By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent

ASHVILLE, N.C. (NNPA) – The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded $75 million in grants for a 5-year project called the American Healing Initiative. But in an unusual and unexpected move, the foundation assembled some of the grantees here recently to help heal the healers.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a private, philanthropic organization, founded by breakfast cereal magnate, Will Keith Kellogg, crafted the America Healing Initiative to partner with community organizations working to address racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, the economy and the media.

The foundation hosted a diverse group of community organizers, civil rights leaders, health care professionals and educators to build stronger networks and to focus on using effective storytelling to increase the visibility of their work on the national stage.

“This year’s theme, ‘Reclaiming the Narrative’ comes on the heels of the re-election of our first African American president, movement towards comprehensive immigration reform and the Supreme Court’s decision to evaluate affirmative action policies at public colleges and universities,” said Gail Christopher vice president of program strategy for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “These recent events have created a fierce urgency to address the impact of our collective historic and contemporary narratives surrounding discussions about race.”

The America Healing Initiative conference featured panel discussions on the criminal justice system, immigration, housing, the wealth gap and using digital media to promote racial healing and effective messaging. Healing sessions that allowed conference attendants to share heart-felt stories about the impact of racism in their lives were paramount to the learning and networking that took place during the four-day long summit.

“The groups are diverse,” said Christopher. “You’ve got Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asians Americans, Europeans and we wrapped it around why they do the work. It opens people’s eyes. You really don’t understand what it’s like to live in another person’s skin, literally, unless you have that exposure.”

M. von Nkosi, 49, said that there were emotional moments, a lot of talk about childhood and some tears in the healing session he attended. Nkosi, is the president of Liquid Studios, a community development group, based in the Atlanta.

“It’s rough being a brother in this country,” said Nkosi, an African-American who grew up in the New York City area. “You can’t experience it no more than I can experience being a woman.”

Nkosi said that he experienced more overt racism growing up in the North than he did in the South.

He recalled experiencing racism as a teenager playing in a junior football league in 1978. Nkosi played wingback for a team composed of Whites and Blacks in Teaneck, N.J. The team had an away game in Fort Lee, N.J., less than 20 minutes away.

“We get to Fort Lee, they have an all-White team, except for one Black guy – he was light-skinned and he was sitting on the bench,” said Nkosi. “We started scoring touchdowns and their officials were calling the touchdowns back and they were basically cheating for that team.”

Nkosi said that one of his teammates got into a fight on the field after a Fort Lee player called him the N-word. Nkosi’s teammate was ejected from the game and the referees continued to show their true colors. Finally, Nkosi said, his coaches, who were White, had enough and ordered the team off the field.

“I remember those White parents standing up and cheering as we walked off the field,” said Nkosi. “I don’t think we got to halftime.”

Back in Teaneck, N.J. Nkosi’s coaches debriefed the squad, talked about what happened, and how it wasn’t a reflection of the team’s play or the coaching staff.

“You can’t let it get to you,” said Nkosi remembering his coach’s words.

Christopher said that participants were also urged to share experiences that affirmed their humanity. And Nkosi shared those memories as well.

“When I was freezing, walking around in the snow selling candy for a school in New Jersey, a White woman invited me in to warm up in her home and bought some candy from me,” recalled Nkosi. “When we lived in New York, I locked myself out of the apartment waiting for my mom to come home from school. The superintendent, a Puerto Rican, invited me up and fed me and let me wait there until my mom came home.”

Christopher said that those healing sessions have greatly increased the understanding of racism in the world.

“I think this is a shifting of consciousness and gives people that are dedicated to racial healing a place to connect to be more informed to catch our breath and to form strategic alliances and collaborations that will affect the changes we all want,” said Susan Taylor editor-in-chief emeritus of Essence magazine and founder of the National Cares Mentoring Movement, which was designed to narrow the gap between millions of Black children who are at risk and the scarce ranks of Black adult mentors.

NCCM received $355,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2012 through the America Healing Initiative, one of 119 community groups in nine states and Washington, D.C.

Christopher said when the racial and ethnic disparities disappear and the wide gaps in educational achievement or the economic status are closed, she will consider the America Healing Initiative successful.

For Taylor and others, getting to that point requires reclaiming the narrative of American history, a past that is often glossed over for the sake of getting along. Without addressing the sins of that past, she said, those wounds will never heal.

“We have to know that African people were enslaved, said Taylor. “We help to build this nation and Black men have always been demonized and Black women’s bodies have been misused. We have to understand it, we have to own it, we have to know it, so that we can heal it and move forward.”

Nkosi said that with each generation racial healing and progress towards an equitable society continues.

“I think we’re getting there. I think over the next 50-75 years, it’s going to be a very different world,” said Nkosi. “Not for my daughters so much, but their grandchildren, my great grandchildren. It will be a different world.”

By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Social Security changes proposed by Obama could hurt African Americans more than other groups, a new report by the Center for Global Policy Solutions finds.

In this fiscal year 2014 budget, President Obama proposes switching the way benefit programs such as Social Security and civil service retirement adjust for inflation to the chained consumer price index, or chained CPI.

