Eating Healthier...Can my community have fresh foods too?

So I am watching the world news yesterday and they were talking about America and how unhealthy as a country we are. A study was done that showed that obesity is increasing nationwide but its mostly high in Mississippi and least high in Colorado. Childhood obesity is also increasing by 19%. Most of these increases in obesity are due to the recession, being that people are losing jobs and becoming depressed.

The result of increased obesity leads to more health insurance which is an expense that most Americans are unable to afford (and even if you have said coverage often times u still wind up with a crazy medical bill. Thats why i support universal health care). So even though the government is attempting to to get rid of unhealthy foods in schools for example removing soda machines, longer gym classes and providing more healthier lunches there is no evidence based on the report that its working.

To be honest i didn't think it would work. I am not tryna knock the efforts of the government (or am I) in providing healthier lunches in schools cuz I think its important that students eat healthy food that keeps their energy levels high and their brain functioning rather than them being all tired out from the greasy and heavy lunch they ate 40 minutes ago. But that is something hard to keep up with when the same children return home to their neighborhoods where there is a fast food restaurant on every corner or their local supermarket has rotting fruits and veggies or the healthy food available costs more than their parents can afford while unhealthy food is way cheaper.

These are the realities especially if a child lives in an urban neighborhood. Need more proof lets take my neighborhood for example:

I live in Lefrak city, essentially i see it as the center of Queens being that there is everything one would need within walking distance, we have like 4 malls(this is questionable but I guess I will save that for another post), the train station is like 10 minutes away walking distance (which will get you into Manhattan in 20 minutes), you can walk to the pharmacy (which sux but none the less its nearby) there is a gym around the corner..well you get it. Even with all the goodies of a simple and modern life offered in the Corona area, as far as health goes its probably a really bad place to live. Down the block from me is a baskin robins and a dunkin dough nuts which is right next to a brand new 7-11.

On 99th st (around the corner) is a deli which makes sandwiches and other hot meals (burgers, wings, fries etc.), a Chinese restaurant and a pizzeria.

On 57th ( around the corner from 57th) there is a pizzeria, Chinese restaurant, a chicken place, a McDonald's, and another dunkin donuts and baskin robins. and further down 57th is Queens Center Mall which has a shit load of other fast food restaurants where people can go to stuff their faces after spending their hard earned $. So where i live is full of fast food that is cheap quick and easy especially if your a hard working parent who does not have the time or the energy to cook food so grabbing a quick meal seems like the best choice.

Or maybe you want to cook a nice meal, so you visit the local supermarket (which has run the other supermarkets out of business and the two markets available to you are the same and owned by the same people) to get fresh produces and u realize that none of the veggies and fruits are ripe or they are rotting, or they are expensive and there are no other healthier options that won't break your piggy bank.

So as you can see there is not much that people are able to obtain in their own neighborhood in regards to eating healthy. So in my opinion the government is going into schools and providing healthier lunches but what about in the urban neighborhood? why are there so many fast food eateries that take peoples money but don't give back and do not offer any type of healthy food options? why is it that local supermarkets do not provide fresh foods at an affordable price but complain that the people in the neighborhood who support the establishment are complaining? Can i get a local health food store in my neighborhood? why is no one speaking out (including myself)

I feel like the government should not expect people to lose weight just cuz they establish a healthy lunch program...ok that's great but what more can you do?

And most importantly we should not be waiting on the government to provide these things for us we should be rallying and demanding these things from our local neighborhood markets and eateries. Our communities (especially Black and Latino) need to be made aware of the importance of our health and how we can maintain it by eating the proper foods-but how can this happen if we dont have those proper foods made available to us or demand for these foods?

Those of us who are educated on such issues need to get together and attempt to educate others, start organizing, growing our own fruits and vegetables, teaching the future generation about healthy foods and community agriculture. We need to take our health into our own hands being that inorder to fight the powers that be we need strong, healthy bodies who are able to resist and fight for the liberation of our people...

Keep asking questions, being critical and please lets start our day out in a healthier direction...

