It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation by M.K. Asante Jr Page B

brain causing learning problems, hyperactivity, coordination issues, aggression, erratic behavior, and brain damage. There is a lot of lead in much of the housing in me, especially in the projects, so children are exposed to lead.
    See, health is connected to everything. Both lead poisoning and asthma are severe problems on their own; however, they mushroom because they greatly diminish a child’s school performance and are the leading causes of absenteeism. Not to mention many children are malnourished, which leads to headaches, lack of concentration, frequent colds, and fatigue. You would think that schools in me would be more equipped to deal with these kind of issues, but they are actually given less funds. It’s a systematic holocaust.
    Every illness, especially untreated, makes it more difficult to deal with an already extremely difficult environment. People who live inme are more likely to work and live in conditions that are detrimental to their health.
    What do you—
    Oh, not to mention that just being poor—period—and the stress from poverty is a huge detriment to one’s health.
    Dr. King, in a book called
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
said—
    Are you paraphrasing?
    No, I memorized it. It’s that good. He said,
    The children’s clothes are too skimpy to protect them from the Chicago wind, and a closer look reveals the mucus in the corners of their bright eyes, and you are reminded that vitamin pills and flu shots are luxuries which they can ill afford. The “runny noses” of ghetto children become a graphic symbol of medical neglect in a society which has mastered most of the diseases from which they will too soon die. There is something wrong in a society which allows this to happen
.
     
    What do you think can be done about this?
    People need universal health care, for starters, to begin to climb out of the desolate pits of poverty. Right now, nearly all of my citizens, and more than 43 million Americans in total, are uninsured and it doesn’t have to be like this. Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), for example, proposes a single payer plan that would provide coverage for all Americans without increasing total costs, every year; however, it’s never been approved. Moreover, this is what the people want—not just my people, but most Americans. A USA/Harris poll recently conducted showed that 77 percent of the general public believes the government should provide universal health care.
    The other important thing is unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance keeps people who have been laid off above the poverty level; however, the way it’s structured now, 60 percent of people who are laid off don’t receive any temporary monies. We must do this. It would mean no person willing and ready to work should be living in poverty.
    Another thing is expanding Supplemental Security Income, a program that provides benefits to those permanently disabled, and workers’ compensation, a program that provides benefits to workers who have been injured on the job. Everyone who cannot work should receive benefits. Right now, people who have been temporarily disabled from injuries caused off the job cannot receive benefits from either program. What’s worse is that even those who are permanently disabled—by mental illness, disability due to addiction, and hard-to-prove conditions like back pain—are not eligible to receive any benefits.
    How much would all this cost?
    That can’t be determined for sure, but consider this: in 1999, the “poverty gap,” which is the amount of money needed to raise all the incomes to at least the poverty line, was $65 billion. Yearly Social Security income is $500 billion. And the tax cut we got in 2001 was $1.3 trillion. America has the loot.
    Why are your schools, some of which I attended, failing?
    Because poor African-Americans are forced into me, my schools are almost completely segregated. Secondary and elementary schools are funded mainly through local