Chained CPI calculates inflation differently from the consumer price index, the current yardstick. The move would save approximately $230 billion, according to the president’s budget.

“The chained CPI significantly reduces the purchasing power of those who rely on benefits issued by the federal government, and especially disadvantages retirees and the long-term disabled because it fails to take into account the higher costs they shoulder as a result of their increased need for health care services and related products,” the report reads.

The Center for Global Policy Solutions report finds that the changes may cause particular harm to older African Americans; many depend on Social Security for the majority of their retirement income.

Nearly half of African American beneficiaries rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income, compared to 35 percent of all beneficiaries. Two out of five Black retirees over 65 depend on Social Security for their entire income.

The report show that 18 percent of Black adults over 65 had an income below the federal poverty level; without Social Security benefits, 53 percent of older African Americans would be living in poverty according to the AARP.

The changes to COLA will also impact the one in five Black children receiving disability benefits. Black children are twice as likely to receive survivor benefits as well.

“Chained CPI is also a poor policy considering that Social Security does not contribute to our annual deficit, and the trust will run a surplus of more than $2.7 trillion until the 2030s,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “I am disappointed then that President Obama would consider burdening those who are most in need of our support.”

The changes proposed by the president did not fare well with the constituents they will affect the most. In April, AARP released a poll that showed that 70 percent of older voters are not in favor of using chained CPI for the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment and 78 percent are opposed to using the adjustment for veteran benefits.

“This cut to Social Security would break the promise to seniors and hurt veterans who’ve sacrificed so much for this great country,” AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond said in a statement.

According to AARP, those who rely on Social Security for the majority of their income, which includes 47 percent of African American beneficiaries, would experience an 8 percent cut to their income after 30 years using chained CPI.

According to the report, the coming reductions will result in about $3 lost for every $1,000 in benefits. That amounts to a lot for the African Americans over 65 who receive about $13,000 a year in benefits.

Although President Obama has proposed to protect “the most vulnerable Americans,” including those over 76 and beneficiaries who receive benefits for longer periods of time, Mikki Waid, AARP senior strategic policy advisor, says older African Americans won’t reap the benefits of being protected.

“African Americans don’t live as long, so even though the president has proposed these bump ups, an African American male that has made it to 65 is only expected to live to 81, women to 84,” Waid says. “They aren’t going to benefit from the protections.

Waid adds, “The fact that they decided to exempt some individuals makes you wonder if it’s a more accurate cost of living adjustment. Is it really an accurate inflation measure of older Americans?”

The report finds, it isn’t.

A large portion of retirement income goes toward medical expenses, figures that are not considered in the chained CPI adjustment.

The average 65-year-old couple retiring will need $240,000 to cover future medical costs, according to Fidelity Investments, which tracks retiree health care costs. The median annual income for African Americans on Social Security is $14,400.

The report also finds that African Americans will be the most negatively impacted by the switch to chained-CPI because they have much less wealth that could be used to supplement the reduction in Social Security.

“As a result of racial wealth disparities, African Americans will be negatively affected by implementation of the chained CPI regardless of the non-means tested federal program from which they receive their benefits,” said Maya Rockeymoore, president and CEO of the Center for Global Policy Solutions . “With precious few other assets to help meet expenses, African Americans will experience deeper economic pain as a result of the chained CPI.”

In 2010, Whites had six times the wealth of their African American counterparts, according to a new Urban Institute report. Whites who were age 32-40 in 1983 had an average family wealth of $184,000, a figure that rose to $1.1 million in 2010. Blacks, in comparison, had an average family wealth of $54,000 in 1983, which had only grown to $161,000 in 2010, when both groups were nearing retirement age.

Blacks have historically started off with less wealth than their White counterparts, and on average have not reached equal levels of wealth by retirement. Factors such as low wages, high unemployment, and lesser job opportunities have contributed to Blacks inability to accrue enough wealth to keep such large portions of the community from being solely dependent on Social Security into retirement.

The Great Recession, however, also lead to an increased loss of wealth within the African American community, especially in terms of retirement savings. Blacks, according to the Urban Institute report, lost about 35 percent of their retirement assets during the recession, while White families saw an increase.

A major problem, Waid finds, with chained CPI is that the negative impact to benefits will take affect immediately.

“Chained CPI will effect beneficiaries immediately and it will effect all beneficiaries,” Waid says.

She adds that because of this, unfortunately, there is little one can do to prepare.

“It’ll affect them now,” Waid reiterates. “But really what can you do? If you’re an African American 70-year-old woman, I wish I could tell them something they could do, but I just can’t.”

By Roz Edward
Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Daily World

According to the data found in a new report, “The Buying Power of Black America,” Black consumers have shifted their priorities and preferences.

With the nation slowly recovering from recession, businesses need to develop strategies for regaining and increasing their share in the Black American economy. Black consumers now represent the margin of profitability in most consumer product categories.

“What the recession did to Black consumers’ buying habits was to give them a reason to re-evaluate how they spent billions of dollars,” said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News and editor of the report.