Same shit different technique

So I am sitting at home today looking at television and this commercial comes on for the HPV vaccination Gardasil. So this is not the first time that I have seen these commercials but to be honest i don't really pay attention to them, none the less normally these commercials have a bunch of young teenage girls jumping rope or swimming or singing, basically while they are engaged in all of these activities they are discussing how they want to be one less..(one less statistic with HPV). This commercial though had mothers with their daughters doing stuff together (walkin on a beach, and other activities as mentioned above.) The mothers in the commercial are the ones talking about their daughters getting the vaccine and how important it is for their safety. There was one mom who stated that because the CDC said that her daughter needed it it was necessary for her to get the shot. So I am sitting here thinkin you've got to be kidding me! Most of the women in these commercials are often women of color and I realize how heavily they advertise for the gardasil vaccine in urban neighborhoods.

Seeing this commercial prompted me to do a little bit of research of my own to find out about this vaccine (which I myself have received). One idea that crossed my mind after looking at the commercial was the historical sterilization and control of Black women's bodies that people other then Black women have been able to control. This is evident during the time of enslavement, where Black women's bodies were utilized as baby making factories. Essentially these enslaved women were not the final deciders as to whether they wanted to have children and who they wanted to have these children with. Their slave masters were the ones who profited off Black women's ability to bring life into the world.

Least we forget that not only were enslaved women raped, sexually assaulted and bred like cattle in order for white men to gain profit, but the children of these women were taken away from them and funneled into the system of enslavement. So not only were enslaved African women unable to make the choice to engage in motherhood but they were also unable to have a say in the life chances of their own seeds (I don't want to leave African men out, because they were also unable to raise and care for their own seeds the way they saw fit and the Black male body has also been hypersexualized and profited off of).

According to various scholars there was a boom in the population of Blacks in the United States due to enslavement, thus there needed to be a way to control the current population. Thus resulting in the sterilization of African American women and other women of color during the 1970s which according to Dorothy Roberts author of "Killing the Black Body" became the most popular form of birth control. Many of these young girls during the 1970s were being sterilized without their parents even knowing (and you guessed it this was happening in neighborhoods in which the inhabitants looked like us-Black and Brown people) Not only was this happening in inner cities but also in the South. Roberts writes " Black women were routinely sterilized without their informed consent and for no valid medical reason. Teaching hospitals performed. unnecessary hysterectomies on poor Black women as practice for their medical residents. This sort of abuse was so widespread in the South that these operations came to be known as 'Mississippi appendectomies "

Examples such as those provided by Roberts proves the negative attitudes towards women of color and the sacredness of their bodies. The government, hospitals, and medical universities saw black women as guinea pigs whose bodies they could poke at without consent . This leads into my rant about the Gardasil vaccine, (which i have received the first two shots and I am scheduled to get the final one) being that this is a fresh vaccine that randomly popped out of no where in response to cervical cancer and HPV (another virus i feel as though is just as recent as the vaccine, but i could be wrong), has had no clinical testing, has had close to 10,000 reports of inverse reactions and 21 cases of death, and the fact that the company that created the vaccine (Merrick) is unwilling to further test the vaccine due to a lack of proof that the vaccine is the cause of inverse reactions and deaths. All of this looks suspect to me and to be honest I would push for women to be suspect of this vaccine (esp African American and Latino women)

This vaccine has been packaged, processed and sold to us as though it is something necessary for girls between the ages of 9-26. As African American women we have the right to question the health and medical industry especially if you look at the history of medical abuse African people have endured up to today (Read Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial time to the Present by Harriet A Washington).

In the back of my head i am thinkin is this another way for the powers that be to control Black bodies? Right off the bat the answer would be yes. I don't know if i have or will experience any side effects from the vaccine (i am not even sure if i am 100% down for getting my final shot) but the fact that this vaccine is promoted heavily to women of color and readily available at any clinic as well as heavily advertised by these clinics and private doctor offices( i remember my 1st shot they as you if you want the shot but do not tell you any information until after the fact when they handed me a pamphlet ) should raise many people eyebrows. One step to breakin the shackles of oppression and freeing ourselves of the control of others is to gain control over our bodies. For years Black folks (especially Black women) have been denied the right to control their own temples (bodies) and we are constantly feed a drug or a vaccine that someone else sees as beneficial for us.

