May 18, 2011 | 1:04 PM | By

Reducing Racial Infant Mortality Rate Disparities– On Wheels

Courtesy of Jessica Gould

D.C's maternal mobile unit parked in Anacostia.

This post comes courtesy of WAMU Web producer Dana Farrington.

For many women of color in D.C., having a health baby is a challenge unto itself.

The city’s infant mortality rates show marked disparities that cut across racial and class lines. One way the city is looking to address the racial gap is through the D.C. Health Department’s maternal mobile unit, a clinic-on-wheels that drives to the poorest parts of the city — its funded to serve Wards 5 through 8 — to offer pregnancy tests and connect expectant moms with adequate prenatal care.

The unit, which receives funding from the federal Healthy Start program, had to be taken off of the streets for six months for maintenance. It’s been back in commission since February, and 67 residents have received service on the unit since.

WAMU reporter Jessica Gould spoke to Tamika, a 17-year-old Anacosita resident who received a pregnancy and HIV test once it came back in service. She told her that more women should follow her lead:

“So we can know… ‘Cause a lot of people don’t take time out and go to the doctor. For us to have this on the street you could just walk up and take 20 minutes to get tested and you’ll know.”

In D.C. the infant mortality rate was 10.9 deaths per every 1,000 live births in 2008, compared to the national rate of 6.9. The District’s rate is comparable to other large U.S. cities, but it’s the worst when up against the 50 states [PDF]. D.C. also ranks poorly when it comes to infants born with low birth weight.

But the outlook is worse for black women. In D.C., black women had an infant mortality rate of 17.2 deaths per every 1,000 live birth in 2007 — more than 4.5 times the rate for white women. The rate for Hispanic women in the District was 9.4

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FILED UNDER: The People, D.C. Department of Health, Infant Mortality Rate
May 18, 2011 | 9:16 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Claiming Blackness, Prioritizing Parking over Hunger and Overcharging Bus Riders

Good morning, DCentric readers! Why not start your Wednesday with some links:

To Be Black, And Also A “Mutt” “In response to perceived social slights, West severs Obama from any individual claim to blackness while inviting him to accept the terms of an implicit contract by which his lost negritude might be restored. For mixed people, blackness is not accepted as a fact of existence but something negotiable, a question of membership to which those whom are Truly Black may grant you access. This gives the game away of course, the reality of race as an invention, if one we have no choice but to live with.” (The American Prospect)

Councilmembers vehemently stand up for stingy, multiple-car owning, wealthy residents “In a budget that makes very deep cuts, there was more passion for keeping parking cheap and for keeping taxes on the wealthy low than anything for keeping people off the street and from going hungry…This parochial argumentation seemed more bizarre in the context of all the cuts that threaten the life or health of some of the least fortunate residents. Asking households with 3 cars to pay $100 more per year is apparently “exorbitant,” to use Thomas’ term, but having families unable to get basic food and shelter didn’t stir up nearly as much outrage.” (Greater Greater Washington)

Metro Bus Riders With 7 Day Pass Charged Extra “Many passengers have noticed that their SmarTrip card is being charged bus fare, which means the $15 pass they bought is money out the window. ‘In two weeks I went though $100,’ said Corinthia Offutt, an Anacostia resident. Metro officials admit there is a problem with their software, but they say it will take until next month to get it fixed. Until then it’s up to customers figure out if they’ve been overcharged.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
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May 17, 2011 | 1:53 PM | By

Tweet of the Day, 05.17

@DCntrc for all the bias against renters they are more tight knit than single family homeowners, i think.
May 17, 2011 11:34 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@anc7c04
Sylvia C. Brown

This tweet was sent in response to our post on tightly-knit communities in Anacostia.

FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Renters
May 17, 2011 | 11:12 AM | By

Tightly-Knit Communities in Anacostia

In reading The Washington Post’s investigation into failed affordable housing projects backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, one piece in particular struck me: the description of one of these failed D.C. projects, which had initially been set for renovation. This particular property was “a 26-unit, rent-controlled building perched on a hillside on 29th Street SE.”

