A number of kids at the Tahirih Peace Institute, an English Language program at the Boston Baha’i Center, have chronic asthma. Negin and I teach there during the school year, and I’ve often wondered why our students suffer from increased rates of asthma compared to white and/or middle-class children we work with in other settings.
Today, the New York Times website gave me the answer:
Children in poor inner-city communities are disproportionately exposed to both indoor and outdoor allergens  cockroaches, mice, mold, dust, cigarette smoke, automobile exhaust, soot  that can trigger breathing problems.
As Phillipe has frequently made clear at Baha’i Thought, this is proof that race still matters in America. Lower-income neighborhoods, frequently neighborhoods of color, face higher levels of asthma triggers.
This understanding also shed light on a pearl from the Writings of Baha’u'llah:
Be ye the very essence of cleanliness amongst mankind. This, truly, is what your Lord, the Incomparable, the All-Wise, desireth for you.
Cleanliness is a concept discussed at some length in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of the Baha’i Faith. (Linguiphiles take note: Aqdas comes from the same root as Quddus and, in Hebrew, Kadosh and Kadesh — “Holy.”) I always thought Baha’u'llah was only referring to bodily cleanliness, but perhaps the idea has a wider significance. By allowing our communities to become dirty – with allergens, mold, soot and car exhaust – we’ve committed injustice and imperiled our children and youth.
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3 Comments
I was turned onto your blog by my wife, who is a Baha’i from Chicago (I’m on the path…)
You are correct – race plays a big role in many diseases that we see in America. Clearly there are environmental reasons that stem from socioeconomic injustices which exacerbate asthma incidence and prevalence, but there seem to be some genetic predispositions in play, as well (particularly with those of African-American descent).
However, in my experience, the biggest factors are environmental and sadly, ‘diagnostic’ – which is to say that people of color tend to have less diligent primary care delivery (and probably worse than less diligent, less competent and more overworked). This, to me, is the biggest factor in what I’ve long championed as a very treatable epidemic right under our very noses.
The rate of asthma in African-American youth is probably around 10%, but the number of those who know it, have been told it, or are being treated for it is probably closer to 1 or 2%.
It’s a bad news, good news thing – the bad news is what I’ve said above. The good news is there are some very good and mostly safe therapies for asthma and allergies now for these children (and adults). The bad news (again) is that they are expensive, and they have to be administered by someone who knows what they’re doing – and there simply aren’t enough of those people out there.
Onward we march…..
~Steve
Thanks for your comment, Steve. The sobering description of the diagnostic factor is appreciated.
I’m also glad you brought genetics into the conversation. In 2004 there was a nice piece in the journal Nature Genetics focusing on Genetic variation, classification and ‘race’ (PDF). It seemed to do a good job at recognizing the fundamental oneness and fluidity of humanity while acknowledging that there is a genetic component to some health conditions. However, they use a genetic allele related to hypertension to demonstrate that race can also be a “faulty indicator of the presence or absence of an allele” (S31). They continue: “In many cases, individuals from different continents are more similar to one another, with regard to this gene, than are individuals from the same continent” (S32).
Please send love from Negin and I to your amazing wife. (And scoop a little out for yourself.)
Lev:
Yes, that was a good article you referenced….
Will definitely tell my (agreed, amazing) wife hello for you. Would love to meet you and your wife someday!
Steve