It necessary that we free our minds and bodies otherwise the powers that be will continue to poison us...

Continue to be critical ya'll

Bless...

BOOO 4 the Amazon Kindle

So everywhere I go I have seen these advertisements for the amazon Kindle. Basically the kindle is this hand-held wireless machine that allows people to read books off it. So you download a book onto the machine and BAM! ur favorite book is automatically in your hand on this thin portable screen. According to amazon the kindle was

-"designed [sic] with long-form reading in mind. When reading for long periods of time, people naturally shift positions and often like to read with one hand. Kindle's page-turning buttons are located on both sides, allowing you to read and turn pages comfortably with one hand from any position"

-"The ultimate travel companion, Kindle weighs 10.2 ounces and holds more than 1,500 books. No longer pick and choose which books fit in your carry-on. Now you can always have your entire library with you". (cuz it hold 1500 books)

It also utilizes G3 so that within 60 seconds your book will be loaded onto your hand-held computer book thingy. Not only that but you are able to go onto wikipedia and look up information if necessary, the screen has a paper like look being that it "Utilizing the latest in electronic-ink display technology", thus there is "no glare or backlight, reading on Kindle is nothing like reading from a computer screen", there is an option that allows the device to read to you if you are too lazy to read on your own, your able to write in the margins and highlight certain areas in the the book...ok ok i think i have said enough too much infact that it may make yall want to go out there and buy one. Oh yess cuz i wanted to buy one when I 1st saw it last summer (but fortunately i am too poor and broke to be able to afford one of those so I would just look at it online) None the less I am glad that I am unable to afford one of those kindle things. I mean this new technology has taken the fun out of reading! Thats right i said fun and reading in one sentence.

Now my opinion def is going to be biased being that as a child I LOVED (and still do) to read. I would read anything any where...a book was always in my hand and i enjoyed trips to the bookstore (to this day I would find myself in a bookstore trying to decide which two books out of a stack of 6 I should purchase). Anywho reading is important being that this is the way you gain information and knowledge (but this is also dependent upon whose book your reading and their opinions and views that have shaped the book you are reading)

Let me tell you a comfortable afternoon to me is me, a beer,a (good/critical) book, a pen or pencil and an ashtray (need i say what thas for). I get xcited just thinking about the first crease i put in the binding of my new book and how ready the pages are for me to mark em up with questions and statements such as "wow", "did he/she really just say that", "this point is connected to that point because...", "this is representative of..." and so forth.

Recently i realized how the Kindle is attempting to take away the joyus moment i share with my books. The smell and feel of a new book has all been replaced by a white flat electronic handheld device that essentially puts the answers and simplifies everything for me. Not to say simplicity is not welcomed in my world...but i do feel as though when it comes to reading and research simplicity is not always good.

Now i am not gonna say that the kindle is all bad cuz it may work for some people...you know people that travel alot and want to read their favorite book but don't want to deal with carrying a bunch of book with them on the road or...well honestly those are the only people that i can think of that would need the kindle. None the less I am mad at this new Kindle revolution that is coming about attempting to make reading off of a screen (even though it has a paper look to it its still a screen that you are reading from!! silly billys) better then going to the store and buyin a book and using your hands to flip pages and write notes in the margin (i mean cmon we dont exercise enough as it is already so we cant deal with holding a book and flipping the pages at the sametime??).

And i am not fooled by this whole concept of saving the trees...i dont buy a book to read and then toss it! I either keep it or i pass it on to the next person to read (and i know there are other ways to print books without destroying trees duh!)

I mean the kindle to me seems like another frivolous way that we are being told to spend our money because if it were something so spectacular and useful it would not cost damn near 400 bucks (thats rent $ in some places)

So if i were you I would not believe the hype! I say we all should rebel that means go to your local used bookstore (yess not a bookstore chain cuz their prices and selections are horrible...I will write another blog about that..yess Barnes & Noble that means i am comin for ya!) purchase all the books u can afford and read em, write notes in the margin, make dogears, talk to others about that book you read or pass it on to a friend, enjoy making creases in the binding of your books! and Read Read Read !!!!!

