RetroBlogHer: Malpractice reform and the health care overhaul: The truth behind the rhetoric

October 15, 2018 by professorkim 1 Comment

Note: From 2006-2012, I was an editor and contributor to BlogHer.com. Because of changes in ownership, the content I created is no longer visible on the site. I have been retrieving some of the work that I did on the site that got the most response and republishing it here.

This particular blog post was part of a 2009 BlogHer collaboration with the Sunlight Foundation to stimulate informed discussion on what would become the Affordable Care Act. Sunlight had created a tool, OpenCongress.org, that allowed one to read the full text of proposed legislation and annotate it paragraph by paragraph with comments and questions. One could track the progress of the bill by adding a widget to a personal blog or website.

This was one of several blog posts I wrote on particular aspects of the act. This is the opening post in the series. Other members of the staff also researched the bill and posted from their respective beats. For the most part, the discussion, while passionate, was informed and civil.

Malpractice reform and the health care overhaul: the truth behind the rhetoric

March 9, 2010 by Kim Pearson

I used to have a gynecologist that I absolutely loved – at least as much as you can love someone who wields a speculum. She saw me through a difficult pregnancy. She made me feel as if she really cared about my health. She listened to me and answered my questions.

Then my insurance plan went out of business. I found an HMO that had a roster of doctors I wanted, including my gynecologist. That was fine for a while, until the day I called for an appointment for my regular checkup only to learn that she was dropping my insurer, along with several others. As with many other ob-gyns, I was told she’d concluded that her reimbursements from the insurance companies didn’t cover her malpractice premiums.

Fortunately, I found another great gynecologist. However, stories about doctors’ complaints about excessive malpractice insurance premiums and frivolous lawsuits have persisted. Indeed, one of the few areas of apparent agreement between Pres. Obama and his Republican opponents in the health care reform debate is that finding ways to limit medical malpractice suits might be one way to reduce health care costs. Of course, supporters and opponents of the current health care reform legislation differ about the best way to approach that reform.

Republicans favor laws that limit liability, while the Democrats have emphasized reducing medical errors. Republicans tout a Congressional Budget Office estimate that tort reform could cut medical expenditures by $54 billion over ten years.

But there is the problem that little evidence exist to show that malpractice reform really reduces patients’ costs, while considerable evidence suggests the wrong kind of reform could cost patients’ lives. At Pres. Obama’s televised health care summit with Congressional leaders last month, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) drew on his experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in malpractice suits to make precisely that point:

(You can also read the transcript.)

Tort reform has long been a central tenet of health care reform proposals by Republican leaders. The alternative health care reform legislation sponsored by Rep. John Boehner limits plaintiff’s non-economic damages to $250,000. (Read the bill .pdf)

During Pres. Obama’s televised health care summit, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) touted Texas’ tort reform law which he said had attracted 18,000 doctors to the state and reduced malpractice premiums by 27 percent. But Seminal at Firedoglake cites a study by Public Citizen which found that since Texas passed its law limiting defendants’ liability to $250,000, more people are uninsured, health care costs are rising faster than the national average, and the numbers of doctors in under-served areas has actually declined. The full Public Citizen Study is here (.pdf)

As Pres. Obama noted at the summit, both his plan and the health reform bill passed by the Senate include grants to states for programs to reduce medical errors. Health and Human Services Secretary argued for the merit of this approach in this exchange about controlling costs with David Gregory during a March 7 appearance on Meet The Press:

MR. GREGORY: But you, but you don’t, you don’t deal with tort reform, which the president has talked about more recently.
SEC’Y SEBELIUS: Actually, we do deal with tort reform. That’s just not true. He moved ahead on tort reform early on, directing me to…
MR. GREGORY: Pilot programs is what you supported.
SEC’Y SEBELIUS: …pull money out. Well, but states are in various stages.
MR. GREGORY: Right.
SEC’Y SEBELIUS: And many states, like my own state of Kansas, have already passed full tort reform; others haven’t at all. This is really a state-level situation…
MR. GREGORY: But whether it comes to…
SEC’Y SEBELIUS: …where we want to see the best ideas that work.
MR. GREGORY: …malpractice reform, whether is comes to…
SEC’Y SEBELIUS: Which is in the bill.
MR. GREGORY: …subsidizing volume, whether it comes to, you know, salaries for doctors and so forth, do you really assert–you disagree with Warren Buffett that this adequately bends the cost curve?

The strange thing to me is that critics of the proposed health care reforms deride it as a government takeover of health care, but on this point, they seem to want a mandate from Washington instead of allowing local governments to take the lead. Seems a curious contradiction of Republican ideology, in addition to being of dubious fiscal soundness.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|KimPearson.net|

RetroBlogHer: Beyond Mudslinging – an engaged blogging project on health care reform

October 15, 2018 by professorkim 1 Comment

This was one of several blog posts I wrote on particular aspects of the act. I also wrote about how the bill would address the need for more health care professionals, and how it treated medical malpractice. Other members of the staff also researched the bill and posted from their respective beats. For the most part, the discussion, while passionate, was informed and civil.

We now talk about projects like this as examples of community engagement.I don’t think that term was in use then. I remain proud of the work we did on that project and I still return to the lessons we learned from it. I only wish we had done more of it. Here, the text of the first post is reproduced, with comments. You can see a rendering of the original page at the Internet Archive.

Forget the Spin Doctors. Let’s have a real conversation about health care reform.

August 11, 2009 by Kim Pearson in News & Politics

Stop the madness. Americans have a crucial health care reform proposal moving through the halls of Congress, and we desperately need an informed conversation about its merits. Instead, we’re getting people screaming about whether the people screaming at town hall meetings are sock puppets or concerned citizens. We’re getting statements from some opponents that grossly distort what’s in the bill, and breezy assurances from Pres. Obama that leave important questions unanswered.

Let’s have a serious conversation – you and me – about what we want Congress to do when they return from their fall recess.

First things first. On July 14, House Democrats introduced HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. It’s a whopper – 1,036 pages. Open Congress has the full text of the bill available; you can not only read it, you can comment and make your own suggestions for improvements. Here’s their summary of what the bill entails:

This is the House Democrats’ big health care reform bill. Broadly, it seeks to expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient. To that end, it includes a new government-run insurance plan to compete with the private companies, a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, a prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and, to pay for it all, a surtax on households with an income above $350,000.

Pres. Obama holds health care town halls

Pres. Obama focused on proposed protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and other consumer protections, at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, NH today:

Under the reform we’re proposing, insurance companies will be
prohibited from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history.
Period. (Applause.) They will not be able to drop your coverage if you
get sick. (Applause.) They will not be able to water down your coverage
when you need it. (Applause.) Your health insurance should be there for
you when it counts — not just when you’re paying premiums, but when
you actually get sick. And it will be when we pass this plan.
(Applause.)

Trudy Lieberman, who has been tracking press coverage of the health care debate at the Columbia Journalism Review for more than a year, says when Congress returns in the fall, journalists ought to pay close attention to just how many of those consumer protections survive lobbying pressures and backroom negotiations. On pre-existing conditions, for example, Lieberman warns us to watch for:

Lobbyists inserting language that limits insurers’ risks, like the restrictions in the HIPAA law that still make it difficult for sick people to obtain coverage. President Obama has been silent on the question of age rating, which serves as a proxy for using health as a factor in charging higher rates. Older people are likely to present more health risks and cost the insurers money.

The welfare of elderly and disabled patients under the proposed reforms has been a big topic of conversation ever since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a Facebook note claiming that under the proposed law, her disabled son’s health care would be determined by a “death panel.” That claim was quckly and roundly rebutted. (see Politifact and the Associated Press for details.) However, she also expressed a general mistrust of the so-called public option – a proposed government insurance plan for those who can’t get private insurance. Megan McArdle is one of the people who worries about the potential unintended consequences:

Once the government gets into the business of providing our health
care, the government gets into the business of deciding whose life
matters, and how much. It gets into the business of deciding what we
“really” want, where what we really want can never be a second
chocolate eclair that might make us a size fourteen and raise the cost
of treating us.

Economist Brad DeLong says McArdle doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He pleads:

Could we persuade the Atlantic to replace Megan McArdle with
somebody like David Cutler, Atul Gewande, or Ezekiel Emmanuel who
actually knows and can write about health care for the duration of the
health care debate?

DeLong also points us this piece by Sounthern Bealle, who took particular exception to Gov. Palin’s Facebook note:

You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference
room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told
that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU.
You can’t imagine what it’s like to be advised that you need to “make
some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD”
which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out
of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how
much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that
you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has
been made for you. “Living will” or no, it doesn’t matter. The bank
account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.

Under the proposed reforms, insurance companies wouldn’t be able to cap coverage. The proposal would also pay for Medicare recipients to have a consultation with their doctors about end-of-life care. It also encourages living wills.

One of the biggest sticking point in the health care debate, of course, is the proposed “public option” — the proposed govenment-sponsored plan for those who don’t have private insurance and don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. Conservative critics such as the Heritage Foundation insist that the result would be a “massive erosion of private health insurance.” Rather than a federal pool, Heritage suggests there ought to be state-level “health insurance exchange[s]: in which companies can voluntarily participate:

In a truly competitive market based on
real consumer choice and genuine competition, the suppliers of goods
and services would operate on a level playing field and government
would be confined to making and enforcing rules to protect consumers
from fraud and misleading advertising, establishing minimum standards
for health and safety, and enforcing contracts.

An exchange could facilitate that process.

Critics say the Heritage Foundation proposal wouldn’t help contain costs or significantly reduced the ranks of the uninsured.

What questions do you have about health care reform?

Jane Hamsher, thinks that Democrats could have done a better job of organizing support.
Slate’s Timothy Noah likes the Demcratic proposal.
Moveon has an ad campaign rebutting “lies” about haalth care reform.
Politicact debunks the claim that abortions would get funding under the new proposal.
Salon presents evidence that Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, one of Pres. Obama’s health care policy advisor, isn’t the dangerous nut he’s been made out to be.