In 2004, when the building was first put on the market, apartment developer Steve Schwat offered $950,000 to buy it. Schwat planned to make repairs without displacing families. At the time, the complex was home to a tightknit group of tenants who would share dinners and keep watch over one another’s children.

The Schwat sale never happened.

Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images

A young boy walks to school along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE in Anacostia.

The positive characterization of this small community contrasts with the stereotypical images and negative descriptions often associated with low-income, predominately black neighborhoods.

A different buyer eventually emerged, though, and the tenants ended up taking buy-out deals in exchange for moving from the building, the Post reports, thus breaking up this close-knit group of residents.

May 17, 2011 | 9:00 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Punching Earthquakes, From Anacostia to College and Monopolizing Blackness

Good morning, DCentric readers! Five fresh links await you:

Interview with Alycea on Punching Earthquakes and Tornadoes "My name is Alycea. I am five-years-old…I want to tell all of the kids in Washington not to worry about tornadoes and earthquakes because if they come here, I will punch them in the face. I will punch them and then step on them so they won’t knock our buildings down. Now can I ask you some questions? Have you ever seen an orangutan eat his own poop at the zoo? Have you ever had a baby in your stomach? Have you ever put cake on your pizza?” (peoplesdistrict.com)

Sisters Go From The Streets And Trouble To College "The Callahan sisters are among the first teens literally rescued from the streets by the now-struggling Peaceaholics program — founded by Juahar Abraham and Ron Moten, a couple of youth advocates who got healthy funding from then-mayor Adrian Fenty. Moten and Abraham confirm the Callahan sisters were among the toughest and most feared females in Southeast, DC. But once they were recruited to stop the violence, other females followed and agreed to "'do the right things.'" (WUSA Washington, DC)

Apartment construction to spike in D.C. area "A surge in completions may cause area owners to sweat, but the new rentals should be absorbed fairly quickly due to falling vacancy rates, a spike in jobs and a large pool of short-tenure residents, according to the forecast…Asking rents will increase 4.6 percent to $1,442 per month, while a 5.5 percent jump in effective rents to $1,374 per month will reduce concessions to 4.7 percent of asking rents. During 2010, asking rents rose 3.5 percent, and effective rents gained 5.5 percent." (bizjournals.com)

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May 16, 2011 | 3:40 PM | By

In Your Words– Psychology Today on Black Women and Beauty

Psychology Today blogger and evolutionary scientist Satoshi Kanazawa set off a firestorm of tweets today with his post, “Why are black women less physically attractive than other women?”:

science also proved the earth was flat... so i can't be that mad that they "proved" black women less attractive...
May 16, 2011 12:21 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@dscribefreeman
David Meares

A collection of local reactions, below the jump.

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FILED UNDER: The People, Racial Divide, Social Media, Twitter, Women
May 16, 2011 | 3:26 PM | By

On Asking ‘Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive?’

Talk about a problematic question: in a blog post on Psychology Today’s website, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, wonders why black women are less physically attractive.

If you try to look at the post, you’re out of luck. It was published on Sunday, but in an email to DCentric, a Psychology Today editor confirms that the post was permanently removed from the website for editorial reasons. The publication had no official comment on the post, but the move came on Monday afternoon after Kanazawa’s writing had already caused a firestorm on Twitter.

Screenshot: Psychology Today

Satoshi Kanazawa's blog post on black women and beauty was taken down permanently.

Kanazawa developed his question using data from the Add Health study, in which a representative sample set of adolescent Americans have been interviewed three times in the past seven years. At the end of each interview, the interviewer rated the physical attractiveness of the participant on a five-point scale. This total was then averaged out, and based on that, black women were found to be less attractive than their white, Asian and Native American counterparts. Kanazawa calls this an “objective” rating.

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FILED UNDER: Media, The People, Psychology Today, Race
May 16, 2011 | 8:52 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes – Dunbar Celebrates, Teenage Crime Spike and Peaceaholics’ Tough Talk

Good morning, DCentric readers! Welcome back from your weekend.

