Race and Health Care: New Report Shares Insights on Black Californians

SpecialReport

Race and Health Care: New Report Shares Insights on Black Californians

ANTONIO RAY HARVEY

California Black Media

n keeping with its commitment

Ito ending health inequities, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) released the first phase of a three-part study documenting how race and racism shape the health care experiences of Black Californians.

The report, “In Their Own Words: Black Californians on Racism and Health Care,” was written by health services researcher Dr. Linda Cummings. The study synthesizes hour-long interviews with 100 Black Californians conducted from June to August 2021.

According to Katherine Haynes, a senior program officer serving on CHCF’s People-Centered Care team, “The project is to understand the interactions between racism, health and healthcare. (The first phase) is in-depth interviews that are really designed to gain a deep understanding of Black Californians’ perception of racism in this state’s healthcare system and its impact on them.”

CHCF’s main objective is to advance meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of California, specifically individuals who are financially challenged and whose needs are not well served in the healthcare system.

EVITARUS, a Black-owned Los Angeles-based public opinion research firm, is conducting the three-phase Study for CHCF. The firm has extensive experience polling California’s diverse constituencies and maintains long-standing relationships with Black-led community organizations and media.

“Dr. Linda Cummings wrote the report and we did the research. We designed the study, performed the data collection as well as the data analysis that supported Dr. Cummings and her findings,” according to Shakari Byerly, EVITARUS Managing Partner. “It was a thorough recruitment process and screening and screening of those that indicated an interest in participation. The participants also received an honorarium (of $125) for their participation.”

Findings from the first phase cautioned that just having a Black physician did not automatically result in better care. Negative experiences with Black physicians and other health providers of color can be an obstacle to health care, too.

“It is the subtle, the microaggressions that happen within the health care field. So, I am resistant to get help unless I feel comfortable with the person who may or may not look like me,” a 33-year-old Black woman from the San Francisco Bay Area stated. “But I also have been discriminated against a lot from Black physicians as well.”

Cummings wrote that more than half of the respondents said that, at some time in their lives, they had been unhoused, without a stable place to live, or stayed with a family member or friend because they did not have a place of their own.

Notably, the study highlighted that the participants took their health care seriously.

“The respondents really spoke about how they were taking action to pursue health, advocating for themselves, in the health care system and taking steps to protect themselves from harm in the health care system,” said Haynes.

Nearly all the respondents (93%) had some form of health insurance. The majority were covered through employersponsored plans at 40% or Medi-Cal at 26%, the study reports.

The mix of participants also reflected the ethnic diversity of Black Californians. The majority of respondents identified as Black or African American (83%), Black and multiracial (6%), African (5%), Afro-Caribbean (4%), Afro-Latino (1%), and Black-Native American (1%), Byerly said.

“Everyone identified as Black, but we recognize that people come from different backgrounds,” Byerly said. “It supports our research design to make sure that we show a full range of our community in California.”

Byerly also shared that 62% of the participants said they have experienced “some type of discrimination” based on their background while getting healthcare for themselves. About 59% said they were treated unfairly while getting healthcare for a family member, she added. Phase II of the Listening to Black Californians study examines “structural issues” in the health care system gleaned from focus group discussions with Black Californians and key health care stakeholders,” Haynes said.

The third and final phase of the study will be a statewide survey of Black California residents. It will be crafted to evaluate the extent to which the Phase I and Phase II findings are represented in the general Black Californian population.

“The second phase with 18 focus groups, was completed right before the winter holidays. The third phase, we hope, will have over 3,000 Black-Californian participants,” Hayes said. “The final report is expected in the summer of 2022.”

Read the full report.

Headlines From Africa

Burkina Faso: President Roch Kaboré has formally resigned following a coup in which Burkina Faso’s army deposed the leader, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government and the national assembly and closed the country’s borders. The coup is the latest in a wave of military power grabs that have prompted fears of further instability.