Keep being critical!

Big Love Season 3- battling being entertained vs. being critical

So the other day I attempted to catch up with one of my favorite shows, Big Love. Big Love chronicles the lives of a fundamentalist Mormon family that practices polygamy. The show has been on for 3 seasons and to be honest I love this show but recently I have questioned some of the occurrences in the 3rd season of the show. The main character Bill Hendrickson is married to three women, his first wife Barb ( the legally married to Bill who has struggled with cancer and questions the polygamous lifestyle), 2nd wife Nikki (shopaholic, drama queen, crazy woman who is struggling with daddy issues and is essentially brainwashed by her own religion) and his 3rd wife Margene (the youngest of the three who often times is put down by nikki and in my opinion says the wrong things at the wrong times and can be annoying as hell).

All together they have 8 children. Throughout the show the family struggles with keeping their polygamous lifestyle a secret from their quite white "picket fenced" neighborhood, Bill attempting to keep his family business (Home Plus) afloat while at the same time dibbing and dabbing in a gaming business and recently attempting to acquire a casino on a Native American reservation (hmm..), Bill's attempt to juggle the relationship with his 3 wives and most importantly his strained relationship with Nikki's (evil) father Roman Grant as well as the family struggling with issues caused by family members who live on a polygamus compound and other members of their family who disagree with their life style.

All in all this show has so many twists and turns I often find it hard to keep up with. None the less the 3rd season deals with the introduction of a 4th wife into the family, Bill and Barb's oldest daughters preganacy and miscarriage and their son's attraction to Marge, Roman Grants arrest for rape and underage marriage, and a whole bunch of other crap. I watched 9 of the 10 episodes for season 3 and towards the end I found myself questioning a few of the confrontations the family had to face throughout the season.

Confrontation 1:

The oldest daughter engaging in pre-marital sex resulting in her pregnancy. The daughter was able to hide it from her parents for approx. 3 episodes and it was not discovered until the end of a family trip. Both Bill and Barb were hurt by her actions but I felt as though there was more of a concern for their daughter engaging in sex b4 marriage versus her emotional and physical well being in regards to losing her baby. It became more of an issue of going against their religion and it provided a perfect example as to how religion is used to control the actions of others. I am not going to disregard any parents feelings of disappointment in that situation esp. since the way in which they had to find out was pretty jacked up, but their perception of the situation as just involving their daughter going against their religion I think is crazy.

Confrontation 2:

Bill and Barb's daughter's situation goes hand in hand with Nikki taking birth control pills and not telling Bill and her sisterwives what she was doing. Everyone was under the impression that she was having problems with her fertility. Both Barbara and Marge took her to a fertility clinic and unknowing to them Nikki disclosed to the doctor that she was taking birth control and accepted another prescription from the doctor.

This is a touchy situation being that once again this is where the family's religion comes into play. Accroding to Bill and Barb the goal is for their family to grow and by Nikki taking birth control it hinders with the ultimate goal they are tryna achieve. Now i understand that it is not about the individual and I do agree with the fact the Nikki should have been more honest about her decision to take birth control but i dont feel as though she should not have control over her own body. This is where the religion portion comes in. Nikki's acts go against their religious beliefs. So essentially one does not have the right to make their own decisions because it goes against what their Mormon religion tells them is right. I also feel like the growth of their family should not be a major concern esp since Bill is trying to keep 2 of his businesses afloat while trying to start another.

Confrontation 3:

While the Hendrickson family was out on their family vacation Bill and Barb's youngest daughter Teeny was talking to an older African American gentleman about their Mormon beliefs (their family trip was based on learning about their religious ancestors and visiting historical landmarks that involved Mormons) and why the Mormon way is the right way. Bill came to his daughter's side and apologized on her behalf. The older man stated that he disagreed with the Mormon religion and claimed that being a baptist was the best way, he also raised the fact that the Mormon religion never accepted Blacks. This point was over looked and brushed off by Bill. Let me make it clear, all Christian religions have been utilized as a means of control over all people of color so I am not in support of Christianity. I found this interesting being that the Book of Mormon does not have anything good to say about Blacks.

