Activist Damu Smith: Fighting Systemic Racial Disparities in American Healthcare

Damu Smith is a pillar of the peace and anti-racism movements in the United States. He founded Black Voices for Peace and the National Black Environmental Justice Network. He hosts the program Spirit in Action on Pacifica station WPFW. He was a key leader in the anti-Apartheid movement and has fought police brutality in Washington, DC and around the country.

Now, Damu Smith is fighting for his life. He was in Israel-Palestine earlier this year for a peace march when he collapsed and was taken to a hospital. Doctors there found polyps on his colon and a tumor in his liver. They told him he had three to six months to live. Damu is 53-years-old and has a 12-year-old daughter.

This year the American College of Gastroenterology issued new guidelines urging African Americans to be screened for colon cancer beginning at age 45—five years earlier than other people. African Americans have the highest rates of mortality from heart failure, cancer, and AIDS out of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. People of color face a lower overall quality of health services than white people and lack access to routine medical care.

Damu Smith is using both natural and pharmaceutical medications to fight the cancer and told the Washington Post "I’m going to be the poster child for twice-a-year screenings."

We’re joined now in our Washington DC by Damu Smith. We’ll talk about his years of activism and his battle today for his life. And we will also speak with Dr. Joseph Betancourt, an expert on racial disparities in healthcare. But first, we go to a an excerpt of a speech by Damu Smith delivered at Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. on January 21st, 2005, one day after the inauguration of George W. Bush.

* Damu Smith, speaking at Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. on January 21st, 2005, one day after the inauguration of George W. Bush.

An initiative launched last month by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will address racial disparities in healthcare head on. A city-sponsored study found that Black men in Boston die on average five years sooner than white men. Black people are twice as likely to die from diabetes and four times more likely to contract HIV. The new initiative will funnel one million dollars into detailed tracking of racial differences in patient care and cultural awareness training for healthcare providers.

* Dr. Joseph Betancourt, senior scientist at the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was part of the panel for the Institute of Medicine that published “Unequal Treatment," a 2003 study examining racial disparities in health care. He also worked closely with the city to develop the iniative addressing healthcare inequality.
* Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace and executive director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. To donate funds for Damu Smith’s healthcare fund, go to damusmith.org.

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