Comments: 23

Why not call a spade a spade

Southerngirl August 12, 2009 – 1:11pm

I want, really want this public option. I could then start my own business and not worry that I will end up making less because I could not afford health isurance. THere are many like me who would love to become independent contractors or own a small business but cannot because of health insurance. As a single mom it would be irresponsible of me to not be insured. Those claiming thay ware worried about small businesses are blowing smoke.

The only question I really have is why are all these lies allow to get out and fester? Where is the leadership and the media for that matter on this? Why can’t it just be said in the simplest of terms that these are lies. There are no death panels. Public option would help small businesses flourish. The government will not be making health decisions. Congress has a great health plan run by the government. Finally this IS NOT socialism. Tell the truth!

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

Health Reform Frustration

cooper August 12, 2009 – 4:32pm

I write a more or less personal blog, and the fact that I have done several health care posts in the last few months is a symptom of my frustration.

I think the conversation has been diverted. The insurance companies have in a way already won, and I am disappointed in the plan as it is presented. We need a public option to compete with insurance companies, if not National healthcare. The industry is still unregulated, coercive, and not held to anti-trust laws. The the insurance companies want mandatory coverage, just not a public option to compete with them, that is bothersome and should concern us.

I know the reform is a work in progress, but I am disappointed that this administration has allowed the special interest groups, largely the insurance and big pharma industries, to have such a large seat at the table, and have been less than willing to go out on a limb for what is truly the right thing to do, and that is to take the unethical insurance industry either out of the picture, or to start regulating them. We should all wonder why.

If you have not seen the interview, now broadcast twice on public telly, with Bill Moyer interviewing Wendell Powell (a former longstanding top level executive at Cigna), I suggest it. (Note: the writer is referring to Wendell Potter, with whom I now collaborate on the investigative reporting venture, Tarbell.)

Having known several people who worked in the insurance industry, or as a lobbyist for the industry, over the past ten years, what Powell said mimicked what I have been told, and even what I saw when I interned for my Republican Congressman at the end of my Junior year of college.

In case you haven’t seen it the redux of the full show is here.

The transcript is here.

Ready to scream

theprisonerswife August 12, 2009 – 4:56pm

Like the last commenter, I usually stick to personal issues (or those I can easily understand), but this health care debate is making me frustrated. After a recent trip to the ER with my son, i HAD to jump into the debate (would love your POV. Notes from the ER http://bit.ly/4eXUbR).

i have health insurance, very good insurance (that i don’t pay a dime for. i’m a teacher), but it’s contingent on my job (and my union’s ability to keep insurance as apart of our contract). Why our health coverage can’t be TRULY picked BY us (i.e. like we pick car insurance) is beyond me. If there were a public option , this will go a long way to not only insure MORE people (which, is necessary), but to also give us more choices.

I think that the fevered response over Obama’s health care (you know, all those people yelling & screaming @ town hall mtgs), has a lot to do with the fact that people STILL can’t get over our President is Black. I really believe if George Bush had of presented these ideas, people would be more receptive. I say this because the majority of the people i see in SUCH opposition aren’t minorities. Where is the voice or opinion of non-white people?

I also find it ironic that the same people who want the government to “stay out of their health care” are the same people who rely on Medicare & Social Security. Seriously?

The Dems need a better PR machine. Right now they are getting beaten by the politics of fear & ignorance.

~~Gimme Love: http://theprisonerswife.blogspot.com

In disbelief over the racism card being played in this context

NOfreelunch August 13, 2009 – 3:44pm

Therprisonerswife, have you actually attended any of these town halls? I have attended one and tried to attend another that was too crowded for me to get in. But what I saw at one included a black man who did not agree with the proposed plan and made it clear with his words and actions, all peaceful. Then a group of black people who were in favor of the plan were incensed that the first black man wasn’t “falling into step” with the way he was “supposed” to think, according to them. THEY (the supporters of the plan) became violent, profane and abusive to the man who was NOT a supporter. So there’s a few “non-white” people’s opinions for you that I’ve seen and heard personally.

As a white person, I am deeply offended and angry at your assertion that simply because I may not agree with the proposed plan or certain aspects of it, it’s because I “STILL can’t get over our president is black.” That is judgmental, divisive and plain wrong on so many levels it boggles my mind. In fact, the ONLY thing I truly like about this President thus far IS his color. I certainly haven’t been able to support any major direction change, economic policy or “stimulus” that he’s pushed through, all without the accountability , transparency and time to consider and read these bills he promised so many times. President Obama and some members of Congress are the ones fear mongering while trying to jam these bills through without even the Congress having time to fully read, craft, and debate over reforms on which people can reach some sort of a carefully thought out compromise. This is our health and our life and death, not something that we should just follow “lock step” on as it is quickly shoved down our throats. And if we bother to oppose some things we think are wrong or to *gasp* think independently, we are accused by people like you as being racist, or by Nancy Pelosi as being a part of some kind of organized violent mobs that are trying to impede progress? You have to be kidding me. Do you know how many people of all colors who were in opposition to this at the Town Halls were elderly and even nearly incapacitated? “Violent mobs” of octogenarians and handicapped people? What a joke. It says a lot to me about how far some of the most powerful people on the left are willing to go (and lie if necessary) to vilify anyone who is not in agreement with their policies. If people didn’t want progress and weren’t concerned about the issue, why would they bother to take the huge amount of time and effort it takes to come to these town halls trying to get information and make their voices heard?

You call this “Obama’s health care.” You say it’s because he’s black that people aren’t swallowing it like a spoonful of sugar. Well have you ever bothered to consider that it’s not Obama’s plan at all: it’s the same, tired socialized medicine concept that is being used by other countries that has marginalized health care in myriad ways most Americans aren’t even aware of and thankfully have not yet had to be subjected to. You talk about making choices. Don’t you understand that under a government (socialized) plan so many of those choices and medical care options will be taken away? Right now people from other countries with “Obama care” medicine systems are luckily able to come to the United States to get the medical care they sometimes desperately need and are made to wait for, for sometimes years at a time. Wait until America goes that same way and you will see many of your precious health choices that you have now with your admittedly good plan dissolve in time while someone decides what drugs will be available for certain conditions, when you can have an MRI or a CT scan that will put your frightened mind at ease, when and if you can choose and have your own doctor and what is “elective” surgery or not.

It has been tried in other countries. Their systems are below the levels of excellence and freedom and choices that ours provides. You call people that are not in favor of the plan “ignorant” and “fearful.” Well some of my opinions are based on personal accounts of health care in other countries given to me by close friends and family. Some are based on things that I’ve personally witnessed regarding health care in other countries. Coloring my “ignorance” are heartfelt, passionate opinions from health care providers and physicians from other countries who still do not consider our health care system irretrievably broken. Health care reform? Absolutely. Let’s rip our system apart, get down to the “nitty gritty” and debate, craft and mold it until we have it working better, less costly and more fair. Sacrificing our system altogether for a type that is going to marginalize and destroy competitive innovation and medical excellence that our (admittedly flawed) system has now is not the answer. Not only is it not the answer, but for you to say that I’m racist, ignorant and afraid for believing so is, to me, despicable.

In my opinion it is people like you on the other side of the argument that group the people who are not in favor of such a system into stereotypes and slurs and derogatory portraits that are only contributing to (and sometimes generating) the anger being displayed in these Town Hall meetings.

Respectfully

dianaelee August 14, 2009 – 6:21am

Obviously not everyone opposed to the President’s reform ideas is a racist, but it is disengenuous to ignore the racism that underlies some of the comments lamenting what is happening to our country, particularly when an albeit small, but alarmingly vocal minority don’t even believe he is qualified to be President because he was born in Hawaii.

Racism no longer tends to be overt. Instead, the message comes through loud & clear through particular attitudes and behaviors that reveal these views.

I offer up Glenn Beck as one prime example of this attitude.

Visit me at Somebody Heal Me: The Musings of a Chronic Migraineur

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I strongly disagree

NOfreelunch August 15, 2009 – 1:35pm

As much as I hate to take this any further, as it annoys me that racism debates are even taking up space in what is supposed to be a helpful open forum on health care, I disagree about as much as is humanly possible with what you’ve said, dianaelee. You’re calling it “disingenuous” to “ignore some of the racism underlying” political disagreement with a President of the United States? So then, you’re saying that while not EVERYONE is a racist who has a dissenting political opinion, some are, and it’s “underlying” within their statement? So then when anyone has an opinion of political dissent who is white, Latino, Asian, Pakistani–essentially any race who could qualify as being physically capable of being racist against a black President, they must first be suspected of being secretly racist, even though they have said nothing except that they don’t agree with the issue? Again, you have to be kidding me.

What a riot that lefties all over were furious claiming that anyone was even lightly implying that they were not patriotic if they dissented with Bush. I don’t blame them for being angry at the label, either. They made a federal case out of it and still are. But now, anyone with even one conservative viewpoint has to endure being called a racist because they have the circumstance of having a black President and they don’t agree with him? Gee, I wonder which label is more offensive. Racist or “unpatriotic?” Is there even any comparison there? Considering one is actually libelous, I think not.

And until Glenn Beck says “Obama’s policies aren’t working for me or even working in general because he’s a black man” or makes any suggestion that his disagreement with the President is racial, I still maintain that you calling him or even implying he is a racist just by the virtue of you apparently being some self-appointed mind-reading racism expert is again judgmental, divisive and just plain all kinds of wrong. Who do you think you are lobbing serious and ridiculously offensive accusations like that at someone with absolutely no legitimate reason to think it’s the truth?

Racism isn’t always obvious

siditty August 17, 2009 – 6:20am

And until Glenn Beck says “Obama’s policies aren’t working for me or even working in general because he’s a black man” or makes any suggestion that his disagreement with the President is racial, I still maintain that you calling him or even implying he is a racist just by the virtue of you apparently being some self-appointed mind-reading racism expert is again judgmental, divisive and just plain all kinds of wrong.

Racism extends beyond the obvious, especially in this day and age, which is why with people like you, racism will continue, it goes beyond burning a cross in someone’s yard and dragging them behind a truck.