Profile of ‘Unlikely Brothers’ authors “They don’t even look much like friends. But Michael and J.P., denizens of two very different Washingtons, are at this favorite spot celebrating a relationship that has spanned 25 years and produced a harrowing record of violence, despair and, finally, redemption. After a chance meeting in a homeless shelter in 1984, an aimless 21-year-old activist and a homeless 7-year-old city kid effectively declared each other brothers for life.” (The Washington Post)

Police Drop Search for Missing D.C. Teen’s Body “A Washington, D.C. mother may never bury her 18-year-old daughter, whose body is believed to be entombed in dozens of feet of trash somewhere in a Virginia landfill…Investigators might have been more likely to excavate the landfill if Frazier didn’t belong to the “small world” of blue-collar workers, according to her father, Barry Campbell.” (afro.com)

Graduates From First Black High School Celebrate 75th Reunion “Twenty classmates from Dunbar High School, the country’s first black high school, celebrated their 75th-year reunion last week in Southwest Washington…Dunbar High School began back in 1870 in the basement of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church. The school employed black teachers during a time when most schools would not…One of Dunbar’s earliest principals was the first black graduate of Harvard University.” (The Root)

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May 13, 2011 | 12:00 PM | By

‘Ghetto:’ Five Reasons to Rethink the Word

Kyra Deblaker-Gebhard over on The Hill is Home recounted a run-in she had last weekend near her Capitol Hill home. She exchanged words with a woman who was upset that another car was parked so close to her BMW. Deblaker-Gebhard writes:

… Admittedly, this wasn’t my most shining moment: I immediately jumped to the defense of the parked car’s owner, and not that of the driver irritated with the parking job.  I yelled from my window a suggestion: that they not drive into the city if they were worried about their precious import.  In return, the driver was quick with the insults, first claiming that she lives in the city (then she should be used to the bumps and bruises a bumper receives, right?); then calling me names; and finally, saying that she would never come back to my ghetto neighborhood again.  That’s when I got really angry—she called my neighborhood “ghetto.” After I told her never to come back to the ghetto, she sped off in her BMW and I closed my window and continued to stew in my anger.

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

One of the first ghettos dates back to 1555 in Rome, Italy. Pope Paul IV decreed all Jews must live in this confined area.

The term “ghetto” dates back to describing the neighborhoods to which Jewish Europeans were confined. More recently, it’s been used in the U.S. to describe urban neighborhoods where minority groups live out of economic pressures. But “ghetto” now means a much more than that. Here are five reasons to reconsider using the term: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Around the City
May 13, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By

Unwrapping the Controversy at Chipotle

Courtesy of www.stiffjab.net

The protest at Chipotle was preceded by a march through Columbia Heights.

Thirty-five people marched last week from a local church to the Columbia Heights Chipotle to protest how the restaurant chain fired 40 employees for allegedly lacking forms that prove they’re allowed to legally work in the U.S.

According to the workers, when they returned from a 30-minute break, they found their replacements were already behind the counter. The workers allege that they were not offered any proper notice before or due compensation after the mass termination and “could not even have a lawyer, organizer, or any other person present in order to discuss their demands,” wrote Aaron Morrissey, at DCist.

Courtesy of www.stiffjab.net

Fired Chipotle employee Miguel Bravo, demonstrating on 14th Street.

“We are here to protest the bad treatment of workers. We were fired in a very unjust manner and we feel that’s another form of discrimination against the Latino workers of this place. After they fired us unjustly, they told us they were going to give us a severance payment of $2,000 and now they have refused to follow through with that promise and we are here to demand that they pay us,” Miguel Bravo, one of the workers said at the rally last week with the help of a translator.

Chris Arnold, communications director of Chipotle, denied workers’ allegations that they were treated unfairly. He said the company is responsible for ensuring it is hiring employees without breaking the law.

“The circumstances here relate to a group of about 40 employees, all of whom provided new documents to verify their work authorization status over the span of just a few days. All of those documents proved to be fraudulent. Under the law, we cannot employ any individual who is not legally authorized to work in this country. When we communicated this to the employees, most of them simply walked off the job, others were let go. But there was no mass firing during a break,” Arnold said.
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FILED UNDER: Restaurants, Chipotle, City Council, Columbia Heights, Food, Immigrants