By Angela Evans

Do you hear it? There is something in the trees, the rivers…They are asking something, pleading something. They are making a request. They are relentless.

They scream at 52 year-old Olawale Idreez to write. “Write!” And write he does.

The good-natured Nigerian publisher of Africa Today newspaper explained this drive in a poem he wrote that says, “If death did not proclaim me tomorrow, I will write. Why? Because everything around me is just begging me to write.”

It is this passion that fuels Olawale Idreez to write, laboring to sustain the struggling Africa Today newspaper in the face of adversity and delay.

Idreez moved to Chicago from Nigeria in 1980. He began his studies right away at Illinois Central College in Peoria, where he went to school for accounting before earning his Masters degree in political science from Northeastern University.

Finding His Voice in Chicago

It was during his time at Northeastern, about ’86-’87, that Idreez heard Harold Washington speak to the students during his run for re-election as mayor. Idreez found himself captivated by the political nature of Washington’s words and how well he spoke English. This experience is what motivated Idreez to switch from continuing his education in accounting to political science.

Although Idreez imagined himself as a well-to-do politician, it was this academic path that steered his love towards writing through the work he put into his thesis. He fell in love with the craft of writing and followed his heart forward from there.

Idreez is a smartly dressed man, who chuckles easily and speaks pointedly about what he believes in.  He was involved with the production of two papers post-college: The African Voice and Afrik. He also took a job at The Celebrity International magazine. Although he enjoyed freelancing for these publications, he hoped that instead of writing for other people he could begin his own publication, and one day would.

Idreez’s family in Nigeria used to tease him about wanting to be a journalist, because his English has never been very good. People also told him he would make more money pursuing a career in accounting. But Idreez had his mind set on being a writer- nothing else.

He compares this experience to a Bible passage that says a prophet is not without honor except in his own house or hometown. Although initially his family didn’t agree with his decision, they’ve not only grown to support him- but also write him letters requesting that Idreez write letters to the government of their state in Nigeria, and focus more of his work on African happenings.

Idreez says he just laughs. “Whatever you do in life, if you persevere- then people have no choice to see that and respect what you’re doing.”

The most difficult aspect of what he does is struggling to overcome the financial woes that threaten his journalism dream.

Idreez admits that when he started Africa Today, which prints and distributes about 2000 copies per issue throughout various Chicago neighborhoods, he zealously believed in what he was doing. So much so, he was shortsighted about financial planning. He funded the paper with all of his own money, which he realizes now, was a mistake.

A Struggle To Survive

And since Africa Today is a free monthly newspaper, it relies on advertisers to provide the primary funding. If Idreez does not come up with the money personally, or advertisers do not pay him- then publishing is interrupted. This has been a recurrent problem for the paper, sometimes delaying publication by 3-4 months.

What Idreez lacks in financial support, he makes up for with unrivaled ardor and inspiration. In addition to his vision of financial emancipation and one day turning the paper into a daily, he also has plans to publish a book about his various life experiences and observations.

“My vision is very, very big but people have already told me that I should take one day at a time…I know it’s going to take a lot of work, but the good news is my brain is like a computer brain. Everything in brain is like writing, writing, writing- I just want to write.”

Angela Evans is a Community Media Workshop Intern

It is a powerful story of fear and courage and uncertainty.

Watch this audio slide show of the demonstration here in Chicago and tell me if you don’t agree. It is by Peter Holderness

http://www.peterholderness.com/iyjl/index.html

So the job for the ethnic news media now is to cover these developments, and to explain where they are going and what they may result in.

What will happen to these students? Are they truly the parallel story to the freedom riders of the 1960s’ in the American South?

Can you stay with this story by telling about one person, one group, one family over time?

The students’ coming out is a prelude to the march this Sunday, March 21, by thousands of groups to push for immigration reform in Washington.

As many as 6,000 persons in Illinois are expected to take part and this a story in itself. They are leaving on Saturday on dozens of buses, a scene that could easily become part of a longer story.

Who are these people? What are their hopes? What is different about immigration reform today in 2010 in terms of expectations of the average person?

