KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff R.D.
Lottie Jr. discusses economic development in minority
communities Tuesday at a California Legislative Black Caucus forum
in Bradley Hall.
By Karen Albrecht
Daily Bruin Contributor
A forum on issues of economic development and health care in
minority communities Tuesday at UCLA ended in an impromptu aerobics
session aimed at fighting obesity.
After holding a closed meeting, co-sponsored by the UCLA Office
of Government and Community relations, the Chancellor’s
Office, and the California Policy Research Center, members of The
California Black Caucus participated in a discussion of public
policy issues at the Tom Bradley International Hall.
Panelists included members of the California state legislature,
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and several professors
from the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research.
Reinvesting in African American communities was a recurring
theme at the conference and several panelists suggested that
African Americans with the means should provide startup capital for
small businesses.
“We need basic services in our communities that
don’t take a whole lot of money to get started,” Waters
said.
Black Caucus chairman, Assemblyman Roderick Wright, D-South
Central Los Angeles, also stressed the importance of developing
more vocational education opportunities for minority youth who may
be unable to attend a four-year university straight out of high
school.
“If you attempt to go to UCLA and you don’t make it,
in the old days you would have studied drafting, plumbing or
carpentry,” Wright said.
But opportunities to learn a trade are not as prevalent as they
once were according to Wright, and fewer students are using
community college as a jumping-off point to a university
education.
He added that while many young people want traditional high
paying jobs as doctors and lawyers, the demand for blue collar jobs
is higher, and such jobs come with competitive salaries.
“In Los Angeles County right now Mr. Goodwrench makes more
money than your average black lawyer,” Wright said.
The conference also addressed issues of inadequate health care
and the high frequency of obesity and HIV in minority
communities.
Lower quality health care among African Americans and other
minorities is largely a result of low income and education,
according to Jo Ann Dawson, Director of Primary Care at the Arthur
Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.
Because 19 percent of the African American population lacks
health insurance, preventative screenings and treatment are more
difficult to secure, she said at the conference. Even in cases when
mammograms or pap smear results warrant secondary care, African
American women often fail to receive the medical attention they
need.
“We need to recognize that we do have high quality care
from those who are providing the services,” said Sylvia Drew
Ivie, Executive Director of To Help Everyone Clinic.
Eric G. Bing, Director of the Center of AIDS Research, Education
and Services at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and
Science in downtown L.A., provided an example of Tele-medicine as a
solution for providing widespread health care.
Thirty miles away from the Drew Medical Center, a nurse and
patient were able to communicate directly with a doctor at the
Center via the Internet. The doctor was able to visually observe
the patient on a computer screen and give immediate medical
advice.
“Innovations like this are are the things we need to start
doing for HIV care,” he said.
More than 50 percent of L.A. residents are overweight, according
to panelist Antronette K. Yancey, Director of Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion at the L.A. County Department of
Public Health.
In the past, she said, the main focus in the fight against
obesity has been at the individual level. In order to be effective,
larger groups must be targeted. In an active demonstration of the
people’s need for daily exercise, Yancey asked panelists and
audience members to join her in five minutes of aerobics.
“We need social support and peer pressure to get people to
exercise,” Yancey said.
With reports from Michael Falcone, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.