the wealthiest families and living in some of the most well-to-do neighborhoods, still earn less in adulthood than white boys with similar backgrounds, according to a sweeping new study that traced the lives of millions of children. White boys who grow up rich are likely to remain that way. Black boys raised at the top, however, are more likely to become poor than to stay wealthy in their own adult households. Most white boys raised in wealthy families will stay rich or upper middle class as adults, but black boys raised in similarly rich households will not. “One of the most popular liberal post-racial ideas is the idea that the fundamental problem is class and not race, and clearly this study explodes that idea. But for whatever reason, we’re unwilling to stare racism in the face" said Ibram Kendi, a professor and director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University - EMILY BADGER, CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, ADAM PEARCE and KEVIN QUEALY

Black Men Claim Your Own Lives Instead of Other Peoples Property

There was a Rap Tune "OPP" by the group Naughty by Nature, OPP stood for "Other Peoples' Property". Unfortunately too many young adult Black males in gangs and clicks are claiming other peoples property; claiming public housing projects, apartment complexes, and streets that they don't own; killing, dying, and going to prison for 'Other Peoples' Property. What's unfortunate too is that Black communities have not taught so many young adult Black males to positively claim their own lives.

Black Men Face Many More Health Hurdles An Expert Discusses Why

By Steve Petrow 

Social epidemiologist Roland Thorpe Jr. is on a double mission: to improve the health and extend the life expectancy of Black men, and to do the same for himself since both of his grandfathers died prematurely from heart disease.

An expert in minority aging and men’s health, Thorpe is the principal investigator of the Black Men’s Health Project - a partnership of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Michigan State University created to call attention to the health crisis of Black men.

“Black men are hidden in plain sight,” Thorpe says. “I mean, we have the worst health profile. We have premature mortality, which means we die before the overwhelming majority of men do. We’re often in the media either being attacked by the police, or enduring other experiences from structural racism. There’s very little support that’s been given. The evidence is all in front of us, but there seems to be no particular people calling it out or moving to drive toward solutions.”

“Black men are hidden in plain sight,” social epidemiologist Roland Thorpe Jr. says. “I mean, we have the worst health profile. We have premature mortality, which means we die before the overwhelming majority of men do.” (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

For instance, he says, when it comes to heart disease, Black men are 30 percent more likely to die than White men; for stroke, it’s 60 percent. And they are 75 percent less likely to have health insurance than White men. But numbers don’t tell the full story. Thorpe recently sat down with The Washington Post for an interview. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You’ve spoken openly and personally about the fact that both of your grandfathers died of heart disease in their 60s. What’s the message embedded there?

A: A majority of Black men don’t get preventive care. They should establish a [relationship with] a primary care physician. Neither of my grandfathers were engaged in the health-care system. At the time they were coming through, they were pretty familiar with the public health service syphilis study at Tuskegee, and so I could probably understand why they didn’t go to doctors. [That notorious study was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service starting in the 1930s and involved hundreds of Black men who were not informed about their disease and never offered any treatment, even after penicillin had become the drug of choice for syphilis in the early 1940s. After revelations about it, the study was canceled in 1972.]

Q: That study is infamous. Are things better now?

A: I think we’ve come a long way since then because there’s been some improvement within the health-care system in engaging Black men, like listening to them when they say they have concerns, and then engaging them in some shared decision-making about their health and health care. But we still have a ways to go.

Q: Are you referring to the still significant discrepancy between the average life expectancy for a Black man versus a White man?

A: Do I think we’ve gotten better and improved? I don’t think so. Prior to covid, we’ve extended life for Black men, absolutely. But on the flip side, [life expectancy for] everybody else is extended also. That means the gap hasn’t narrowed. Since covid, life expectancy for everyone has decreased with Black people experiencing a reduction twice as large as Whites.

Q: What other challenges do Black men face when it comes to their health?

A: A large part of that discrepancy is based on structural racism that Black men experience across all levels of socioeconomic status. Stress is one of the prominent pathways by which structural racism affects health. These accumulations of stress impact different physiologic systems that then lead to earlier onset of chronic conditions like hypertension and heart disease, which then contribute to our life expectancy being much shorter than White men.

Q: Police violence is also considered an aspect of structural racism. You’ve suggested previously that the police killings of Black men impact the health and well-being of other Black men.

A: Police brutality also contributes to the problem, and that’s linked to structural racism. I’m thinking about Rodney King and the most prominent one recently was George Floyd. There have been others, as well. Just to see another Black man die on TV, that’s very traumatic, and many [White] people don’t think of the trauma that Black men have endured, to have to even watch that. Black men have one of the most horrific health profiles, and we have few resources available to us to improve that, like dealing with that trauma.

Q: Do you mean witnessing these murders on TV increases Black men’s stress, leading to other health issues? Or that it increases Black people’s distrust of institutions in general, including medical institutions?

A: Both.

Q: How do you hope that the Black Men’s Health Project will help?

A: Our goal is to create awareness of Black men’s health, and the social and historical issues that Black men have faced that could possibly impact their health. One of the key things for us is to create a Black men’s health survey, to create a cohort to better understand their health trajectory. There is currently no study that focuses uniquely on the specific needs of Black men.

Q: When it comes to mental health issues, what disparities exist by race?

A: There are disparities by race, as it relates to mental health. But the disparity is a little trickier because Black men still fare worse because there’s [more of] a stigma associated with Black men saying they have mental problems. Typically, when Black men do go to the health-care system, and they try to express themselves, they feel like they’re not heard by their health-care providers.

Q: What can Black men, and those who love them, do now to try to improve their health?

A: If they don’t have a primary care physician, go establish one. That’s my number one thing, and then to understand what your basic numbers are. What is your blood pressure? What is your weight? What is your height? What is your hemoglobin A1C? What are your cholesterol levels? Understanding these numbers is very important. Then engage in preventive care practices. Get your PSA checked [a marker for prostate cancer]. When Black men do get diagnosed with prostate cancer, they are at more progressed stages than White men. That limits our treatment options. If we’d been in the preventive care system, some of this would’ve been picked up earlier, and we would have had an opportunity to have additional treatment options. As you might imagine, the chances of survival are higher. And know your family history. Is there a family history of diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer or hypertension? Knowing that information is very helpful and sharing it with your physician helps them, too.

Q: Let me get personal for a moment. How has your family history again, both of your grandfathers died of heart disease impacted how you take care of yourself?

A: My father also passed six years ago of uncontrolled hypertension that led to a stroke. I don’t want to be in that same situation. I have a primary care physician and I go to my appointments. I also have a dentist, podiatrist, audiologist, and optometrist. I share my family history with all of them. Those three men dying has really had an impression on me and me engaging in the health-care system. If my fingernail hurts a lot, I’ll go to the doctor.

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*Black men have the highest mortality rate from cardiovascular disease at 245 per 100,000. Moreover Black men have the highest cancer death rate at 227.3 per 100,000.

Black Men Stop The Mean Mugging Glare And Start Greeting

"Black men we must be mindful when approaching and dealing with each other that we've been socialized to 'distrust' each other and we must 'self-check' this tendency." - CNK

“We Black men have a hard enough time in our own struggle for justice, and already have enough enemies as it is, to make the drastic mistake of attacking each other and adding more weight to an already unbearable load.” - Malcolm X