These are the contacts for the march;

Catherine Salgado, 312.332.7360 x 235 or 630.362.6202 (mobile)

Salvador Cervantes, 312.593.6411 (mobile)

Kere Picon, 815.621.8065 (for details on buses & logistics)

If you write or broadcast anything let me know,

Stephen

Then in bright red ink, the major headline declares,”West Siders Being  Victimized as Attorney General Tries to Crack Down on Home Improvement Scammers.”

In extensive detail and pictures, the story goes on to talk about the elderly West Side residents who allegedly have been scammed into home repair and mortgage scams that reportedly have wrongly taken thousands of dollars out of their pockets.

The story on the front page of the Garfield-Lawndale Voice on March 3rd was full of people talking about the problem, talking about what needs to be done, talking about the state agencies that have helped them or as well, have not helped them. It was full of indignation and fury and a sense that this kind of scam shouldn’t happen in the neighborhood.

Just when I had given up hope that local newspapers would keep the issue alive along came this story and it quickly picked my optimism that this is what the ethnic news media is good at – defending the folks it talks for.

But I should come clean. My faith wasn’t really lacking. Nope, before I saw this article in the Voice, which has to get online soon, I had seen a story on March 8 in Hoy about  female immigrants. It had been planned ahead so that it would appear on the International Day for Women.

What made this story by Leticia Espinosa so good was that it mixed enough humanity with statistics to tell us about an issue that matters: how to make sure that that there is a way for female immigrants to find a place for themselves today. And one number from the report by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, struck me: 87 percent of the Latinas who are not U.S. citizens cannot speak English or know very little. The message: they want to serve their families and their community and they need help to do so.

Stephen

Wonder what they are listening to on radio?

Or, say, you are wandering along West Belmont and there’s a storekeeper staring into space and listening to a radio station.

I’ll bet they are listening to voices that remind them of places very close to them. I’ll bet they are listening to an ethnic radio station. I know I have three preset stations in Spanish and I switch constantly.

But Chicago is a global city and the languages uttered in the air can make you feel like you are spinning around this earth.

Here’s a well-written and enlightening story about ethnic radio in Chicago from Northwestern’s School of Journalism:

click on the url for the full story.

Stephen

A trip back to the homeland – in a dozen languages – right on your Chicago radio dial

by Taras E. Berezowsky
March 04, 2010

Graph: Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL

Chicago has a greater proportion of multi-ethnic stations than New York or Los Angeles.

But there’s a good reason to wait and there’s a very good reason why this is a story that the immigrant and minority news media needs to do before April 15.

That’s because large numbers of the working poor are the ones who take these so-called refunds which are really loans.  The rate of black taxpayers who use these loans is also quite high as the following story details.

So, here is a story by Curtis Black of the Community Media Workshop that you are free to publish, but please acknowledge his byline, or use it to guide you to your own story.

by Curtis Black
Community Media Workshop

With tax season underway, there’s lots going on with tax refund anticipation loans (RALs), including stepped up regulation and expanded support for free volunteer tax assistance programs which offer alternatives.

Consumer advocates continue to press for the elimination of refund loans, calling them a predatory financial product.  “They’re a high-cost credit product, they’re not necessary, and they primarily target low-wealth people and communities of color,” said Katie Buitrago of the Woodstock Institute.

RALs are “wealth-draining products,” she said.

A Woodstock report issued in January found that Illinois taxpayers who pay “hundreds of dollars to receive their own money a few days earlier” spent $114 million on RALs in 2006, Buitrago said.

Filers in African-American communities are more than three times more likely to use RALs than others, according to the study.  That’s in line with extensive evidence that “high-cost lenders tend to concentrate in communities of color,” Buitrago said.

Early last month, Woodstock joined with consumer advocacy groups across the country to call on the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to enforce guidelines issued in 2007 holding banks that issue RALs responsible for the training and advertising of tax preparers who supply them with customers.

Concerns included misleading and deceptive marketing and a high volume of inaccurate returns.

On February 18, OCC announced a new policy statement (pdf) and a consumer advisory on tax refund products.  The policy statement requires banks to ensure that tax preparers provide customers with statements itemizing RAL fees and explaining that RALs are loans which must be repaid even if returns are smaller than anticipated; that RALs can “substantially reduce [earned income tax credit] benefits”; and that alternatives to RALs, including electronic filing and direct deposit, are available.