Glenn Beck is under the impression that health care reform was “reparations” and “to settle old racial scores”. Last I checked, health care reform was for ALL races of people, and contrary to Beck’s belief, which I assume you believe since you are here defending what Beck is saying is that you are under the impression black people are looking for a free ride and will do anything to get it, or that we don’t work or pay taxes, so this isn’t a concern for black people, just another hand out, which to me is racist, ignorant, and inaccurate.

My apologies

NOfreelunch August 18, 2009 – 2:25pm

First off, sorry to invoke the Glenn Beck name again after Kim requesting the opposite.

But I would be remiss without saying that I’m sorry to dianaelee and siditty, in that I had no idea that Glenn Beck had called the President a racist. (Insert joke about “where have I been” or me “living under a rock” here.) The times that I have listened to Beck on my car radio I thought had been frequent enough that I was comfortable he never said anything even approaching racist. All I’ve ever heard from him are conservative rants, mostly about the economy, health care and the like, on which I have to say I did agree with him the majority of the time.

Notice how in my last post I said “UNTIL Beck…suggests his disagreement with the President is racial” that I thought it was dead wrong to call him so, though. As it turns out, Beck did exactly the same thing that made me so mad in this thread: accusations of racism based solely on a political belief, stereotype, assumption or quick judgment. Beck can suspect the President is “racist” until the cows come home, but who does he think he is that he knows what is in the President’s heart? He’s not a mind reader. Therefore he must give the President the respect to keep his mouth shut about things he only suspects based on superficialities. He’s making an assumption based on his own belief, one that he cannot prove and about which he’s jumping to the worst and most offensive possible conclusion.

You’ve both pointed out that racism is not overt like it was in the past. I realize that. But in a way, that makes accusations of racism from both sides even more vicious, dangerous and divisive. Whether it comes from someone like Glenn Beck or it comes from people who view a mass quantity of conservative thinkers racist just by the virtue of their conservative beliefs, it’s so wrong and unfair. It just adds to the hostility in an already volitile political situation.

Siddity, you said in your response to me that because I was defending Glenn Beck that I was “under the impression black people are looking for a free ride and will
do anything to get it, or that we don’t work or pay taxes, so this
isn’t a concern for black people, just another hand out.” In reality, nothing could be further from the truth about how I feel. I only defended him because I thought he was being attacked as a bigot just because he is conservative. Siddity and theprisonerswife, from what I’ve read here we have no chance in hell on agreeing about health care policy, although siddity I respect the fact that you have based you views on the knowledge and experience you have with the situation. But I would like to make a plea for all liberals/progessives to not be judgmental in assuming so many conservatives are racist (or homophobic or any other type of bigoted). It’s become a stereotype that’s just been reiterated by your side one too many times for me to stand, and I reacted strongly. As a white person who has always been one to verbally lambast anyone who is being prejudiced against any minority, being called a racist is to me one of the worst insults there is, and it really hurts. There are so many people like me out there who have respect for people of every race, religion, gender and sexual preference–we just have a different view on what boils down to me to be primarily economic and foreign policy. I wish this was the Utopian “post racial society” that so many others would. Maybe you think I’m some sort of racist liar, and if you do there’s nothing I can do to change that. But I’m writing from my heart here and I hope that’s coming across.

Let’s keep Glenn Beck out of this, please

Kim Pearson August 17, 2009 – 6:26am

His comment about Obama hating white people was so silly, even his managers at FOX disavowed it.

I don’t pretend to discern his psychology or motives, but I do think that the effect of his remarks and approach to issues is racially divisive, intellectually deficient (because I have never seen him consider competing explanations for the limited data that he uses to support his assertions) and generally unhelpful. I know people at FOX who are real journalists and professionals, and I am embarrassed for them that Beck (and others like him) share their airtime.

KimBlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

The Race Card Has Not Been Played

siditty August 17, 2009 – 6:13am

I am in awe over how any time race is even mentioned, it is a “card” used to trump any and everything. The whole “race card” is a buzz word used by racists to keep people from accepting or admitting that for some of these people racism exists. From the teabaggers upset about Obama bailing out big companies (even though Bush did this before Obama even got into office) from the birther movement, to this healthcare discussion that only offers dissent instead of real options; I don’t see how the race card is used.

This president has been nothing but transparent, we are completely aware of what this HR 3200 is, as public option as it is available for anyone to read.

You call this plan “tired socialism” that marginalizes health care in other countries? How is this, despite the scare tactics Canada, the UK, as well as many other countries have managed to provide great care and still give people the option of using private insurance. You keep assuming this is socialized, as if this would be the only option, private healthcare will still exist. The problem with private healthcare now is it isn’t accessible to those with pre-existing conditions, to those who make too much money to qualify for medicaid, but not enough to pay for COBRA when they get laid off, or when the company they own or work for doesn’t provide decent coverage. There are bare bones insurance policies out there that exclude everything under the sun, including pregnancy and prenatal care.

Under a private plan you don’t have choices. You go out of your network and see how much choice you have and how much your insurance company is willing to pay. You have a choice of doctors on an approved list, you don’t get to choose ANY doctor. Trust me with your current insurance plan, you don’t have as much choice as you think, and I want to add, there is nothing in this single payer option plan that states you will not have a choice in doctors.

You say people come to the United States for care, but you forget many other people go to other countries for their treatment because our treatment is unaffordable. I have known people to go to Mexico to get their hernia operations because without insurance here in America it is simply unaffordable. My brother who has narcolepsy can not afford his medication and often gets it from either Canada or India because in those countries, the same exact medication is significantly cheaper.

You are concerned about people waiting. Ask the family of Nataline Sarkisyan why she had to wait for a transplant because her insurance company refused to pay for it. She died waiting. Tell me how easy and quick it is to appeal a denial on a claim. I can tell you as a former claims manager for a healthcare company, the one Nataline Sarkisyan died waiting on, that it can be very time consuming and if you are dying of cancer, you sometimes don’t have that much time.

What countries are “below the level of excellence”? I have yet to see this answer from you or anyone else opposing this. It is frustrating to hear the same accusations over and over with no evidence to back it up.

I come from healthcare my first jobs out of college were in insurance. I wrote and priced group insurance policies as an underwriter, reviewed claims as a claims manager, I have even worked as an insurance analyst, I know healthcare, and what you think you have, is completely different than what you have.

I doubt you have as much choice as you think you do and that your insurance is paying for random tests to give you a piece of mind. The bottom line is healthcare prices have been driven up and the only folks profiting are those in the healthcare and insurance industries, while working people suffer. Believe it or not in America you can get subpar treatment, even with insurance.

Siditty

Regardless of whether it passes or not…

LucindaA August 12, 2009 – 9:05pm

There are a few things I feel I want to point out.

We all have choices. No one is required to take the health insurance provided through your job. Any healthy individual can buy individual insurance. Most choose not to because that would be foolish due to the cost.

I am self-employed. I pay for my own insurance. I have a pre-exisiting that does not allow me to switch insurance companies. I am the poster child for this big reform.

And yet…I don’t want the government creating a health care insurance plan. We have one in Oregon. It’s called the Oregon Health Plan. It handles Medicare among other things. Since OHP was developed, Medicare quality has dropped massively in our state. Our state’s budget is out of control paying for this thing. And still many who qualify for it can’t be bothered to apply. They would rather go to the ER for basic health care costing everyone even more money.

President Obama’s vague answers to detailed questions concerns me greatly. The lobbying concerns me greatly. I am very worried about what the coming months will bring.

Some of this is due to the

cooper August 13, 2009 – 10:28am

Some of this is due to the fact that the insurance industry is not held to federal law – anti trust or regulation – and states make their own rules regarding insurance. As with education which is not nationally controlled, some areas of this country have very poor standards and outcomes outcomes, the same is true for the health insurance industry.

I agree we need more answers, but I also think there are certain things that could be run very well by the federal government, as there are many smaller programs that should be left totally to the individual or the separate states. Education and health care are two things that the folks in D.C. should have the balls to actually do what is right, not what is more likely to get them more campaign contributions.

cooper

Lucinda, Medicare is a

siditty August 17, 2009 – 6:24am

Lucinda,

Medicare is a perfect example of healthcare gone wrong. During the Bush Administration to cut down on costs and fraud, it was determined Medicare Part D, prescription coverage be privatized, I worked for two companies that handled this, it was still full of fraud and cost more money because all the insurance companies were trying to get a piece of the pie and it didn’t cost any less than when it was in government control.

He isn’t vague, you can read the bill for yourself to see exactly what is going on.

Siditty

WSJ: End of life provision likely to be dropped

Kim Pearson August 13, 2009 – 12:07pm

The cost of caring for patients who are near death accounts for a big
piece of the government’s medical spending. But a furor over a
provision for government-paid counseling to plan for end-of-life care
is steering lawmakers away from the issue. (More)

That’s unfortunate

LucindaA August 13, 2009 – 12:48pm

It’s one part of the bill I actually agree with. We are all going to die and end-of-life care can be daunting. Navigating hospice, medicaid, and the multitude of available procedures is tough and a little advice and counseling would help a lot of people deal with this stuff rather than avoid any planning until it’s too late. Having an end-of-life care plan is no different than having a birthing plan in my opinion.

Any real reform needs to address this more effectively

Kim Pearson August 17, 2009 – 11:04am

If I remember correctly, about half of the lifetime health care expenditure for each person takes place in the last six months of life. We can’t begin to calculate the cost in patient longevity and quality of life, no to mention patient and family emotional and financial resources, because too few of us have planned properly.

It may make sense to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid will pay for these kinds of consultations. Now my question is whether it’s true that the bill would require that health care providers submit proof that the consultation has happened? And do we buy the argument that having this kind of consult every five years will make elderly patients feel coerced into accepting euthanasia? Do we know other countries that do this, and is there any evidence to support critics’ claims in that regard? I’m not aware of any.

KimBlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Editors of Femisex.comThis

Femisex August 13, 2009 – 10:13pm

Editors of Femisex.com

This is a complex issue and one of our editors spent years as a health care provider who billed insurance and dealt with the rigors of running a private practice.

Obma is giving us sound bites about misrepresentations but he has given plenty himself.

The plan out now is deeply flawed. Medicare can not sustain the millions Obama would throw into this deeply dysfunctional system. Governors of both parties understand this and are revolting.