Botswana: President Mokgweetsi Masisi has vowed to fully implement a court ruling decriminalizing homosexuality two months after losing an appeal to overturn the ruling.

Burundi: In a project expected to cut down transportation expenses, promote industrialization, and boost the regional economy, Burundi and Tanzania have reached an agreement to jointly build a 282km-long railway that will connect the two countries at a projected cost of $900 million. The route will aid in the transportation of over a million tons of cargo between the two East African countries.

Congo: The International Monetary Fund approved a $455 million loan to extend fiscal relief and stimulate re-growth for the hard-hit economy of the country that has a 52.5% poverty rate.

Eritrea: The United Nations Refugee Agency reports that thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's embattled northern Tigray province are living under life-threatening conditions because they have no access to humanitarian aid.

Kenya: Kenya’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a 12th consecutive meeting, continuing to support the economy as it sees inflation expectations anchored within its target range.

Malawi: President Lazarus Chakwera has dissolved his cabinet due to charges of corruption against three ministers. In a televised address he said that he would "confront all forms of lawless conduct by public officials."

A look at current news from the continent of Africa

Nigeria: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos and reported to be the most powerful man in Lagos, officially launched his campaign to become Nigeria’s next president. He is the frontrunner to secure his party’s nomination. Rwanda: Rwandan officials announced that they would reopen the border with Uganda, ending nearly three years of a standoff that jeopardized both countries’ economies and raised fears of armed hostilities.

Somalia: After repeated delays that have threatened to destabilize the country, Somali leaders announced that they have struck a deal to complete parliamentary election by February 25.

Sudan: Thousands of Sudanese pro-military demonstrators have taken to the streets to protest against United Nations intervention to resolve a political crisis in the country three months after a coup led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. Sudan has been rocked by a deadly crackdown against protests calling for civilian rule since an October 25 military coup derailed a power-sharing transition between the army and civilians that had been negotiated after the 2019 ouster of President Omar Bashir.

South Africa: A South African corruption program has flagged COVID contract worth $137 million. President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized the investigation into his government's coronavirus spending in 2020 following a spate of scandals that sparked public outrage.

South Sudan: According to the Hunger Hotspots Report from the World Food Programme Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen remain the countries of highest concern for food insecurity with people experiencing or projected to experience, starvation and death and in need of the most urgent attention.

Zambia: The Zimbabwean central bank introduced a 50-dollar note, the country’s highest denomination since a return to using Zimbabwean dollars (ZW$) as the main currency in 2019. It joins other denominations which have been eroded by hyperinflation, which soared to 800% in 2020 before slowing down to 106% this year.

The Trillion Dollar Buying Clout of Black Americans

KISHA SMITH

Staff

The trillion-dollar buying clout of African American consumers coupled with the momentum of the increasingly popular “Buy Black” movement is fueling a move on the part of African-Americans to take control of the economic influence they have and invest in Black experiences, Black communities, and Black content.

That’s according to Neilsen’s 2021 African American consumer report which explores the influence of Black culture and what is driving the spending habits of socially conscious Gen Z consumers.

Earlier Buy Black initiatives failed to gain the traction and staying power with Black consumers that the movement in 2020 did, with the racial reckoning that followed the killing of George Floyd and the attention to the inequities blacks have endured from the justice system to economics.

Facebook rolled out a #BuyBlack Friday show to provide assistance to Black business owners in need. Google launched a tool that allowed businesses to identify themselves as Black-owned through the company's Maps and Search listings. Even celebrities got in on the act. Among them were Issa Rae, who partnered with American Express to promote Black-owned businesses, and Beyonce launched a Black-owned business directory.

Last month, Black Lives Matter called for a monthlong boycott of white companies, “to harness our economic power to disrupt white supremacist capitalism and build Black community.”

For good reason too. In 2020, African American economic clout energized the U.S. consumer market as never before with the buying power of African Americans rising to $1.6 trillion. That’s according a 2021 report from The Selig Center for Economic Growth at The University of Georgia.

