By Zenitha Prince

Photo/bpi.bard.edu

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

Oct. 11, 2015

To Be Equal 
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Raising Awareness and Saving Lives
By Marc H. Morial 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Too often, precious lives are interrupted or cut short by cancer. Breast cancer, one of the most common cancers among American women, affects roughly 230,000 women as well as 2,300 men each year and is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths annually in the United States. Breast cancer does not discriminate -- it strikes people of all races, ages, and income levels -- and we must raise awareness of this disease and its symptoms so we can more easily identify it and more effectively treat it.” – President Barack Obama, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Proclamation, October 2015.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. It strikes blindly, touching women of all racial and ethnic groups. But while race is not a risk factor for breast cancer, Black and Hispanic women—who are less likely to get breast cancer than white women—are dying from the devastating disease at higher rates. To save thousands more lives, we must continue to make strides and improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, while comprehensively addressing the stunning health disparities that consign so many women of color to preventable deaths.

The wide disparity in deaths and survival rates (Black women have a five-year survival rate of 77 percent in comparison to 90 percent for white women) can be attributed to a variety of factors—ranging from biology to access to quality health care. According to the Black Women’s Health Imperative, breast cancer tends to appear in Black women at a younger age and in more advanced forms. Women of color are more likely to be diagnosed with more aggressive cancers and later stage breast cancers. Because, historically, Black women have been less likely to get regular mammograms, their cancers are more likely to be advanced when they are finally diagnosed. This is why screening, and screening early, matters. While screening can neither eliminate nor undo the design of biology, the earlier you can detect and begin to treat breast cancer, the lower your risk of dying.

Women of color—particularly Black women who are 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women—need access to quality preventative measures like mammograms to reduce their risk. State and private programs that provide low to no-cost mammograms for women have helped closed the gap between the health insurance haves and have-nots. Through the Affordable Care Act, obstacles to regular screenings have practically been eliminated for all women. Under the ACA, most health insurers are required to cover recommended preventative services—including mammograms—at no out-of-pocket cost.

Despite the increase in access to screening, women of color also tend to get follow-up care later than white women. Black women often experience follow-up times of over 60 days after a receiving an abnormal mammogram result. When time is of the essence, waiting for follow-up care may lead to the cancer becoming more aggressive and it may increase its spread in the body.

Low-income and uninsured women in the 21 states that refused to expand  Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are less likely to have breast and cervical cancer screenings than other women.   Expanding Medicare in those states could mean the difference between finding early stage cancer when it’s more easily treatable and finding it after it becomes life threatening.

Treatment is another area where disparities are potentially costing us lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 69 percent of Black women start treatment within 30 days of receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer, compared to the 83 percent of white women who begin within 30 days. Black women are also less likely to receive (or are resistant to receiving), certain surgeries, radiation and hormone therapies. Whiles strides are being made in care continuum, women of color must be educated about their options and have access—from care to treatment—to improve their outcomes.

Think about this: nearly 1,800 fewer Black women would die of breast cancer if death rates were the same as white women, according to the CDC. That’s 1,800 more birthdays, weddings and graduations we could all be celebrating today. We know what to do, but knowing is only half the battle. Sign up for a mammogram today or encourage all the women you know and love to make that potentially life-saving appointment.

Oct. 11, 2015

To Be Equal 
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Raising Awareness and Saving Lives
By Marc H. Morial 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Too often, precious lives are interrupted or cut short by cancer. Breast cancer, one of the most common cancers among American women, affects roughly 230,000 women as well as 2,300 men each year and is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths annually in the United States. Breast cancer does not discriminate -- it strikes people of all races, ages, and income levels -- and we must raise awareness of this disease and its symptoms so we can more easily identify it and more effectively treat it.” – President Barack Obama, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Proclamation, October 2015.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. It strikes blindly, touching women of all racial and ethnic groups. But while race is not a risk factor for breast cancer, Black and Hispanic women—who are less likely to get breast cancer than white women—are dying from the devastating disease at higher rates. To save thousands more lives, we must continue to make strides and improvements in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, while comprehensively addressing the stunning health disparities that consign so many women of color to preventable deaths.

The wide disparity in deaths and survival rates (Black women have a five-year survival rate of 77 percent in comparison to 90 percent for white women) can be attributed to a variety of factors—ranging from biology to access to quality health care. According to the Black Women’s Health Imperative, breast cancer tends to appear in Black women at a younger age and in more advanced forms. Women of color are more likely to be diagnosed with more aggressive cancers and later stage breast cancers. Because, historically, Black women have been less likely to get regular mammograms, their cancers are more likely to be advanced when they are finally diagnosed. This is why screening, and screening early, matters. While screening can neither eliminate nor undo the design of biology, the earlier you can detect and begin to treat breast cancer, the lower your risk of dying.