The policy also bans marketing using terms like “rapid refund” that obscure the fact that RALs are loans.

Woodstock welcomed the policy statement and called for aggressive enforcement of its provisions.  The group reiterated its call for a cap on RAL interest rates, and urged the OCC to prevent other banks from entering the field — and to “convene a meeting of RAL lenders, regulators, and advocates to discuss an orderly exit of banks from this market following the 2010 tax season,” according to a statement provided by Buitrago.

Two national banks currently provide RALs:  HSBC, which finances loans through H&R Block, and JPMorgan Chase, which offers loans through 13,000 independent tax preparers.  A California bank which financed most of Jackson Hewitt’s RALs was barred from the business by OCC last year.

Buitrago said meetings last year with JPMorgan revealed that the bank was not abiding by the 2007 guidelines.

Last November the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation barred consumer installment lenders from offering RALs and required currency exchanges, payday lenders and pawnshops to apply to IDFPR for licenses to handle RALs.  Spokesperson Sue Hofer said there have been inquiries from businesses about the new requirements, but she had no information about requests for licenses.

Announcing the crackdown, Governor Quinn said the goal was “to limit access to these predatory loans.”

Woodstock has recommended that “fringe preparers” be barred from issuing RALs, noting that they offer the highest-cost loans, often featuring extensive add-on fees for administrative tasks.

In another regulatory development, the IRS recently announced that starting next year, it will begin requiring paid tax preparers to register, fulfill training and competency testing requirements, and abide by a code of ethics.  The agency will also establish a national data base to track tax preparers.

Unlike paid preparers, volunteers at free community-based tax assistance centers undergo annual training and certification exams, said Jackie Lynn Coleman of the National Community Tax Coalition.  In Illinois, free volunteer assistance for low-income families is available from the Center for Economic Progress throughout Chicago and in 30 communities statewide.

In many cases there are bank and credit union partners onsite who will help set up low- and no-cost savings and checking accounts to facilitate direct transfer of returns, said Raisa Allaire of CEP.

With a focus on maximizing use of the earned income tax credit, CEP helped 33,000 Illinois families obtain $52 million in refunds last year.

Some observers anticipate an increase in RAL use by economically-strapped taxpayers.  Coleman said economic pressures can cut both ways.   She said she was hearing about volunteer assistance sites “bursting at the seams.”

“People are refusing to use paid preparers because they really need the additional dollars,” she said.  “They’re willing to wait, even willing to come back” if a volunteer site is full.

Since last year, a new federal grant program has assisted volunteer tax assistance programs with outreach to neglected communities.  CEP has used the funds to reach out to rural and disabled populations, she said.

Still, free volunteer tax preparation sites serve a small fraction of taxpayers.  In Chicago in 2006, about 60 percent of taxpayers used paid preparers, according to IRS figures provided by CEP; for recipients of the earned income tax credit, whose returns can be even more complicated, the figure was almost 73 percent.  Not quite 3 percent of EITC recipients used volunteer preparers.

CEP has increased its volunteer base; it’s up to 2,100 statewide, up 200 from last year, Coleman said.  “That’s not the case everywhere,” she said.  NCTC has launched a national volunteer engagement drive.

One reason low-income taxpayers, including EITC recipients, are more likely to use RALs is because they can be used to cover upfront fees from paid preparers.

When it comes to the EITC, that undercuts the economic stimulus provided by what advocates call the most effective anti-poverty program going.  Congress recognized this last year by increasing payments to larger families and expanding eligibility standards for single taxpayers as part of the recovery act.

Each year RALs take nearly $800 million nationally that could help low-income families — and be spent in local economies – and sends it back to Wall Street.  But with growing awareness, stiffer regulation and greater access to alternatives, the future of this product may be limited.

Indeed, according to one report, tighter bank credit means RALs are taking longer to process – sometimes up to three weeks – “eliminat[ing] the incentive to take them out in the first place.”

MAR 1, 2010 0

And when the turns land someone on the better side of things, they are usually the most compelling.

