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Blog #1: Together-ness

                                                          

While viewing and reading the assigned documentaries and articles for the week, I took notes and wrote down quotes that resonated with me.  When I reviewed my notes, the quotes that I had written down seemed ironically connected.  

The three quotes were: 

  • " We carry history in our bodies." 
    • Episode #1-Sickness and in Wealth:Unnatural Causes
  • "Every person's health is intertwined with the health of everyone else." 
    • Thinking about Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Impacts through a Science-Informed Early Childhood Lens- Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. & David R. Williams, Ph.D.
  • "We are in this together." 
    • When Blackness is a Pre-Existing Condition- Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

The documentary, In Sickness and in Wealth, suggests that human beings today are affected by the quality of life their ancestors had, "We carry history in our bodies." If ones ancestors, for example, grew up in a poor community with poor air quality (i.e. local factory builds, mills, etc,) and had minimal access to health care, they were more susceptible to chronic illnesses like asthma, allergies, and compromised respiratory functions. Thus, segregation in housing and employment negatively impacts the health and well being of particular populations and as a result, health issues are passed on to future generations.  


Similar to, In Sickness and in Wealth, Racial Disparities, continues to evaluate how residential disparities and environmental factors affect urban youth as they mature and develop.  The article poses the notion that, "Every person's health is intertwined with the health of everyone else." If this is true, why has the government not taken on "the responsibility to care for everyone" like Green suggested in  her article, Coronavirus Strikes Latino Families? 

If our well-being is in fact intertwined with others, we should ALL be concerned with the health and well-being of everyone, right? We should ALL be offered the same access to QUALITY healthcare despite our race, sex, gender, or social status, right? 


The article, When Blackness is a Pre-Existing Condition, suggests that although Americans (white) often pride themselves on statements such as, "We are in this together," we are in fact, NOT in this together. Duncan Andrade would call this concept of together-ness, "Hokey Hope."  This notion "ignores the laundry list of inequities that impact the lives of urban youth long before they get to the under-resourced schools that reinforce an uneven playing field" (Hope Required When Growing in Concrete, 182).  The uneven playing field that urban youth encounter occurs across systems like healthcare, housing, and education. 


In the midst of COVID-19 it is essential to remember just how "uneven" the resources are for urban youth and their families.  Although we as educators cannot change the multitude of systemic inequities, we CAN love and support our students and families; We can listen to their struggles and provide them with resources and information (i.e. local CoOps,  organize an outdoor after-school program, connect with local agencies for COVID testing, etc.). Without acknowledging that inequities exist, we give our students and their families "false hope" in that, if they just TRY, they will succeed. But, by acknowledging the inequities, and acting in the best interest of our students and families, we foster "critical hope"--where WE acknowledge the inequities and struggles and are strategically committed to utilizing them to help change the narrative for our students.  


According to Duncan, "Deferred Hope" is when the system is blamed for inequities rather than the individual.  We know that it is not just the system that is to blame for the uneven playing field that urban youth and their families encounter but more so how the uneven field is built layer upon layer, system upon system.  The vast inequities felt by urban youth and their families is a result of how multiple systems layer the inequities upon individuals.  Thus, we would be remiss if we looked at each system individually as the root of the problem. As we know multiple systems often play a role in creating this uneven playing field, disparities in healthcare, is just one example.  






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