When “i” is replaced with “we”, even illness becomes wellness.What do we call a man who turns on everything he once claimed to believe? For a practitioner of petty and self-serving duplicity, we use “sellout” or “backstabber.” (Sometimes we impugn the animal kingdom and call him a rat, a skunk, or a weasel.) For grand betrayals of weightier loyalties-country and faith-we invoke the more solemn terms of “traitor” or “apostate.”īut what should we call J. We have to become a community an inclusive, compassionate community that supports, empowers, and respects one another. Racism should not have a host, and affordable housing should not sound foreign to city planners. Your struggles are not far-removed from mine. We must move beyond the colorful rhetoric and transform whatever good intentions we have into action. The hearts and minds of our neighbors in our communities have to be touched. Yes, none of these aforementioned issues exist within a vacuum. My cries must join your cries to be amplified. Policies and red tape have to be revisited and re-evaluated and removed. This feeling also solidifies my determination somehow. This feeling still leaves me stewing in frustration while in my quiet loneliness. And as I listen to the most recent album from Pharoahe Monch, I can’t help but to think of how barriers remain endemic in mental health access and drug use treatment.
Staff members are lacking cultural competency and shelters are not safe spaces for transgender people. Furthermore, with a disproportionate number of homeless transgender folks, homeless shelters are ill equipped. The National Center for Transgender Equality’s discrimination survey reports unemployment twice as high as the general public. That’s a great move, yet this does not negate the discrimination faced by so many.
Kudos to the feds for banning discrimination of transgender and non-gender conforming persons. The same applies to our LGBTQ Family, especially Transgender folks.Frankly, if a woman is not guaranteed her human rights, we all suffer an injustice to our communities. Equal pay seems too difficult to guarantee but sexual assault appears omnipresent. Women’s sexual and reproductive rights are up for debate every campaign cycle or Supreme Court session. Women’s rights are not recognized as human rights.And who hangs in the balance? Hardworking, taxpaying Americans - the ones called “illegal aliens.” You mean to tell me racism, mass incarceration, and economic justice do not play roles here? Where’s immigration reform? With 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., there is still no sense of urgency to tackle comprehensive immigration reform from our trusted public servants in Congress.Worse yet, affordable housing is not flourishing, leaving thousands of people on a citywide waiting list for years before they can move into a place. Mayor’s Office proudly announces record-high population increases, close to 12,000 people are homeless. Remember Boyz In The Hood? Moreover, the social services for the poor see their budgets cut and go elsewhere. Potholes are resealed, condominiums are erected, property values skyrocket, and poor people are displaced. cities are experiencing an influx of college-educated, gainfully employed residents. Health is a right, not a privilege, yet these numbers tell a different story. This problem is not only about transmission but also about access to health resources and stigma. For one, African-Americans make up 44 percent of all new HIV infections. Look at health disparities from HIV/AIDS, breast and prostate cancer, to practically every disease in the U.S.Take a moment to think about the intended and unintended consequences of this inhumane justice system. Black men are more than six times as likely as white men to be in prison, according to the Pew Research Center. Some of the most recent names include Vonderrit Myers, Eric Garner and Mike Brown. These are not ancient examples, mind you. has moved beyond demonizing, brutalizing, and criminalizing African-Americans based upon their racial classification, let’s recall Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Marissa Alexander and Renisha McBride. Racism - whether overt or covert - is inherent in our everyday lives. Racism is dead, right? Well, let’s not be naïve.Statistics are staggering but the autobiographical narratives reveal the dire straits of our people. This feeling rears itself as I scroll my Facebook newsfeed and hear the narratives of our clients at HIPS. It sits between bereavement and astonishment.
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