“The buying power estimates and differences in spending by race and/or ethnicity suggest that as the nation’s consumer market becomes more diverse, advertising, products and media must be tailored to each market segment,” said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center and author of the Multicultural Economy report.

Based on data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and other sources, the Selig Center estimates the buying power for African American, Asian American and Native American consumers, which has exploded over the past 30 years, up from $458 billion in 1990 to $3 trillion in 2020. In addition to increasing sheer size, their combined share of the nation’s total buying power increased from

10.6% in 1990 to 17.2% in 2020.

The report defines consumer buying power as total income after taxes. The combined buying power of U.S. consumers grew from $11.3 trillion to $17.5 trillion between 2010 and 2020, or by 55%.

Over the same time period, Asian American buying power grew by 111%; the buying power for those of Hispanic ethnicity grew by 87%, Native American buying power grew by 67%, and African American buying power grew by 61%.

“A major factor underpinning the growth of the nation’s minority markets is that African Americans, Asians and Hispanics continue to become more highly educated, which allows proportionally more Blacks, Asians and Hispanics to enter occupations with higher average salaries.”

Biz News Briefs

The next acquisition for America’s richest African-African, Robert F. Smith, just might be the Denver Broncos. If so, the billionaire philanthropist/entrepreneur whose net worth is estimated at $6.7 billion, would be the first black owner in NFL history. The teams ownership has been in limbo since the death of Pat Bowlen. His wish was to keep the franchise in the family, but infighting led to a court battle which will result in the team going to the highest bidder at an estimated purchase price of $4 billion. which would make it the richest team sale in U.S. sports history.

Smith–the founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners and a Denver native– has emerged of

Robert F. Smith the one of the possible bidders. Among the others hoping Could Make Bid for to acquire the Broncos are two groups with famed quarterbacks Peyton Manning and John Elway in the mix.

Ownership of

Denver Broncos

Keeping Its Promise

The Promise Homes Company–whose CEO and founder is former Angeleno John Hope Bryant–has closed on a $200 million institutional debt facility from the global investment management firm, Barings. The facility is part of a recapitalization for a new joint venture with other institutional investors to grow Promise Homes’ portfolio of single-family rental homes to an institutional scale. The Atlanta-based firm describes itself as one of the nation’s largest minority-owned managers of institutional-quality, single-family residential rental property, centered on working with middle-and-working residents. The company’s existing portfolio of 663 homes is seeding the joint venture. Promise Homes reported it plans to continue to pursue additional institutional equity and debt capital to grow the portfolio to more than 10,000 homes over the next two to four years.

The transaction is reported to be one of the 10 largest capital raises for a Black-owned company over the last decade. Briefs: Life offstage and outside of the recording studios for Snoop Dogg has been a long line of business ventures–from a cannabis company to a liquor line and a cookbook. Snoop’s latest venture, however, is almost a natural as the 50-year old rapper’s lawyer have applied for a federal trademark registration on the term “Snoop Doggs,” indicating that a line of hot dogs could more than likely be his next entrepreneurial venture...

The Hottest Ticket in Town

Talk about the hottest ticket in town. The Super Bowl’s return to Los Angeles after 29 years is on pace to not only be the most expensive Super Bowl, but the most expensive event ever, so don’t feel bad if you’re not going. It would have set you back a small fortune.

Being that it’s taking place at the SoFi Stadium, you can save the cost of airfare and lodging, which will be doubled and tripled for out-of-towners. But that’s just for starters. The big bucks go for the tickets and the stadium’s posh suites and for the first time ever, the NFL has sold multiple suites for over $1 million.

Then there are the tickets. Nevermind that Super Bowl 55 was sold out long before anyone knew it would be the Rams vs. the Cincinnati Bengels on February 13.

At face value, the tickets range from $850 to $1,800 for general admission, up to $3,000 for club seats), but hardly anyone pays that.