Women of color—particularly Black women who are 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women—need access to quality preventative measures like mammograms to reduce their risk. State and private programs that provide low to no-cost mammograms for women have helped closed the gap between the health insurance haves and have-nots. Through the Affordable Care Act, obstacles to regular screenings have practically been eliminated for all women. Under the ACA, most health insurers are required to cover recommended preventative services—including mammograms—at no out-of-pocket cost.

Despite the increase in access to screening, women of color also tend to get follow-up care later than white women. Black women often experience follow-up times of over 60 days after a receiving an abnormal mammogram result. When time is of the essence, waiting for follow-up care may lead to the cancer becoming more aggressive and it may increase its spread in the body.

Low-income and uninsured women in the 21 states that refused to expand  Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are less likely to have breast and cervical cancer screenings than other women.   Expanding Medicare in those states could mean the difference between finding early stage cancer when it’s more easily treatable and finding it after it becomes life threatening.

Treatment is another area where disparities are potentially costing us lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 69 percent of Black women start treatment within 30 days of receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer, compared to the 83 percent of white women who begin within 30 days. Black women are also less likely to receive (or are resistant to receiving), certain surgeries, radiation and hormone therapies. Whiles strides are being made in care continuum, women of color must be educated about their options and have access—from care to treatment—to improve their outcomes.

Think about this: nearly 1,800 fewer Black women would die of breast cancer if death rates were the same as white women, according to the CDC. That’s 1,800 more birthdays, weddings and graduations we could all be celebrating today. We know what to do, but knowing is only half the battle. Sign up for a mammogram today or encourage all the women you know and love to make that potentially life-saving appointment.

Oct. 11, 2015

Speaking With a Forked Tongue
By Dr. E. Faye Williams 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) — If you were born between 1930 and 1960, you may remember that the Western Genre, or as it was more commonly called, the "Cowboy  Movie," was a favored theatrical production of the times.  The genre even overlapped into performance radio and television. In fact, the television series "Gunsmoke" stands as the longest-running (20 years) prime time live-action drama in US history.

Even when I was young, I could see the parallels between how Native and Black people were treated in those movies.  As much as with seemingly unnecessary demonstration of heavy-handed brutality, I learned the subtleties of dealing with whites by the use of some very telling movie expressions.  One that sticks in mind is the constant complaint from the Native Chief, "White man speak with forked tongue!"  It was true then and Lord knows it's true now!

Lest I create conflict and misunderstanding with my last statement, let me elaborate.  If circumstance can or could be manipulated to bring advantage to him, the white man would lie, cheat or steal.  Moreover, he would abandon his most cherished principles to realize that advantage.  A generalized and sweeping condemnation for sure, but justified in so many circumstances. I’m not talking about the white men who don’t do that—and you will know who you are better than I.  I have bothered to say that because I know how I feel when so many white people put all Black people in the same bag when speaking of negative things a single Black person may have done or been accused of doing.

Even though the history of the United States is full of examples of broken promises and treaties that can be examined, one doesn't have to go too far in the past to uncover duplicitous actions and intent on the part of an alarming number of white men.  Even white women will tell you that their own fathers, brothers, spouses kept the vote from them until 1920, and that many in Congress today are still trying to control every aspect of their lives.

From the mouths of the founders came a pledge of a country that holds the right to vote as sacrosanct.  Its superlatives include precious, private, inviolable, uninfringeable, unbreakable, and unchallenged.  Yet today in Alabama's so-called "Black Belt" access to the primary means of self-identification for the purpose of voting has been stripped from over 10 of the Blackest counties in the state.  These counties average Black populations of 75 percent and predictably vote for Democratic candidates.  Offices issuing drivers licenses have been closed to those populations and, by extension, limiting access to the ballot box.  Although proponents of this action claim no designed racist intent, the disparate impact is obvious as a (racist) action to dilute the Black vote.

While I usually don't focus on or make fun of personal impediments, I am truly amused by Republican Congressman and once heir-apparent to Speaker Boehner, Kevin McCarthy.  He appears incapable of functional speaking at any level.  It seems as though he was, at least temporarily, smitten with the curse of telling the truth.  He readily admitted that the select Congressional Committee on Benghazi was established to bring political ruination upon the democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, instead of discovering the truth of related circumstance.

Unfortunately, McCarthy backed away from the truth that he told and tried to put the genie back in the bottle with as implausible story I’ve ever heard.  Too late! The retreat didn’t help him, and he backed out of the race. From my perspective, truth is a commodity that is generally absent in the constructs of the Republican Party Establishment who are, by the way, predominantly male and predominantly white.  So much for sayings gleaned from old cowboy movies.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is National President of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  www.nationalcongressbw.org.  202/678-6788)