A public option is absolutely a way to eventually rid American of private insurance. Key word, eventually–10 years out.

And without private insurance there can be no functional Medicare or Medicaid/Medical as we know it. The double Ms are propped up by the better payments private insurance pays out. Medicaid pays so little that no MDs can afford to take on those patients. I challenge you to call your private MD and ask if she/he takes Medicaid patients. The answer will likely be no, unless you go to a public clinic or hospital for your care. Each day more and more MDs are refusing to take new Medicare pts as well, esp. in larger cities. It just pays too little.

Hospitals are heavily subsidized to take on Medicaid patients. Medicare pays much less than private ins. Without private insurance, your hospital would quickly succumb to budget defeat. The state of Mass. is currently suing the govt. because the load of underfunded public patients has reached a tipping point and hospitals are bleeding RED.

With is plan, Obama is consigning millions of middle class Americans to a future of sub-standard care if his plan goes through. When budgets run dry, when private insurance can no longer keep pace with artificially low premiums set by the government a complete breakdown will ensue.

And of course, the cornerstone of Obama’s plan is ramped up care rationing. To bring millions under the gvt pay for it system will require serious cuts. That is a Duh!

That does not mean cuts are not necessary, but it is deeply dishonest for Mr. Obama to suggest that the only pain American will feel is “not paying for things that dont’ make them healthier.”

Combine this with the fact that for young women, giving the government more access to our reproductive health is not a good idea. A very very bad idea, as a matter fact.

It is essential to insure those who are not. It is essential to cut costs. There are good ideas out there. The most rational, and least disrupting to this country and its economy is to implement cost cutting on medicare now. If Obama’s proposed bend the curve down methods DO work–and history has shown us that is unlikely without tort reform and pay for procedure changes–and Medicare cost saving are realized then we can move forward.

If costs are not cut, we have potentially salvaged this nation from unprecedented debt accumulation that would have occurred with a dive in see what happens later approach. In medicine, clinical trials always start with a small group to test safety. This is a must do approach for reform.

For the millions w/out ins. we can start to tax health benefits. This incentivizes cost savings on a nationwide level and allows us to give private insurance plans to those without coverage.

To streamline the incredible hassle of medical billing, we can standardize re-reimbursement forms across all ins. companies. And we can open up state lines so that Blue Cross of one state can compete with Blue Cross of another. This all makes good sense and Obama knows this. But he is stuck; he promised not to raise taxes on the middle class. He knows that eventually this will have to happen–taxing our health care benefits, but he doesn’t want to the be meanie who did so. I challenge Mr. Obama to be brave enough to tell us the hard truth about what it will cost us to ins. the uninsured. And I warn the uninsured–Medicaid is no good deal. And if this goes through that is what you will get, not the private insurance you deserve.

“And without private

siditty August 17, 2009 – 6:35am

“And without private insurance there can be no functional Medicare or Medicaid/Medical as we know it. The double Ms are propped up by the better payments private insurance pays out. Medicaid pays so little that no MDs can afford to take on those patients.”How so? Explain this to me. “With is plan, Obama is consigning millions of middle class Americans to a future of sub-standard care if his plan goes through”Again explain how this will happen and why does it not happen in other countries?” And of course, the cornerstone of Obama’s plan is ramped up care rationing. To bring millions under the gvt pay for it system will require serious cuts. That is a Duh! “Do you seriously think your insurance company doesn’t do it now? They do trust me. What is considered experimental on many insurance policies, is common wide used practices in hospitals. Ask someone who has chemotherapy about rationing of treatment and having to decide what route to take based upon what their insurance is willing to pay. “For the millions w/out ins. we can start to tax health benefits. This incentivizes cost savings on a nationwide level and allows us to give private insurance plans to those without coverage.”What private insurers will take those with a pre-existing condition. You trust private industry too much, I worked in private industry and don’t. It scares the heck out of me they get away with what they currently do. “To streamline the incredible hassle of medical billing, we can standardize re-reimbursement forms across all ins. companies. “Been there, done that, and it doesn’t work, it has been tried, and it won’t work because not all policies work the same exact way and the standardized form would not be able to account for any and every nuance in policies. There is no huge master policies but millions of small policies. “And we can open up state lines so that Blue Cross of one state can compete with Blue Cross of another.”They don’t compete with each other because they work together. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, I live in Texas, I use a Texas network to access my insurance, Blue Cross isn’t the only player out there, and depending upon your state, because most states have their own insurances boards what Blue Cross Blue Shield does in one state, they can’t do in another. You seem to think this policy is going after folks on medicaid, and it isn’t. It goes after people who can’t qualify for medicaid, but can’t pay for COBRA, or can’t afford or receive individual policies due to pre-existing conditions. It goes after the working people.

Editors of Femisex.comHi

Femisex August 17, 2009 – 7:13am

Editors of Femisex.com

Hi siditty-

Your post, as written, was a bit hard to follow, but I seem to understand that you think we don’t want reform. Not true. You ask:

“What private insurers will take those with a pre-existing condition/”

We fully support legislation that gets rid of the pre-existing conditions clause.

Re rationing, we know rationing occurs now, but as we outline in our post today, the rationing will get much worse under public plan–10 years out.

We also explain in greater detail the mechanics of how the public plan will undermine the entire private insurance industry. I hope you will read this!

Of course, if you have your heart set on single payer system, then you will not care if private ins. goes the way of record albums. But at least we ought to outline how that will come about for the plurality.

Standardizing forms will require legislation to mandate this. We have not tried this with any heart, only fitful isolated attempts. That is a concession Mr. Obama could easily win from the ins. companies if he put muscle into this.

Opening up the insurance companies across state lines will also require legislative changes, so it is not reasonable to suggest that has not worked. In fact, is is now prohibited for those who live in one state to go out of state to get coverage in many many cases.

all best,

If you were to get rid of

siditty August 17, 2009 – 7:56am

IIf you were to get rid of the pre-existing condition clause, that will drive up the cost of insurance, will it not. A policy with no pre-existing conditions is significantly higher than a policy without. I can say in my experience as an underwriter, it was a rare thing to see a policy without pre-existing conditions because the cost was so great.

After reading your article, I fail to see how rationing with get worse with the article you provided. It just says rationing will get worse, without providing specifics as to how this will occur. I understand how a group that advises on medicare issues with cause a shortage. The biggest issues with medicare itself are fraud and bureaucracy. The lunacy of the “donut hole” still baffles most people, most policy makers even. His cost savings as stated in the article you linked would come from that fact that pharmaceutical companies, like in most other places in the world, would be forced to be cheaper because health costs would be driven down by this plan. Does it not concern you that the same drug in Mexico, Canada, the UK, India, Switzerland, and countless other countries is significantly more expensive here in America simply because the companies simply charge so much because they can?

The article also insinuates that those with private insurance pay for those with medicaid, which is only partially true, there is an assumption all those without insurance are poor and on public assistance, when the reality is, many of those who do not have insurance are those who have been dropped or premiums are so high they can’t afford it.

I would also like to see where in the plan it is modeled after medicaid pricing. If you could show me where that is I would appreciate it.

She is right, small business owners and companies like Wal Mart who offer horrible insurance to their employees will embrace and love this plan, but so will their employees who can’t afford the premiums or whose insurance is severely lacking.

In terms of Kaiser Permanente type hospital systems, the majority of hospitals in major cities anyway are like that, it is rare to find a stand alone hospital that is not affiliated with some massive network of other hospitals.

Private insurance dollars don’t prop up people. They are the reason healthcare is so high. They negotiate rates with the healthcare providers, and so far I don’t trust them or the providers to be concerned about the people in general, but rather they have self interests at play.

The article also goes to the notion that people will be forced on the public plan. It is optional.

The plan will help the majority and not a minority. The fact is that even those of us with insurance suffer. The majority of people in this country has health insurance and for those unlucky enough to become seriously ill, these are the people who suffer when having to decide what they can and cannot afford because their insurance has not and will not pay for things to help keep them alive.

I also want someone to explain why CIGNA and other companies still manage to thrive globally even in countries with socialized health care systems. Insurance companies do very well in other parts of the world outside of America. I do not think this system will eliminate insurance companies, it will however get them to review and reorganize how they are run here in America.

The system as it stands now, insurance across state lines does not always work. It can be very costly. It is not illegal for anyone with private insurance to end up in the hospital in another state and get treatment. That would be denying people coverage. Much like if you get sick in the foreign country, the hospital in most countries would still take you, they might charge you, but they will not deny you service, even in countries with socialized health care.

Editors of

Femisex August 17, 2009 – 1:00pm

Editors of Femisex.com

Siditty your mind is made up and facts will not change things for you. You want a single payer, period.

Ok, I get that now. But the plurality of the nation must agree for this to occur or we will be bitterly, and i do mean bitterly divided. The minority should not rule the majority or democracy breaks down.

We could go back and forth on the fact that public option will force folks out of their private ins., but that is not something you wish to admit. Bipartisan institutes agree on this issue, with the projections of actual numbers only differing. (that is largely a function of short term outlooks vs. long term outlooks.)

You also say: “Private insurance dollars don’t prop up people.” There is absolutely no serious disagreement on this issue for those in the know about hospital budgets–that is administrators all know that Medicaid payments would not allow for a functoining hospital–period.

But again, you are intent on single payer, so I now understand you viewpoints.

For those that do not want single payer, there is another answer to covering the those w/out ins.: tax our health care benefits. All those folks flooding into the system will allow the pre-existing clause to work and work well.

I won’t engage you on portablity of coverage issues, again no use to go back and forth on something that is not legally permitted as we now stand. You have opted to overlook that fact.

Our best to you!

Don’t stop talking

Kim Pearson August 17, 2009 – 2:23pm

Femisex and Siddity – although you are not convincing each other, you are educating me, and for that, I am grateful.

Femisex, your point about legislation being needed to standardize billing forms is well-taken. I have heard that point made by senior administration officials as well. It will be interesting to see whether this is a provision in the legislation. If I recall correctly, it requires an exception to the antitrust act, right?

Here’s my suggestion. If you haven’t done so, already, how about using the link widget in this post to mark up the bill at OpenCongress.org, as Nancy Watzman has suggested?

