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|g% ZEBRA COMMENTARY
The Black Man Dies Young
It was Sunday morning. Daylight was
creeping through the curtains. I was
crawling from a deep, deep, sleep, back
into reality. Low music on the radio had
sent me to sleep the night before. But this
morning, there were voices in the room,
two women talking. It was one of those
Sunday morning talk shows. I don’t
know who the interviewer was, but the
guest was nutritionist Barbara Dixon.
She was discussing her book, “Good
Health for African Americans.” It took
me a few seconds to come to life. She
was throwing out statistics like fire
crackers. I missed most of them, but one
stuck in my mind. African American
men live 11 years less than the general
population.
I have seen black men die around me
all my life. It is nothing new, from heart
attacks, strokes, brain damage, cancer,
diabetes, gun shots, suicides, which gives
me the blues.
But, it was something about that mor
ning, one of those rare spiritual previews
that life offers more, that longevity is at
tainable for millions of African
Americans. I leaped out of the bed and
rigged up the tape recorder just as Bar
bara Dixon was saying that there was a
33 percent decrease in heart disease
among the general population. She said
that there was also a 50 percent decrease
in general population in strokes.
However, for African Americans, the
numbers have remained the same, no
decrease.
I think that the awareness for me was
that this woman was talking about a
political and social problem rather than
a health problem. Black people are dy
ing because of neglect, neglect by the
system, by the establishment. African
Americans have been taking care of
themselves the way that they were taught
throughout American history. We are
doing what our parents and grandparents
did. We eat what we were fed as children;
we cook what we saw our parents cook.
We die young, just like our older
relatives.
As a young boy, I had a step-
grandfather who was one of the best
dressers in the entire neighborhood. He
was clean immaculate. His shoes shined
so much that you could see your face in
them. However, as I look back, it was
only the outside that shoned. I
remembered that sunny Sunday morning
as he sat in his old rocking chair, rock
ing on the front porch, as my grand
mother prepared for church. I watched
as his body started shaking, hands flew
into the air, his color started changing,
within seconds, my hero was dead. He
was a heavy drinker, and loved fried and
spicy foods. The outside was clean, but
the inside destroyed him.
Barbara Dixon stated that much of
our health problems can be solved by
very simple steps: 1) Early Checkups; 2)
Exercise, and a 3) Proper Diet. Sounds
simple, but sometimes it takes changing
life-long habits.
Dixon said that African Americans
were not consulted in the doctors’ offices
the same as whites, and that women were
also consulted differently. She also stated
that the rich were consulted in a different
way than the poor.
African Americans are faced with so
many issues concerning our survival that
it is hard to imagine how we’ve been able
to get this far. I purchased a few apples
the other day and as I bit into them, the
core was rotten. Yet, I have a few white
friends who live in suburbia who tell me
that they buy their fruit and vegetables
(organic) fresh off farms on Wednesdays
and Saturdays in a small park near their
home. How convenient.
I remember when 1 was young and
food was a political issue within our
struggle. I was working, at the time, with
Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. We
learned that the supermarkets in the
white neighborhoods were taking old
food from their shelves and dumping it
in the ghetto markets. Breadbasket
members would walk into the markets
and throw the bad fruit and vegetables
into the aisles. The fact is, we were dy
ing because of what and how we are. We
must change. We must look at food, diet
and our bodies as political weapons of
survival.
By Joe Williams III
World’s Largest Transmission Specialists!
/ 31
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ZEBRA VOL. 2 ISSUE 8