FORUM
Black Women and Breast Cancer
Dr. Julianne
Malveaux
Guest
Columnist
October is Breast Cancer
Awareness Month. Millions of
women are sporting pink rib
bon pins in support of a month
when organizations like the
Susan G. Komen Foundation
fundraise and galvanize people
around the quest for a cure for
breast cancer. They are fight to
raise awareness - more than
184,000 women will be diag
nosed with breast cancer in the
United States in 2008, and
more than 40,000 will die from
breast cancer, o
While African-American
women are less likely than
White women to get breast
cancer, we are more likely to
die from it. The morbidity rate
for White women is 9.4 per
100,000, compared to 15.4 per
100,000 for African-American
women.
Additionally, African
American women often are
diagnosed with breast cancer
when they are younger, and
when African-American
women under 55 are diag
nosed with breast cancer; it is
more likely to have deadlier
effects. Researchers are study
ing the reasons why African
American ^vomen are so much
more vulnerable than other
women are to breast cancer.
But the findings make it
important for African
American women to get regu
lar mammograms and to deal
with other aspects of our
health.
Whenever there are health
awareness weeks or months,
whether they are for breast
cancer, muscular dystrophy,
diabetes, or another cause, t
crave attention to the broader
issue of health care and health
access. We can take a slice our
of the health care challenge by
focusing, in October, on breast
cancer, but the fact is that part
of African- American women's
increased vulnerability to
breast cancer is a result of dif
ferential access to health care
and health services.
Too many African
Americans lack health insur-C1
ance. Too many wear the stress
of racism in poor eating and
living habits, and it shows up
with obesity, high blood pres
sure, and the higher incidence
of other diseases in our com
munity.
African-American women
are more likely than any other
population, in 2008, to be
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
When another population was
most likely to be diagnosed,
HIV/AIDS awareness gar
nered headlines. Now, too
many are silent about this dis
ease, unless they are. talking
about the international inci
dence of HIV/ AIDS.
It is not clear why our
nation has not galvanized
around the health care issue.
To be sure, both presidential
candidates have ideas about
health insurance and health
care; their plans are divergent.
In my humble opinion,
Hillary Rodham Clinton had
one of the best health care
plans we've seen in a long
time, reflective of the work she
has spent on health care since
she worked on it as First Lady
in the Clinton Administration.
Senators Obama and
McCain wpuld be advised to
review her plan and incorpo
rate aspects of it into their own
work. Somehow, every
American must have access to
preventive health care, and
protection from bankruptcy
when they are diagnosed with
expensive diseases. And some
how, as we raise awareness
about breast cancer, we must
also raise awareness about the
ways breast cancer incidence
is intertwined with the status
of our health care system.
t Breast cancer awareness
has an international dimen
sion. Hala Moddelmog,
President of the Susan G.
Komen for the Cure, indicates
that 10 million people will die
in the next 25 years absent
intervention around breast
cancer. Last year, the Komen
organization held a global
advocacy summit in Hungary,
and announced pilot programs
in Eastern Europe, Latin
America, Africa, and the
Middle East. This month, they
sent delegations to Ghana and
Tanzania.
It is important to note that
for all the challenges women
face with breast cancer in the
United States, health care
access is even more limited in
developing countries. The
Komen organization is to be
commended for their work in
taking breast cancer global.
Back at home, though, the
health care disparities that rid
dle our system are as present in
the realm of breast cancer and
in other areas. Sisters must be
among those sporting pink rib
bons, but beyond the pink rib
bons, we must all be passion
ate advocates for increased
health care access, especially
in the African-American com
munity.
Julianne Malveaux is
President of Bennett College
for Women. She can be
reached at presof
fice@bennett.edu .
Obama Ahead - But Don't Believe It
George
Curry
O
Guest
Columnist
According to the polls,
Barack Obama is steadily
widening his lead over
Republican rival John
McCain to become the next
president of the United States.
A Washington Post-ABC
News poll released Monday
shows Obama with a 53 per
cent to 43 percent lead among
likely voters.
There is only one problem
- don't believe the polls.
As the Washington Post
noted in a story on its poll, at
this stage in 1992, Bill Clinton
held a 14-point lead over
President George H.W. Bush,
yet he won by only 6 percent.