And I have questions for each of you.

Siddity, where do you think that analysts who say the public option will kill private insurance are going wrong in their reasoning? I do see that you are predicting that insurers will change their practices in order to compete. Is there anything else?

Femisex, the suggestion of taxing health benefits has been floated, but it;s politically risky for Obama to go there, since he promised not to do that during the campaign. Do you think he ought to spend his political capital here? And would the GOP take advantage of the flip-flop in 2010.

Finally, what do you (and others) think of the proposed surtax on high wage earners?

KimBlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Editors of Femisex.comhiya

Femisex August 17, 2009 – 8:31pm

Editors of Femisex.com

hiya Kim–

FemiSex responds: Hmmm, do I care about Obama’s career of the millions who need insurance? That is a very easy answer.

Obama is disingenuous–to say the least!– in saying his reforms will not mean taxing HC benes. His Cost Savings are pie in the sky projections, but taxing health benes is something Americans can bank on now and it will not kick the can down the road to financial ruin. Pay as we go, as it were. McCain had the honesty to say that this is the only way we have to pay for the millions who can’t afford coverage. He reminds me of Dole, a terrible campaigner but a reasonable fellow.

Yes, McCain suffered for his honesty. Obama Knows his reforms will increase taxes down the line–no way to do this without taxing the middle class eventually, but why tell the truth when you can make stuff up or tax those vanishing millionaires. It is dangerous to count on a very very few to pay for the very very many –dangerous for fiscal as well as moral reasons.

If our taxes are on the line, it will incentivize each of us to use HC more wisely. McCain ran on this idea; Obama thumped him for it just as he thumped HRC on mandates which he also understood would be needed to get younger folks into the system. Obama now wants mandates and claims, post election to have seen the light on this now.

HC Taxes would allow middle class Americans to keep private ins. and allow help for those who can’t afford ins. to gain it. I believe Mr. Obama had the trust of the people to tell us that taxes would be needed to pay for his reforms. Esp. after the CBO shot down his claims on price tags. If only he used that op to come clean. But he has evaded an honest answer on this issue and his capital is already floundering.

Americans are a skeptical bunch for the most part and we know a dog and pony show when we see one. My opinion and what I hear a lot from the public: only the far left has faith in what he says about HC at this point. If I were his advisor, I’d tell him to come clean, risk a single term, and fess up. My guess. If he got rid of public option and got behind taxes on HC benes the economists would get behind him and cheer. The far right and far left would yell and the center would come together.

It may be too late for the center to trust him these day, but I don’t think so. And if the centered his plans and let go of his clear desire for single payer system, we all might get something done. I’d remind Obama that he carried 28 state in 2009, no where near a mandate of past elections where the vote came in at 40 states for one candidate.

How Parents and Teachers Should Teach Children About Slavery

October 10, 2018 by professorkim Leave a Comment

This email exchange with Dr. Alicia Moore was originally published on BlogHer.com in 2011. IIt is being republished here because changes in the ownership of BlogHer have resulted in content created on that platform becoming inaccessible.

April 12, 2011 marked the 150th anniversary of the assault on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, launching the United States into four years of bloody civil war. This year’s anniversary has occasioned panels, debates, balls and a raft of commemorative activities. However, it has also presented challenges to educators and parents about how to teach children about this crucial but contentious time in ways that are both honest and sensitive. Of all the difficult issues surrounding the Civil War era, helping children understand slavery can be especially daunting.Last month, residents in one Ohio community had a reminder of how difficult that challenge can be when school administrators in Gahanna, a small town near Columbus, apologized for a teacher who had her students pretend they were part of a slave auction. The fifth-grade social studies students were divided into “masters” and “slaves.” Ten-year-old Nikko Burton, one of two black students in the class, told reporters he felt humiliated as other students looked in his mouth and felt his muscles to gauge his health and strength. Burton’s mother, Aneka, called the lesson insensitive and racist.And yet, this incident raises questions about how to talk to children about slavery in a constructive way that still helps them understand its horrors. Dr. Alicia Moore, an associate professor of education at Southwestern University, is uniquely positioned to address that question. In addition to being a teacher-educator, former K-12 teacher and school principal, Moore is co-editor of the Black History Bulletin, a journal published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The Black History Bulletin is intended to serve primarily as a curricular resource for secondary school teachers. One of its most recent issues focused on African Americans and the Civil War.

BlogHer: At what age is it appropriate to begin talking to children about painful episodes in history such as slavery? How should parents approach the subject?

Moore: I believe that both parents and teachers can begin talking about “slavery,” at least from a conceptual standpoint, as early as prekindergarten — and, before there is a backlash about what is and is not developmentally and/or age appropriate for young children, let me explain. There are three important points to consider when addressing the practicality of talking about the historical events of this nation with children of any age, especially a topic like slavery that is wrought with controversy regarding how to teach it, or whether it should be taught at all.

The first point to consider is why a topic such as slavery should be considered important for young children. There are several reasons why it is important, but I will only speak to two. One reason involves the work of dismantling the fallout of slavery that manifests itself in mis-education regarding who should and should not be valued in our society. If we consider the work of Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary, whose work explores Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, we may choose to take to heart her assertion that due to slavery, Americans of all races continue to be exposed to its injuries through a perpetual and systematic “hierarchy” of privilege based upon skin gradation — a “the lighter the skin color, the better” mentality. With this in mind, I think that it is important that children first be taught that all people should be valued regardless of their differences. Later, it makes sense to discuss ways in which this valuing of all is antithetical to slavery’s tenets.

Another reason involves the fact that children should be presented with information that provides them with an understanding of the institution of slavery as it relates to history, both world and US. This information provides an opportunity to begin to understand the enslavement of Africans and their valiant fight for freedom in this country. As well, the history of slavery in this country is useful in helping students to recognize the true significance of events ranging from the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, to the election of the first African American president. As my 105-year-old father says, “You can’t truly understand where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.”

The second point to consider is what should be taught. We must realize that many events in US history are not pretty and there are countless things about slavery that we would all like to forget due to the painful images and emotions evoked while teaching and learning about it. Yet, leaving slavery out of our curriculum altogether is not a viable option. I believe that through omission, an implicit message is being sent that this troublesome portion of our nation’s history is not important and that old atrocities should be buried quietly with those who suffered through them. Moreover, omission does not provide our young people the option of using the mistakes of the past to continue to build a brighter future. Besides, these omissions silence the courageous efforts of those who, both black and white, fought against slavery and for human rights.

From an additional standpoint, author Beverly Tatum wrote about teaching children about slavery and shared that it is necessary to be open and honest about the racism of the past and the present while also providing “children (and adults) with a vision that change is possible.” With this in mind, I believe that it is also important to teach children about our journey as a nation from slavery to freedom, the heinous treatment endured by enslaved people, and the importance of becoming advocates and activists who work toward continued progress in race relations. Along with this knowledge about slavery, teachers should take care to share other facets commonly left out of textbooks that can expand the historical knowledge base of children. They should teach children about the work of abolitionists and historical accounts of the lives of slaves and slave owners. As well, they should teach about white allies who fought against the injustices of slavery and that many slaves were not passive victims as textbooks portray them; they protested their situations through courageous resistance.

The third point to consider is how slavery should be taught. Teaching about slavery, just as teaching about any controversial subject, should involve planning and preparation that focuses on the culture and climate of the classroom community and the use of common sense. One aspect to consider involves presenting prerequisite concepts, knowledge, and skills within the Social Studies that prepare students for the information. This entails a careful examination of what is developmentally and age appropriate when broaching the subject of slavery and involves an understanding of how to be responsive to, and sensitive of all children within the classroom community. And, finally, it involves prerequisite concepts that include friendship and conflict resolution in its simplest form. I think that by teaching children about these concepts, you are preparing them for the topic of slavery while building a classroom community where all children are poised to learn and grow together.

Children and adults may find the topic of slavery uncomfortable and teachers should take care to be sensitive to the childrens’ emotional needs, as well as their own. This means not intentionally engaging in activities that will either shame or demean African American children, or evoke feelings of shame or guilt for white children. Feelings should be talked about and the teacher should acknowledge that this is an important and intense topic that is sometimes difficult to discuss. However, I think that the biggest challenges arise when teachers are actually afraid to teach about the institution of slavery because of their own fears that they will “not do it right”. To prepare for teaching about slavery, teachers should make sure they have laid the foundation for teaching about this intense topic, they possess adequate background knowledge about slavery, and they have an adequate understanding of what is ethically right and wrong when planning activities to explore slavery. As well, school districts should provide professional development that focuses on providing teachers the knowledge and skills they need to teach about difficult topics while create a learning environment that is respectful and conducive to learning for all.

BlogHer: What are some effective strategies for teaching elementary school students about slavery?

Moore: You mentioned a recent story about an incident in which a teacher had students participate in an inappropriate role-playing activity to teach students about slavery. Along those same lines, in 2008, a story surfaced about a New York teacher who bound the hands and feet of two 13 year old African American female students and had them climb under a desk to simulate the cramped conditions found on slave ships to teach a lesson about slavery. Her actions were considered to be “misguided” and the teacher kept her job. In Norfolk, Va., this year (2010) a fourth-grade teacher separated black and mixed-race children from their white peers and staged a mock auction. This teacher’s actions were described as “well-intended” and though it was reported that “appropriate action” was being taken, I am sure that she will be allowed to keep her job, as well. These are only a few stories in which teachers took rather foolhardy routes to teach children about slavery. So, let’s just say that these teachers were merely “misguided” or “well-[intentioned]” and should be given the benefit of the doubt. What’s wrong with this picture? What is it that makes professionally educated teachers seek to teach lessons in slavery at the expense of their student’s emotional health and well-being? Before I reference effective strategies for teaching students about slavery, let me go on record as saying these instances clearly remind us of what not to do.

One effective strategy for teaching young children about slavery is through the use of literature to support lessons. Examples of appropriate books to be read to or shared with young children include Follow the Drinking Gourd by J. Winter (1988), Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson (1993), In the Time of the Drums by Kim L. Siegelson (1999), and Aunt Harriette’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold (1992). Another is class discussions that provide opportunities for students and their teacher(s) to discuss their feelings when talking about slavery. Additionally, author Beverly Tatum suggested a strategy that uses an open-ended format to allow teachers to acknowledge the possible discomfort of their students while affording them the same outlet. ( See Tatum’s article: It’s Not So Black and White: Discussing race and racism in the classroom.)