Here’s why: 17.5% go to the participating teams; 34.8% go to the remaining teams; 5% go to the host city; 25.5% go to sponsors and the media.

Players for the two competing teams have to pony up as well. They get 15 tickets each, however just two of them are free. Additional tickets are purchased at a cost of $1800 each. Any unclaimed tickets go back to their respective teams. Keep in mind that children do not pay any less than the $1800.

In January, the least expensive ticket on SeatGeek in the stadium’s top level was $8,718, while the highest listed price for a ticket was $17,425 per person in a package that included access to a multilevel, indoor Club 67 space inside SoFi Stadium.

Ironically, the first ever Super Bowl was held in Los Angeles on January 15, 1967. Tickets were $12 and it was the only Super Bowl in history that did not sell out.

The six-year battle over the value of Prince’s es-

tate has officially come to a close. The number that has been settled on by all parties involved is $156.4 million. That means the estate may begin paying out to Prince’s heirs this month. Two of the superstar’s siblings have since passed away. Primary Wave, a talent management company, purchased 100% of the interest belonging to two of Prince’s brothers and a percentage of the rights from two other of Prince’s siblings, including his sister, Tyka, who was paid millions for a big chunk of her stake. The buyouts made Primary Wave the estate’s largest single interest holder at 42%. However, before any heirs are paid, the IRS will take its share, at a reported rate of 40%. Minnesota will get 16% with the exception of the first $3 million which is exempt.

In 1970, South L.A. was eighty percent Black with 24 of the 28 neighborhoods making up South L.A –from Vermont Square, Watts and “the Jungle” (now Baldwin Village) to View Park and Windsor Hills remaining majority Black through the late 1970s. By 2010, however, South L.A. was sixty-four percent Latino with the number of communities where AfricanAmericans were the majority dropping from 24 to six by 2012. Today, that number has dwindled even further, and with two light rail transit lines running through it, cultural landmarks like Leimert Park, View Park and Baldwin

Hills (the latter characterized as the black Beverly Hills) are also experiencing an influx of whites.

That L.A.’s racial makeup has dramatically shifted over the past two decades with blacks losing ground in areas once considered to be African-American strongholds comes as little surprise and is part of what some dub as

“Black erasure”, a term being used more and more often to describe the exclusion of the contributions of Black people in history and culture, and even Black communities across the nation.

For Pulitzer Prize winning author Nikole Hannah-

Jones (1619), it is the omission of blacks from history, calling it “symbolic of how history is shaped by people who decide what's important and what's not. And that erasure is also a powerful statement."

In politics, it is marked by the exclusion of black voices from political policy discussions that shape their lives. In culture, it is the erasure of the contribution of Blacks in everything from art to the silver screen. And in cities across the nation, it is the erasure of black people–dead and alive– due to displacement.

Just last month, the city of Tampa apologized for its role in erasing historic Black cemeteries. Last year, Black entrepreneurs in Tulsa reported being threatened with erasure once again as millions in financial incentives to revitalize the famed Greenwood district shut them out of the community’s most prestigious development projects and priced them out of prime retail locations.

Last year, community activists failed in their attempts to thwart the sale of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and turn it into a community hub, fearing that its revitalization–to include new condos, apartments, offices and restaurants–will erase its cultural significance. Then right here in L.A. County there is the troubling trend of blacks disappearing from the landscape.

“We are at a critical point when we either hold on to Black voice and vision in the political arena in L.A County, or we can experience dilution and the erasure of Black voices and values in the creation of a multiracial L.A. County,” said Pastor Eddie Anderson, a South L.A. Regional Community Organizer for L.A. Voice.

More simply put by former State Senator Rod Wright, “The problem is that we’re shedding Black people. If you look at areas that were black twenty years ago, you’ve got Baldwin Hills becoming white and South Central becoming brown.”

“The price of a piece of dirt in much of Los Angeles is just so expensive and so many older black people –between reverse mortgages and other family issues–we’re not holding on to real estate.

