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GENOCIDE AND BLACK ECOLOGY SINNETTE When to this is added the burden of spiraling medical costs, the inaccessibility of medical care, and the lack of preventive health services, it should be apparent to the most casual observer that the source of danger from genocidal disease and death has not lessened; to the contrary, the peril may be greater. In 1972, slum and poverty stricken rural children go either unprotected or partially protected against certain preventable diseases; non-white infant mortality is considerably higher than that of white infants; dental services are virtually non-existent for large segments of the black society; chronic care and nursing facilities, particularly for the aged, are woefully inadequate. A most alarming revelation, and one of enormous significance in terms of its effect on the relationships between black male and black female, is the comment of New York Senator Jacob K. Javits which appeared in the New York Times on December 9, 1971. Senator Javits stated, "It is important to understand that the cited mortality rates mask the tragic difference between black and white America. In 1970, white male infants under one year of age had a death rate of 20.6 per 1000 population, a 2.8 per cent decrease from the previous years; however the equivalent non-white male infant mortality rate was 36.1 per 1000 population, an increase of 2.3 per cent." Furthermore, a recent Federal study has shown a 35 per cent increase in the death rate of non-white males aged 15 to 19 during the five year period 1963-1968. Devastating as these latest figures are, the true measure of their significance can only be fully appreciated when viewed against the backdrop of an almost 30 per cent overall excess of male mortality over females in the period from birth to age one year. The dreary recital of statistical and anecdotal information could be expanded to include narcotics addiction, alcoholism, sickle cell disease, lead poisoning, and a host of other diseases. The malignant neglect of the health needs of a black people is all too apparent. Without one further shred of documentation, it is safe to say that on the basis of the present health picture for blacks in the United States, the charge of the American Civil Rights Congress is as valid today as when it was presented originally in 1951. Afro-Americans are acutely aware of the steady erosion of human rights that were won from the recalcitrant racist society at enormous costs. The rising tide of oppression has been accompanied by an inordinate preoccupation with what is euphemistically described as "the quality of life." Although blacks continue to be denied a living wage, suffer malnutrition, live in substandard housing, and 37
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-16 15:31:28