BlogHer: Do you have any comments on the wisdom of staging a mock slave auction as a teaching tool?

Moore: Wisdom = understanding, knowledge and insight. There is no wisdom involved here. Don’t do it! We are all human and all make mistakes, but what would give a teacher the idea that this was an appropriate strategy to teach anything this controversial? How do you think that it is feasible for even one of your students to become the collateral damage of your lesson? I think what is even sadder is reading comments posted after stories of these disastrous activities and realizing that there are people who really think the actions of these teachers are, and I am paraphrasing, funny; appropriate; done, so get over it; a great way to get students engaged; and a good opportunity for learning soured by one whining parent and child; — you fill in the blanks. My comment is, “Just don’t do it!”

BlogHer: In recent years, some school boards have tried to soften the language used to describe the experience of slavery in their curricula. Would you care to comment on this?

Moore: If you are referring to school boards in Louisiana and Texas having approved textbooks that refer to the Civil War as the “The War for Southern Independence” which was previously popular on the confederate side of the war, yes, I am familiar with the softened, if not inaccurate, language. I find that this reference to the Civil War seeks to use the other-side-of-the-coin assertion that attributes the cause of the war as being primarily over state’s rights and taxation; yet, downplays the role of slavery. To this, I merely direct readers to the 1861 Texas Ordinance of Secession. If you are referring to the sanitization of Mark Twain’s classic, Huckleberry Finn, through a censored reprint that replaces the ‘N’ word with “slave” and “Injun” with “Indian”, I am also familiar; however, I have mixed emotions that vacillate between understanding the common consensus about the intent of the offensive language Twain used in his work and my own personal exasperation about the personal physical pain I feel each time I read or hear the ‘N’ word uttered. Either way, my thoughts are personal — that whether written language is “softened” or not, it is the actions and words of people whose hearts are hardened, and who do not understand the complexities of the perpetuation of derisive terms and their impact on people. If you are not at risk of words damaging your psyche or the psyche of those you love, this will not make sense.

BlogHer: Talking about slavery and its role in American history can still create controversy and discomfort in some families and communities. Do you have thoughts about how educators and community leaders can foster constructive conversations about the lessons of our troubled history?

Moore: First of all, I have to remind myself that the institution of slavery endured 250 years and our country is only 234 years old. Slavery lasted longer than our country has been established!! Wow! What an opportunity for families, educators and communities and community leaders to talk openly and honestly about our nation’s history – an opportunity to proclaim, like the old Virginia Slims commercials, “We’ve come a long way, baby!” And, in the same breath, recoil and decree, “Yet, we have a long, long way to go!”

When answering questions about constructive conversations and the subsequent discomfort when discussing difficult topics such as slavery, I often refer to Beverly Tatum’s work about seeking to come “to terms with past and present injustice” and the discomfort in doing so that “is often cause for anger and guilt, frustration and despair.” Let me read you what she wrote: “All children, regardless of color, need to find the hope in this history. We must not insensitively sanitize the pain of those caught in the bind of oppression. We need to celebrate the strength of the human spirit to go beyond the roles of victim and victimizer. In doing so, we may inspire one another to do likewise in the struggle against the contemporary injustices we face.” I think that constructive conversations can be fostered through actively talking about our history and seeking to continue to heal. In doing so, we can use the tribulations of the past to create triumphs for present and the future.

BlogHer: Is there anything more that parents and educators should know or think about with respect to this issue?

Moore: Yes. Do not conduct drive-by discussions about slavery, racism, or other controversial topics. Controversial topics, including slavery, can become easier with each conversation. Dialogue is imperative and provides an opportunity for inaccuracies, feelings of shame, guilt or other yet-unnamed emotions to surface, be discussed and for us all to find ways to heal. Conversely, when we seek to hide our history in the shadows of the past, the message is sent that we should all be afraid or ashamed. Thus, blacks may feel afraid or ashamed of connections to slaves and whites may feel the same about the possibility that their predecessors may have been slave owners. The truth is that we should not allow slavery to reflect who we were from a shameful perspective, but who we have become as a progressive, yet struggling country. We should seek to be free of the legacy of slavery as present-day shackle of hate and expand the limited scope of this part of our history as humans.

The best advice I can give is, do not think that by shielding our children from the past, we are creating some kind of futuristic, post racial, altered space that makes the legacy of slavery go away. Children deserve to learn about the history of this nation from knowledgeable parents and educators who have their best interest at heart and can help them to make sense of past hurts and show them how to make progress toward a better day.

References

It’s Not So Black and White: Discussing racial issues can make students and teachers uncomfortable, Beverly Daniel Tatum
Teaching Young Children About Slavery Using Literature. Judith Y. Singer

Resources

Slavery and the Making of America: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
Black History Bulletin: African Americans and the Civil War; Volume 73, No. 2

Kim Pearson
BlogHer Contributing Editor|KimPearson.net|

BlogHer is non-partisan, but many of their bloggers are not.

Comments

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So glad you wrote this!

Rita Arens April 20, 2011 – 8:55am

I’m bookmarking this and intend to get the books described here.

Rita Arens authors Surrender Dorothy and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak. She is BlogHer’s assignment and syndication editor.

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Sparkle 0

Thanks for suggesting it!

Kim Pearson April 20, 2011 – 10:20am

Since you were the person who brought the Ohio story to my attention, I have to thank you. I am so glad you found it helpful. Dr. Moore is a font of useful information on this topic!

Kim Pearson
BlogHer Contributing Editor|KimPearson.net|

Blogher is non-partisan, but many of their bloggers are not.

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perfect timing

Laracolvin April 20, 2011 – 10:41am

So happy to read this. I’m currently working on a project centered around how parents/caregivers can help their young children develop a critical consciousness, and the resources you provide will be immensely helpful.

I think it’s never too early to start talking about our nation’s complex history – as both a way of (hopefully) alleviating patterns of inequities and instilling hope.

As always, thank you for your relevance and resourcefulness!

Lara

Notions of Identity

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Teaching About Slavery

Karen E Dabney April 20, 2011 – 6:55pm

Excellent article! Thank you both.
I, too, believe children should be taught about the fact of slavery at an early age. This will prepare them for the cruel, indifferent and ignorant folk who may cause damage to a child’s psyche. And I am speaking of ALL children. Tell the youth the truth!

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For Young Children

Dawn April 21, 2011 – 12:16pm

I suggest resources such as Anti-Bias Curriculum published by NAEYC.

I also have a vast array of other resources and references suitable for the Birth to Grade 2 set.

My Second Masters Thesis at Wheelock College was in the area of Anti-Bias Curriculum, White Privilege and Parenting a Bi-racial Child, so I am happy to share if people are interested.

Dawn Rouse

Writer, Thinker, Nap-Taker and almost Doctor of Education

I am Doing the Best I can

True Wife Confessions

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Thank you.

subWOW April 22, 2011 – 11:03am

Wow. Thank you so much for this. Much needed.

subWOW

Trying to stay under the radar so I may speak my mind.

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slavery

debjsd April 22, 2011 – 7:18pm

I think it is also important to educate that slavery still exists and there are things we can do about it. I only buy chocolate that is organic and fair trade–not from companies that use child slaves to work their fields for example. Coffee is another big one. I am saddened that often when I bring this up to otherwise aware people they simply do not want to change their buying habits!

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I love learning so I’m

tipytop April 23, 2011 – 1:22pm

I love learning so I’m straight and to the point with my students and children. No opinions, just facts offered through a compassionate but firm teaching of once was and is, and certainly not limited to the topic of American slaves, which is nicely outlined in this article.

My ongoing issue is having my children fit into school life knowing the truth. For example, my 3-year-old went to her early Montessori School experience almost every day correcting her teachers on such topics as Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America because the Native American people were already here; Eskimos are called Inuits; 2001 is said as two thousand one because there’s no decimal in 2001 so we don’t say two thousand and one. Sadly, my daughter has learned to keep her comments to herself. She’s in 2nd grade now and no longer at that school but still remains to keep quiet during class discussions. I tell her that one day she will encounter teachers/professors/friends who will embrace what she thinks and will wholeheartedly agree. I also told her that I wouldn’t be a good mother if I didn’t tell her the truth. She understands but she does get lonely.

This article and the other posts here give me hope that she won’t be alone.

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Thank You!

alicia628 April 26, 2011 – 8:58pm

Thank you to all of the readers who have provided comments and suggestions. I am renewed and hopeful, still, for a better and brighter tomorrow.

Alicia Moore

A Rough-Hewn Kind of Beauty

October 10, 2018 by professorkim 1 Comment

This was originally published on BlogHer.com in 2011. It has also been reprinted in the magazine for the Spondylitis Association of America. It is being republished here because changes in the ownership of BlogHer have resulted in content created on that platform becoming inaccessible.

Me as a toddler, bride, and in middle age.

Some months ago, a phone conversation with my BlogHer colleague Rita Arens turned toward my experience of having ankylosing spondylitis, an arthritic condition that froze my spine over the course of 30 years, first into a ramrod pole and now into a shepherd’s crook. With her encouragement, I jabbered on about how, along the way, I’ve loved and lost, borne and raised two children, managed a career and had bi-lateral hip replacements – two surgeries – a week apart, followed by single doses of radiation. Then Rita suggested that my story would be a good addition to the “Own Your Beauty” series.

That shut me up.

I don’t write about AS. I haven’t really had the words. And talk about it in the context of a conversation about beauty? Beauty has been a vexed notion for me all my life. Being born into a striving black family meant focusing on achievement, not beauty. Coming of age in the 1970s, of course, I was black and proud, owned a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves, and read Essence magazine cover to cover.

But I didn’t have much of the socialization into mainstream beauty culture that it’s assumed American women go through. My friends and most of my female relatives don’t wear make-up. They like nice clothes but don’t obsess about them, and it’s only with the arrival of my daughter’s generation that I’ve heard any of them squeal about a pair of shoes.