Essentially the Mormon religion believes that whites are the ones who are the defenders of good against the devil and his goons and African descended people are those who are neutral...thats how they came to exist. (don't believe me--> look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaWt03Z3w)

What disappointed me the most is that Big Love does not address this aspect of their religion (neither do they look at the relationship between Mormons and Native american peoples). I think these relationships are most important to address being that the show attempts to portray mormonism in a "non-biased" light but it neglects to provide the truth about the Mormon religion. Maybe I am asking for to much from a t.v show that is solely based on drama.

The issue with this though is that people watch shows like this and are not critical. I noticed how hard it was for me to watch the show being that i did not agree with the way the show dealt with certain issues. Not to say that i will not watch season 4-but my eyes/mind will be more open to how they address certain issues...

Keep asking questions & being critical yall

Bless...

Can one reclaim their Indianness?

iight so your girl is fuckin up as usual. So aside from me having feelings of depression and inadequacy about finding a job and this new guy (that i prob scared off cuz i am too damn clingy) i would say that my personal life is def. going in the opposite direction than planned. None the less aside from all that I use reading as a means of trying to get my mind off of the stuff that bugs me.

So currently i am reading Spirit and Resistance by George E. Tinker. This book looks at the concept of Indianness and how europeans have been the ones to define what it means to be Indian. During my final semester at New Paltz I took a course called Indians of North America and we never discussed the concept of Indianness and how one defines themselves. Well let me take that back we did but we did it from the colonizers perspective and not the perspective of those anthropology has termed the "other" Anywho so I am reading a few chapters of the book that i had photocopied. Reading this book (alongside God is Red) is my attempt to make parallels between Native Americans experience with europeans to African peoples experiences with europeans.

One issue that I have with Tinker is his response to someone who is of mixed blood (those individuals of Native American and european descent who have been denied their right to know their heritage in some instances) None the less the issue here with mixed bloods is that they are the ones who are reaping all the benefits from reclaiming their heritage that should be entitled to those Native American people who are most effected by the United States governments racists laws.

In Tinkers response to a mixed blood he states essentially that it is a lost cause for there to be a reconnection of ones Native Am. heritage being that they have been immersed in european culture for such a long time that it becomes 2nd nature. I find this point of information interesting being that couldnt the same be said for people of African descent. It is obvious that europeans are the ones running things (and you cant disagree esp if you look at the major institutions and who is in control of them). Lets not be confused with the idea that euros are only controlling politics and economics but they are in control of culture (essentially if they are controlling how a people govern themselves and sustain their communities they def are controlling their culture...its all connected).

Anywho so people of color (African ppl throughout the diaspora in particular) are trying to emulate their colonizers in all aspects of their lives...you name it relationships, how we run our communities, how we define success, being individualistic....etc. These are all actions that are alien to us and unnatural and because we are diverting so far away from who we are culturally we are essentially killing ourselves spiritually and mentally. So being that we are immersed in European culture so much would we be unable to go back and reclaim our past (sankofa) the same can be said for African people of mixed heritage...does this mean that because they are immersed in european culture so much they are unable to reclaim their past?

I ask this being that I am grappling with Tinkers opinion. There are different things at stake when we talk about Native Am and Africans. There are cultural differences but i dont think that they are that far apart.

I think in denying mixed bloods the ability to reclaim their past can be damaging to themselves and the Indian community. I do understand that there are those who are calling themselves native am. only to reap the benefits and that can def. be a major reason to the hesitancy and dismissal of Tinker...I am not quite prepared to answer this issue as of yet but it is a factor that i do take into consideration.

Okay so this is the most that i have written and i think I am kinda burnt out but there will be more tomorrow stay tuned as i attempt to share the knowledge i gain with the masses....

Keep being critical folks...later days...