L.A. Times columnist Erika Smith referenced the issue in a recent column titled, “To Protect South L.A., ‘Don’t sell your damn house!’, which stressed the transfer of generational wealth in holding on to property in slowing the pace of gentrification.

Community leaders fear the loss of equity as the exodus of African-Americans leaving L.A County rises. Many feel that the sense of loss is exacerbated by a legacy of racist asset-stripping coupled with the deep worry about Black erasure due to current displacement pressures from gentrification.

“When we lose equity in real estate, we're losing equity politically. We are losing equity in our community and in our educational systems,” said Pastor Michael Fisher. “I feel like my generation is the last of the Mohicans. It’s on us to try and teach the next generation.”

Fisher says the current generation's apathy towards

LISA COLLINS With Tina Samepay

When we lose equity in real estate, we're losing equity politically. I feel like my generation is the last of the Mohicans. It’s on us to try and teach the next generation... They are like ‘why do I need to take over my grandmother's house? I’ll just sell it, so I can travel and live my best life.’ It’s really scary. They’re a no contract generation. They don’t want to be tied to anything. ”

community investment is so concerning that it sometimes keeps him up at night.

“They are like, ‘why do I need to take over my grandmother's house? I’ll just sell it, so I can travel and live my best life.’ It’s really scary. They’re a no contract generation. They don’t want to be tied to anything.”

It is a message that in large part has fallen on deaf ears.

“The walls are closing in on Black people in Los Angeles from all sides and we're quietly becoming an endangered species," maintains Danny Carter, a co-founder of Buy Back the Block, an organization that holds monthly meetings geared toward educating the community on building generational wealth and whose slogan is ‘Don’t Sell Grandma’s House.’

“California in general has anti-Black policies. Take San Francisco for example, Black people are only 2%. That’s the model, displacing Black people through gentrification.”

With the advent of the new Rams and Clippers stadiums in Inglewood has come skyrocketing real estate prices and investors jockeying to cash in on the new development surrounding the stadiums with the L.A. area reportedly ranking as the No. 1 choice in North America in a survey of global commercial real estate investors in 2017.

“When we move and take the money, the communities can’t be sustained, and they are taken over by people who do not look like us. If we are scattered around, there will never be money allocated towards our people,” says Salaam-Baile, CEO and founder of the Think Watts Foundation

Salaam-Baile believes that an overall lack of education on how economies and communities work in regard to funding and resources, is really the driving force behind Black’s departure from L.A.

He says if African-Americans do not want to live in L.A for whatever reason, it is important to at least own the property, especially in the inner city.

“If our community was in control of the neighborhood, we’d control rent prices and the income it takes to stay in the community. The system is set up for us to move, so they can take the funding and resources out of the community,” Stix shared.

“Property value lowers, crime rises, and it allows big money investors who have access to capital, to buy up the neighborhood.”

“The displacement issue is absolutely critical in defining gentrification,” says Dana Cuff, a professor of urban design, adding that while most think of their homes as investments, “the problem is people are displaced unwillingly, and they’re priced out of the market in one way or the other.” “I would like to see our community leaders leverage Black wealth to build housing, grocery stores, banks, media, etc.,” states Patrick MacFarlane who currently works as a Government Relations Manager for a childcare non-profit. It would be great if governments acknowledged all they’ve stolen from Black people over centuries.”

In fact, L.A. county’s history of displacing blacks runs deep.

There is Bruce’s Beach, which recalls the story of Willa and Charles Bruce who purchased the Blackowned Manhattan Beach resort in 1912, which later became a popular resort destination for Black Angelenos. Racial tensions began to mount as Ku Klux Klan members harassed the Bruce’s, along with any African-Americans who went beyond the ropes marking the beach’s boundaries. Eventually, blacks were run out of the majority white town and in 1924, Manhattan Beach officially voted to seize Bruce’s property under the guise of eminent domain, to build a park.