Ankylosing spondylitis robbed me of the one thing I’d always considered foundational to being beautiful: erect posture. When I was at my most bitter and self-pitying, it seemed to me that AS made a proud black woman bend like a swaybacked Georgia mule. When the condition started to remold my body during my late 20s and 30s, I started to feel walled off from other women. I gradually lost the physical ability to do simple things women do to make themselves look presentable and professional – much less attractive. My hair, clothing, and footwear choices were determined more by what I could manage than what I preferred.

I once had a friendly relationship with my body. As a teenager, I had worked it into a fairly athletic condition using yoga, calisthenics, and weights. I loved the way my legs pumped and my lungs filled when I rode a bike. I loved the way my body flowed, bumped and swiveled to music. And yes, there was a time that I enjoyed the way it looked in a bathing suit and let me slice and kick my way across a swimming pool. In other words,I liked my body as much for what I could make it do as for the way it looked. Then ankylosing spondylitis started locking my vertebrae, sapping my energy and turning me into a woman who hunched like the hated teacher in that 90s cartoon, “Recess” and moved (to my mind) like Lon Chaney in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I felt betrayed. Like Job, I wanted God to tell me what I had done to deserve this.

It would take a few years before I got off my high horse and acknowledged that there was nothing special about me that should make me exempt from illness or disability. Why me? Why not me? And by now, I knew plenty of people who would have been happy to have had the 29 years I’d had of being able-bodied. I also knew that there was plenty that this body could still do, if I treated it right. And so, I sought my body’s forgiveness, and we’ve reached a kind of friendship again where I do my best to keep it fed, exercised, medicated and rested, and it does its best to keep me as upright as it can …

So I can look at my body in a mirror with respect, and even care, but beauty? What does that mean for me, anyway? Around the time I turned 50, I joined Facebook. Over the next couple of years, I scanned and posted just about every picture I found of myself, from toddlerhood through middle age. Part of me wanted to tell the world that I hadn’t always looked like this. When old school friends posted their own pictures of me from college, I snapped them up for my profile. Part of me wanted my children to see what Mommy used to look like.

What amused and surprised me was the number of male friends – some of whom had been objects of my silent affection in college – who commented on how beautiful I was in those old photos. Of course, they never gave me a second glance when I actually looked liked that. A young woman grows prettier in the nostalgic mind of a middle-aged man, I learned.

My body had become so alien to me for so long that I had ceased to think of it as anything to which one could attach beauty or ugliness – certainly nothing like sexuality. It’s not that I ceased to be a sexual being; that’s just part of being human. It’s that I had to find a new way to think of myself as a sexual being, since my body didn’t function the way it once had. In those days, my body was a conveyance for my senses, and a means of doing the work I had to do to get my children grown. It was a thing apart from me.

I knew of others who had been forced to make similar adjustments. As a young woman, I worked for a comprehensive cancer center as a lay counselor and newsletter editor. In the course of that job, I learned a bit about sexuality and body image counseling for cancer patients. I worked with people coping with the loss of breasts, testicles, limbs, or the sudden presence of colostomy bags.

However, psychosocial support for ankylosing spondylitis patients is limited, because it is a relatively rare condition. I was diagnosed in 1986, and I didn’t meet another woman with the condition until 2003. I still haven’t met another woman who has dealt with AS during a pregnancy. There are now some online support groups, but the one thing I learned is that everyone’s experience with this condition is completely different.

I told a friend that I later realized that part of what I was doing was trying to see the changes in my own body over time – to make me real to me. For so long, I had felt like this able-bodied woman trapped inside this alien shell that looked like me. Seeing the photos over the years helped me absorb the truth that the body I had once had, the one that pressed its strength against the world, danced in moonlight, and rose with the dawn to suckle my first born – that body had been transformed. What has replaced it may not be as graceful on the outside, but it has its own rough-hewn appeal. It endures. it holds off the ravages of time so I can love a bit longer and learn a bit more. And it still lets me dance.

Today, my children are grown, my career is in a satisfying place and I’ve grieved enough to know that life is precious and meant to be savored, even when it doesn’t deal you the cards you expected or wanted. So I suppose, in that sense, I can own up to a kind of beauty. Yes, I can.

Comments

35 comments 19 people listening

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jennyfoo 5 pts

I was diagnosed with AS 3 years ago. I’ve got 4 kids ages 3-13. It’s been very difficult to accept that my old supermom body & even brain just aren’t capable of doing everything any more. I’m still struggling to accept the limitations this disease has put on me. It’s very hard. I keep fighting for more, hoping something else will be my miracle cure, but in 3 years, I’ve just gotten worse. It’s difficult for me to not be able to do the things I want with my kids & husband. I’ve always been a stubborn overachiever. My family & friends were so concerned when I adopted a drug addicted baby boy from foster care. I was so determined to show them I could do it, that I adopted 2 more, a girl, then another boy. I’m now raising 4 wonderful kids who all have special needs, & I guess so do I. Somehow we make do.

Your story was an inspiration to me. I hope that some day I will be able to accept what AS has done to me, but for now, I’m fighting it with all I’ve got. I’m still young(34), I’ve got young kids. I fight for them.

hlab27 5 pts

I am just 36 but already fed up of this life. It’s so painful. I have seen almost all renowned rheumys in the US. There is no cure for this disease. This disease reminds me everyday, morning and evening, that life is beautiful but there is nothing that I can do. All I can do is fret upon my bad luck.

Very beautiful article! A source of inspiration for people like me! Thanks for sharing your story.

Regards

SSA

shura9123 5 pts

Thank you so much for sharing your story. It reminds us of our humanity,and what is increasingly important, and that is the truest of beauty that lies inside our souls. You are so beautiful and inspirational and I will share your story…they’re are many who can learn from your life lessons.

SeasideMaestrina 5 pts

My father has also undergone a physical transformation due to AS. He was a football and baseball player, an active student through college and graduate school around military service and engineering research. Now, he is an engineering consultant who struggles to find comfort just sitting, much less actively standing and moving around, in the lab where he works. He’s an involved, loving and interested grandfather with a reputation as the “project guy” rather than the “swim and throw the ball guy” because a comfortable seated position at the kitchen table is the best and only way he can participate in things with them. My memories of learning to throw balls, swim, run, play games, are an identity my children will never know of him. I am not sad for their loss; I am sad for mine. It is his hope, as it is mine, that this legacy is not shared with those children, so they never know this transformation the way he, and you, have.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

From your lips to God’s ears! Thank you so much for sharing your story. I wish your father and your family much joy. SeasideMaestrina

Elin 5 pts

Kim, Thank you for writing this! What a beautiful, inspiring, and honest article! I know the spondylitis community, as well as anyone who’s had to struggle with the ‘relationship with their body’ as you put it, will find much here to draw strength from. Thank you for reminding us what grace looks like.

Elin Aslanyan

Spondylitis Association of America

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Wow, it’s great to hear from someone from the SAA! Thank you for your words and for all the good work you do. How cool would it be to see people who look like us in women’s magazines or other media? Of all of the unexpected pleasures of having written this post, one of the greatest is hearing from others with AS who feel that I’ve helped them. Thanks, again. Elin

bereccah 5 pts

This is an amazing post. I wish there was a way to tell you, a perfect stranger, how proud I am of you as a person without it sounding weird. Oh well, I’ll just take my chances. 😉 Thank you very much for sharing.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Not weird at all. I’m grateful for your words. Thank you. bereccah

Eve1 5 pts

Thank you for the wonderful blog! Sharing your perspective of life and how you balance everything with understanding and compassion for your self is wonderful. You have “grace” which is a rare atribute to find in many people.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Thank you. Eve1

Moni86 5 pts

“…I’ve grieved enough to know that life is precious and meant to be savored, even when it doesn’t deal you the cards you expected or wanted.” Thanks for this beautiful post. It takes a lot to share something so personal and to get that to that point in your life where you can be at peace with your condition. I’ve just forwarded it to a dear friend of mine who at the ripe age of 25 was recently diagnosed with MS. Hope this will post will be an even greater inspiration to her.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Moni86 Thank you. I’m honored to hear that you think my words might help your friend. I am sorry to hear of her diagnosis. I wish love and light to you both.

MommyRachelle 5 pts

I’m in tears right now because I know how very difficult it is to share something about yourself so candidly. You are, indeed, a beacon of strength that has a beautiful outlook on accepting all life throws at you and discovering a personal friendship with yourself (self worth). Beautifully written.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Thank you. I think the biggest challenge has been to plumb the layers until I am really being honest. Part of the reason I used to worry about writing about this because I did not want to violate my family’s privacy or stress them out by expressing feelings that would make them sad, and that they couldn’t fix. I am fortunate, especially, in that my children are very supportive of anything I do that gives me greater agency in confronting this illness. It is yet another way in which I am blessed. MommyRachelle

Wordologist 5 pts

Kim, I remember the day when I went to see you after the strange phone call about how you couldn’t move and had to go to the hospital. We both were young then. Little did we know that you would be a template for living with a disability. Little I know that when my turn came and I got crushed to the mat by a disability-fibromyalgia that I looked to you as a role model to tell me keep trying and to snatch back pieces of my life. So what we both had to wear sensible shoes or regard each staircase as Mt. Everest or use electric scooters while doing life’s journey.You helped me decide to climb and drive it anyway. Thank you for being the scout. Thank you for leaving the markers in the wilderness, creating a trail spying out rest spots and opportunities for me and for others to follow.

Also, thank you Kim, for mentioning the task that making friends with your body isn’t easy. It always remembers the arrogance that you assumed it would keep on doing what it’s always done with no complaint. But making a peace treaty can be done and if you can do right, sometimes your body will allow you to dance the electric slide.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Wordologist No fair making me cry. I am very proud of you for the strides you have made and are making. Love you old friend.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

And PS – yes, I remember that time and many others. Thank you for all of your help, advice, support and hugs through the years. Wordologist

DitchYourJobNow 6 pts

Wow. That was an incredible, honest recap of the emotions you have been through in your lifetime with AS. It’s sounds cliche to say that it put things into perspective, however, just the thought of joining Facebook and putting a profile pic up is something one doesn’t think of. That must have been quite a hurdle for you. That said, I am honored to have read this post. I am inspired with women who “feel’ the pain of life sometimes, but come out on the other side with a whole new respect and lesson learned that they can teach others. Kudos to you!