In mid-October 1976, Jimmy
Carter held a 13-point lead
over incumbent Gerald Ford,
but won by only two points.
When the issue of race is
added to the mix, convention
al wisdom - which is often
neither conventional nor wise
- goes out of the window.
Uppermost in the minds of
African-Americans is the
Bradley effect, named after
former Los Aqgeles Mayor
Tom Bradley, w!ho sought to
become governor of
California in 1982. Even last
minute polls showed him
leading by a wide margin of
victory. Yet, Bradley narrowly
lost the election to Republican
George Deukmejian. Many
say it was because White vot
ers lied ta pollsters about their
willingness to vote for an
African- American .
But it wasn't just, as John
McCain would say, "that
one."
Pre-election polls also
overstated the margin of vic
tory for Harold Washington in
Chicago; David Dinkins in
New York City; and Doug
Wilder in Virginia.
But Bradley's race predat
ed the Internet and cell phones
and before Black music did
more to erase racial barriers
than any presidential speech.
In fact, there are an increasing
number of people questioning
the premise of the Bradley
effect.
In a story headlined, "Do
Polls Lie About Race?" New
York Times reporter Kate
Zernike wrote: "But pollsters
and political scientists say
concern about a Bradley effect
- some call it a Wilder effect
or a Dinkins effect, and plenty
call it a theory in search of
data - is misplaced. It
obscures what they argue is
the more important point:
there are plenty of ways that
race complicates polling.
"Considered alone or in
combination, these factors
could produce an unforeseen
Obama landslide with surprise
victories in the South, a stun
ningly large Obama loss, or a
recount-thin margin. In a year
that has already turned expec
tations upside down, it is hard
to completely reassure the
fretters."
Looking back, some
observers say pollsters got it
wrong with Bradley not
because White voters lied to
pollsters, but because they
failed to factor in the absentee
ballots. Whatever the reason,
some researchers think that's
less likely to happen today.
According to the New
York Times: "In a new study,
Daniel J. Hopkins, a postdoc
toral fellow at Harvard, con
sidered 133 elections between
1989 and 2006 and found that
blacks running for office
before 1996 suffered a median
Bradley effect of three per
centage points. Blacks run
ning after 1996, however, per
formed about three percentage
points better than their polls
predicted."
As the debate continues
about whether the Bradley
effect is valid, the McCain
camp continues to exploit the
issue of race.
When Obama's name has
been mentioned at McCain
Palin rallies, there have been
cries of "Kill him!" and "Off
with his head!"
It has gotten so bad that
McCain has urged his follow
ers to tone down the rhetoric.
Away from rallies, however,
his attack ads use code words
to argue, as Palin put it, that
Obama is "not one of us."
But observers have been
able to see past the code
words.
"From the start, there have
always been two separate but
equal questions about race in
this election," Frank Rich
wrote in the New York Times.
"Is there still enough racism
in America to prevent a black
man from being elected presi
dent no matter what? And,
will Republicans play the race
card? The jury is still out on
the first question until Nov. 4.
But we now have the unam
biguous answer to the second:
Yes."
Rich explained, "McCain,
who is no racist, turned to this
desperate strategy only as
Obama started to pull ahead."
He isn't the only person
who feels McCain, is playing
to racial fears.
"Obama has been running
as a post-racial candidate
from the start, and he has been
doing it very well," David
Brinkley, a noted presidential
historian told the New York
Times. "But the fact of the
matter is that some voters -
we can't know yet how many
- will not get past his race.
And I very much believe that
the McCain-Palin ticket is
tapping into that."
And there is plenty to tap
into. In that same New York
Times article, John Schuster, a
Republican from Wheeling, ?
W.Va., said, "What you hear
around here is, 'Would you
rather" have a black friend in
the White House, or a white
enemy?"' He explained,
"Most guys 1 know are for
McCain, and a lot of it's
because of race."
George E. Curry, former
editor-in-chief of Emerge
magazine and the NNPA News
Service, is a keynote speaker,
moderator, and media coach.
He can be reached through his
Web site.
www.georgecurry.com .
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