“Before tight economic times, many companies were in the habit of taking their loyalty — especially to top brands — for granted. That changed during the downturn. Price became a bigger factor driving purchasing decisions. Now brands have to earn the loyalty of Black consumers all over again, and Black consumers are asking brands, ‘what have you done for me lately.’”

For the past 17 years, Target Market News has published the only report that details in dollars the impact of the Black Consumer Market. Now approaching a trillion dollars in spending, the earned income of Black America already makes it the 16th largest market in the world, and it is on the verge of surpassing the gross national income of Mexico.

This 105-page report breaks down how much of Black consumers’ $836 billion in income during 2011 was spent on clothing, entertainment, food, beverages, toys, consumer technology, cosmetics, autos, travel and dozens of other categories.

The top five categories with the largest dollar expenditures were Housing and Related Charges – $206.2 billion; Food – $70.7 billion; Health Care – $25.5 billion; Cars and Trucks (new and used) – $22.6 billion; and Apparel Products – $21.1 billion. The top five categories showing an increase in spending between 2010 and 2011 were Appliances, $2.7 billion (29%); Sports and Recreational Equipment, $850 million (28%); Personal and Professional Services, $5 billion (27%); Computers, $5 billion (21%); and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, $4.3 billion (16%).

Besides the economy, another factor causing a shift in the loyalty Black consumers is social media and increased access to business information. The new edition of The Buying Power of Black America debuts a section detailing the advertising dollars spent by major companies in Black media. It also compares the ad spending of companies by categories.

The Buying Power of Black America is an analysis of data compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is based on interviews and diaries collected from 3,000 Black households, and is the most comprehensive survey conducted on Black consumers.

By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The Department of Health and Human Services has updated its standards for cultural competency in health care, hoping to narrow the racial and ethnic health disparities common throughout the United States.

“This provides another opportunity to significantly improve health disparities,” Dr. Howard Koh, the agency’s Assistant Secretary for Health, said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Care needs to honor culture, it needs to be effective, understandable and respectful. Care needs to be delivered with ‘CLAS.’”

National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care – also known as CLAS Standards— serve as guidelines for facilitating “culturally and linguistically appropriate health services.”

The new standards were announced last week by HHS’s Office of Minority Health at a gathering of health care organizations the Kaiser Family Foundation office in Washington.

In 2000, under the Bush administration, the Office of Minority Health published the first set of standards, which were updated in 2010, to better cater the health care system to the nation’s increasingly diverse population.

The recently updated standards include 15 guidelines for effective cultural communication between patients and caregivers, including a “principal standard” that encourages hospitals to provide service that is “responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.”

Other standards include:

• Recruiting more culturally diverse leadership staff

• Offering language assistance at no cost to the patient

• Collecting and maintaining accurate demographic data

• Partnering with the community to design cultural and linguistic appropriate policies.

As the U.S. population becomes more diverse, with Whites becoming a minority in the U.S. by 2050, cultural competence in health care is being considered crucial to ending health disparities.

And those disparities are striking.

Black babies are 2.3 times more likely to die in infancy, Asians are 2.5 times more likely to develop liver cancer, Latinos are three times more likely to be uninsured and Black men are seven times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than their White counterparts.

Currently, seven of the 15 most populated cities are majority minority yet African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asians continue to receive lower quality care than their White counterparts according to National Healthcare Disparities reports.

“Health is the most important thing we have regardless of our race, socioeconomic status,” said Dr. Nadine Gracia, director of the office of minority health at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Nothing more essential to opportunity than good health.”

In a 2002 report on Cultural Competence in Health Care presented by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York based foundation, states, “ As we become a more ethnically and racially diverse nation, health care systems and providers need to reflect on and respond to patients’ varied perspectives, values, beliefs, and behaviors about health and well-being. Failure to understand and manage sociocultural differences may have significant health consequences on minority groups in particular.”

A huge barrier between patients and health care providers occurs among non-English speakers. According to the National Health Disparity Report, Spanish-speakers are more likely to not have health insurance and are also more likely to report poor communication with nurses.

“Culture is language – it’s the way that we through signs, customs, beliefs, practices present ourselves to other people, understand other people,” said Leon Rodriguez, director of the office of civil rights at HHS. “Proper communication is not just a civil rights issue, it’s about delivering the best quality care—this is all about delivering good care, this all about good business.”

Although helpful, the standards are not mandatory; they are merely a set of guidelines put in place to assist the medical community better serve people of color.

Studies have shown that cultural competency training improves the patient-healthcare provider relationship. However only six states have legislation that requires or suggests cultural competence training: Maryland, Washington, Connecticut, New Mexico, California, and New Jersey.

Five states, including Illinois and Florida where 15 and 20 percent of the total populations are uninsured respectively, have vetoed or denied such legislation. Iowa, Colorado, and Oregon also followed suit.

The authors of the standards believe that if they can get hospitals and health care providers to adopt their standards, both the patients and the medical community will be better served.

“We hope over time this will be good for practice and good business,” Koh said. “If every organization can at least start by saying we embrace these values and get leadership to infuse these values throughout everyday work, we can begin to gather more data that show that this is not only good practice, but it’s good for business.”