Kim Pearson 6 pts

DitchYourJobNow Thank you. I am determined to be as healthy as I can, in mind and body. This experience is showing me that I don’t have to be stoic in pursuit of that goal.

anicolosi4 5 pts

Kim,

As I told you last night–you truly are special and my hero. Thanks for sharing this.

Love,

Annie

Kim Pearson 6 pts

anicolosi4 Thank you, Annie.

bklynstacy 5 pts

So, so beautiful. The words, the life, the video! But especially the words and the fierce and proud soul that wrote them. Thank you.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Thank you. bklynstacy

Rita Arens 7 pts

I have to say, the video is totally the best part.

Kim Pearson 6 pts

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. Gena Haskett , show them how we Philly girls do it! 😀 I have a lot of people to thank for helping me open myself to this conversation, but I should especially thank the family member who shot the video, and my daugher ja_tun and Freakwincey. which is the band that was playing. Watching the video, is what finally got me to open up, I think.

DesiValentine4 27 pts

There is profound beauty in strength – in YOUR strength. Thank you for telling us your story.

Gena Haskett 6 pts

Rock on Professor! I’m going to the BlogHer11 dance session and tap out a step or two in your honor. The over 50’s gotta represent in all aspects of life. I feel a bit sheepish. I thought you were holding the camera and then it hit me that you were really dancing.

Too cool for school, it is unquestionable that you rule!

Mir Kamin 6 pts

I love this, every word. Thank you for opening up, Kim. You’re one of the most beautiful women I know, inside and out.

Nordette Adams 6 pts

Beautiful and inspirational, Kim. Also educational, and I especially loved the Electric Slide video of you. 🙂

Conversation from Twitter

professorkim from Twitter

PeacheyPlanner ArtAppleADay Thank you so much! Nice to meet fellow survivors.

PeacheyPlanner from Twitter

ArtAppleADay my body and I are still indisagreement. learning to #cope and just get over it! 😉

ArtAppleADay from Twitter

PeacheyPlanner that was great – my body is rebelling at the present time 🙂 so no agreement has yet been reached – something to hope for!

PeacheyPlanner from Twitter

ArtAppleADay i love the quote “I sought my body’s forgiveness, and we’ve reached a kind of friendship again” #teamspondy reunite!

ArtAppleADay from Twitter

PeacheyPlanner I know – me too. So glad more people are sharing their stories. #teamspondy is awesome!

My Great-Grandfather Was Enslaved

October 8, 2018 by professorkim 3 Comments

Note: This is a re-creation of a post that was originally published on BlogHer.com in 2010. Since BlogHer was sold to SheKnows.com, some content has become inaccessible.

Dear Great Grandfather Jordan,

I write to you with some trepidation, not knowing what, if any, characteristics or values accompany a soul as it traverses from the mortal to the immortal plane. You lived from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th, and like most men of that time, I’m told that you held to the belief that children were to be seen and not heard. Uncle Bill told me that among your daughter Mattie’s children, you shared your slavery-time stories almost exclusively with him, since he was the oldest living, and a boy besides. Then again, cousin Mel heard a tale or two from you, perhaps from when you stayed at Melvina’s house (his grandmother, your daughter). But you have haunted me since I learned about you back in 1977, and now I have a picture of you, and there are things I must know.

I first learned of you while watching “Roots”, the landmark miniseries about one family’s journey from Africa, through the Middle Passage, to slavery and the epic struggle for freedom. I think it was during the scene where Kunta Kinte’s foot gets chopped off for running away that my Dad quietly said, “My grandfather used to talk about that.” I stared at my father. Your grandfather? “Yes, he was a slave.” You KNEW him? Yes, he lived with us. WHAT?

I peppered him with questions and soon learned that you were born in Devereux, Georgia, in Hancock County, about 100 years before me, and you almost lived long enough to be there for my birth. You and your family were owned by John Mitchell. Your wife, Martha Holsey Mitchell, had also been a slave. She died when my father was a toddler. You were strong and able for most of your life until someone decided that you should see Georgia again before you died, and after that, you were all mixed up about past and present, places and people.

Returning to campus that Sunday, I went straight to the microfilm room in Firestone Library at Princeton and pulled the reels for the 1860 Census. The were the free rolls and the slave rolls, organized by county. From the free rolls, I found two John Mitchells. One had six slaves, but John WH Mitchell, owned 34. This was probably the man, I reasoned, since my father had referred to a plantation. The man who owned my family.

That took me to the slave rolls, where I learned that you and your family weren’t recorded as people, but catalogued like livestock. In the left column was the owners name, and each slave was listed individually according to characteristics related to property value: male or female, black or mulatto, approximate age, and special notations for runaways, those who had been manumitted, and those who were “Deaf, blind, insane or idiotic.” Here is the beginning and end of the inventory under John WH’s name:

An excerpt of the slave rolls for John HW Mitchell in the 1860 census

I stared at that microfilm for what seemed like a long time, my eyes flooding with water. It was real. You were real. You were a little boy. Somewhere in there, there were brothers sisters, parents. It happened. It happened to my own flesh and blood. And no one thought you were important enough to record your name. I had to use family lore to find you. And here I was at Princeton, being trained to trust official sources and records. I staggered from the microfilm room with the printout in my hand, showing it to anyone I knew. I never felt the loss of Grandmom Mattie more keenly than at that moment. She had died just before Thanksgiving, freshman year. I needed to talk to her; I needed to see you.

A few years later, with the help of a photographer friend, I got some additional details about your life from Cousin Claudia. Her grandmother was your sister, whom they called Aunt Duck. You were close in age. Aunt Duck said you all had to get your food from a big trough, like what they use to feed horses. She also remembered beatings, but there were some times of singing and dancing as well, especially the shouts of “We are free!” when news came that slavery had ended.

Of course, I wondered what the war had been like for you and yours. My son, your great-great grandson, wondered, too — so much so that during his middle-school years, he played the role of fifer in the U.S. Colored Troops — more than 209,000 black people fought in the Union blue to win their freedom. You were too young, of course, and they were coming from the North, but I wonder whether you saw them, or whether your older brothers, Holland, Ned, or Henry, for example, had any thoughts of joining up.

I wonder what your parents, Holland and Judy Priscilla, thought, too. Cousin Mel said your father was seven feet tall and so strong that the master put him in charge of the other slaves. He said you told a story about how your Daddy let the master beat him with the lash one time just to show “how things were going to go,” as he put it. I wonder whether it was your boyhood reverence of your old man that made you think that he was in a position to dictate how many lashes the master could give a slave.

You lived most of your life as a free man, under the cruel vagaries of de jure segregation in the South and de facto segregation in the North. You would have been the same age as the exploited tenant farmers and laborers that WEB Du Bois described in this chapter from The Souls of Black Folk about his sojourn through Dougherty County Georgia:

It is a land of rapid contrasts and of curiously mingled hope and pain. Here sits a pretty blue-eyed quadroon hiding her bare feet; she was married only last week, and yonder in the field is her dark young husband, hoeing to support her, at thirty cents a day without board. Across the way is Gatesby, brown and tall, lord of two thousand acres shrewdly won and held. There is a store conducted by his black son, a blacksmith shop, and a ginnery. Five miles below here is a town owned and controlled by one white New Englander. He owns almost a Rhode Island county, with thousands of acres and hundreds of black laborers. Their cabins look better than most, and the farm, with machinery and fertilizers, is much more business-like than any in the county, although the manager drives hard bargains in wages. When now we turn and look five miles above, there on the edge of town are five houses of prostitutes,—two of blacks and three of whites; and in one of the houses of the whites a worthless black boy was harbored too openly two years ago; so he was hanged for rape. And here, too, is the high whitewashed fence of the “stockade,” as the county prison is called; the white folks say it is ever full of black criminals,—the black folks say that only colored boys are sent to jail, and they not because they are guilty, but because the State needs criminals to eke out its income by their forced labor.

Was this the land you knew and the life you lived? Did you know about the debates between Du Bois and Booker T over whether and when you needed higher education, or the vote, or an end to lynch law — and how to achieve it? Had your father told you of Frederick Douglass, who had pondered the Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro back in 1852 — indeed, did he know?

The censuses of 1910 and 1920 record your name like any other householder, along with your wife Martha and children. You were sharecropping on the Mitchell plantation, and worshipping at Mitchell chapel, one of the five small churches built on the old place. I heard tell that they built the churches near the trees where they use to have camp meetings during slavery time — sure would like to ask you about that. They all bear family names — Mitchell Chapel, Warren Chapel. Pearson Chapel 1s now an AME Church. Must be a fine place with its own road named after it … Cousin Nonie used to talk about going there in the buggy, when they could borrow the mule. I also heard about how easy it was to lose your land to the taxman or your life to the lynch mob. Then there was the boll weevil, and the tales of better times up North. What exactly it was that drew you above the Mason Dixon, I can’t pretend to know.

By the 1930s you had come to New Jersey. Mel says that picture was taken in Burlington, although he doesn’t know the exact circumstance — “It was just always around.” Great-grandmom Martha — described as a small, quiet woman — went to be with the Lord in 1936, but you lived about another 15 years. They say you kept to a lot of your country ways, walking everywhere, so far and fast that half the time your family didn’t know where you were.

Steven Thomas, aged 12, with my father at a re-enactment of the Battle of Appomattox.

You lived long enough to see Claudia, your baby sister’s granddaughter, graduate from college and become a teacher — so many of us have followed her lead that some of us joke that it’s the family business. I wonder what you thought. I hope you were proud.

Maybe I’ll never know in words what you thought about all of these things, but I know that you endured and brought your family through. And in the end, I guess that’s all that matters. Thank you, Great-Grandpa. Happy Independence Day.

My 2004 review/memoir of Edward Jones’ The Known World
Tonya Bolden’s Tell All the Children Our Story is a great introduction to the history of African American children
AfriGeneas is a great starting point for exploring your African American roots

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