Then there was Sugar Hill, a wealthy, Black Los Angeles enclave in Santa Monica. Its residents–including Black doctors, entrepreneurs and celebrities like Hattie McDaniel –defeated initial attempts to displace them in court by whites seeking to enforce racially restrictive covenants only to have the California Highway Commission approve a freeway that would plow right through Sugar Hill using eminent domain to displace 600 predominantly Black families.

It would be 70 years before Santa Monica would redress the historical actions that predominantly hurt Black and brown communities with the announcement in December 2021 that the city would offer priority placement for its coveted affordable housing program to families and their descendants who were displaced in the 50s and 60s.

In the decade preceding white flight in Los Angeles during the sixties there were six bombings and four incidents of arson against black homeowners recorded in Los Angeles County by the County Commission on Human Rights.

Today, however is a much different story. According to the 2020 U.S Census, African-Americans make up roughly 9% of L.A.’s population. Although the smallest demographic group, African-Americans continue to experience serious social and economic disparities.

“Black people are leaving LA because it’s expensive to live here. Our community lacks the kind of institutions that would sustain our economy. We need more Black employers and financial institutions,” MacFarlane said. “We also need private investments to build and rebuild businesses and institutions that can sustain L.A.’s Black community.”

Several longtime factors continue to influence African-Americans exodus from L.A including high crime rates, gang-violence, access to jobs, as well as longtime disinvestment of African-American communities.

Rising rents continue to be an issue beyond race facing whites who have been priced out of other areas and are now returning to predominantly Black communities that they fled decades ago.

As African-Americans leave L.A, their influx into places like Lancaster, Palmdale and the Inland Empire continues to rise. From 1980-1990 the population of Blacks in the San Bernardino-Riverside area rose by over 100%.

For South L.A. resident Avery Watts, leaving L.A for the South was more about reconnecting with his roots, adding “You definitely can’t leave out the fact that we’ve been priced out for less quality. We are having to deal with unaffordable ownership or rentals with lackluster schools in dangerous neighborhoods.”

As rates of African-Americans continue to decline, the idea of “Black political power” is now based largely upon the support of the Latinx community, and after what it took for Blacks to attain political clout, there is some consternation for seeing it diluted by the compromises a broader coalition–including Latinos–would mean.

A major concern is the attitudes that some Black Angelenos have towards immigration and the marginalization they face by the Latinx community in the workplace.

“The economic opportunities go to the Latino community. They are the gatekeepers, and they help each other while closing the door on Black people. Especially in areas needed most like the Los Angeles Unified School District,” said Kenesha Jenkins, a longtime Los Angeles resident, who is among those who equate such practices as resulting in labor workforces that are almost 100% Latinx.

Observed former State Senator Rod Wright Wright, “We’re going to end up having to work in multi-racial coalitions and in some instances our issues may be carried by Latino elected officials.”

Such coalitions like L.A. Voice–a multi-racial and multi-faith organization training residents to organize on key issues including most recently redistricting–are already in motion.

By all accounts, there are no easy answers or solutions as shifting demographics have continually evolved and there are so many factors, including thriving businesses that foster job creation. Realtor Janet Singleton, who advocates that Blacks get into the real estate market any way they can, points to the many financial institutions like Union Bank that assist first time home buyers with programs that provide down payments.

“I am in bidding war right now for a one of a kind historical property once owned by blacks in View Park with 17 offers on it.,” said Singleton. “My only wish is that blacks would get their financial priorities in order. Buy the house first and then the car. Most people don’t understand that a car purchase really impacts your debt and then you can’t afford to buy.”

“Bottom line”, says South L.A. resident Myra Johnson, “because we rent more than own, we have become more vulnerable to being displaced and with housing prices in the black community topping $1 million in places like Inglewood, it appears we are going to have to learn to live together and appreciate each other’s cultures. My only hope is that we don’t lose our own in the process.”