Here is the start of such a story from the latest issue of EXTRA by Stella Nichols, one of our interns. It is about a life of trouble that has turned out okay. It’s a story that has meaning for the community that EXTRA is talking to and a story that reminds us why we count on the news media to connect us with the places where we live.

For the rest of the story go to EXTRA, http://www.extranews.net

Stephen

by Stella Nichols

John Vergara grew up inChicago’s Humboldt Park community,where gangs, drug dealingand violence were simply part ofthe norm.

Although he has made it a point to forget his past and the mistakes he’s made, having his tattoos removed has been anotherstep in his new life.

“I’m still in the process of gettingthese removed. Laser surgery hurts so bad, 10 times more thanthe tattoo itself, but I have to doit,” said Vergara, as he pointed to one of the many tattoos that engulf his body. “I try not to thinkabout it. I’m not that person anymore,”Vergara said.

“Everything I do now is to prove to my son[that] I’m a good dad.”Vergara was inducted into oneof the area’s most notorious gangs when he was only 13 yearsold.“There was nothing else to do,”said Vergara, 36, who now works with community groups in aneffort to keep Latino youths away from gangs.

“It was too dangerous to play in basketball courtsand there were no recreational centers. [There were] no role models whatsoever.”Surpassing gang life and jail time Vergara’s life revolved around the gang. A typical day in his life involved liquor, girls, drug dealingand handling more money in aweek than most teenagers see in a year.

“If I knew when I was 14 what Iknow now, I’d be really rich,”Vergara said.By his early teenage years,Vergara had witnessed more strifeand pain than most people. At 15,he was shot three times by a rivalgang member, suffering injuries inhis arm, stomach and shoulder.“I couldn’t care less aboutdying. I just wanted revenge,”Vergara said. “That was the beginningof me picking up a gun.”

From then on, Vergara’s troubles only worsened.When he was 16, he was convictedof several severe crimes and was sentenced to life in prison.

That’s right, the statues that millions of people around the world are ogling were born at the R.S. Owens & Co. factory on Chicago’s Northside. They have been made there for the last 27 years.

And this year’s statues, going to the world’s most talented artists of the movie screen, come from the talented hands of workers like Jorge Marroquin, who is orginally from Quatemala and who is the production boss at this highly talented factory.

These statues were pressed and shined and polished to a wonderful gleam, passing through the hands of many, many of whom came to the U.S. from Mexico, among them Martin Vega, originally of Michoacan and Alvaro Lando, who comes from Guerrero and Josefina Godea whose roots go back to San Luis Potosi.

Sounds heart-warming enough for an award winning documentary, doesn’t it?

Well, the facts are right. They were spelled out last week in a wonderful two page spread with photos in Hoy. If only somebody in Hollywood would say a few such words for the folks who bring Oscar to life.

But it not too late to give an update to a story that will provide a very humane grounding for an event that has its eyes stuck on the heavens.

http://tinyurl.com/ylqoboz

Oscar Avila had another compelling first page piece last week on the front page of the Trib about the separate worlds of Chicago’s restaurants: white up front and black or Latino outback.  But his story followed an equally powerful and personal piece written by Fabiola Pomareda in La Raza about the abuses Latinos suffer in our restaurants.

Antonio Olivo also did a wonderfully humane piece in the Trib about how Iraqi refugees and others, among them Bosnians who remember their days in such terrible plight, who have come to help the latest refugees. It is a story that needs to be told again and again in Chicago’s Arab news media, where it will most certainly have the greatest resonance.

But this is a story about refugees in a strange land and at a tough time and it’s a story almost any immigrant community will want to embrace.

The tragedy of the hollowing out of Chicago’s newspapers is the lack of reporters from Chicago’s mainstream papers on the ground in Haiti. They relied on others words. But Richard Muhammad, editor of the Final Call was there, and wrote both articles and an editor’s note about what he found.

He wrote: “The reality is simply incredible as is the resilience of the Haitian people.”

saludos, Stephen

But are they the only ones who have failed? Who else is accountable? Who else needs to come to their rescue?

What else needs to be done?

Few stories matter as much as these school closings to communities and this is the time for the ethnic news media to find new ways to tell this story. My suggestion is to take the whole picture apart and tell parts of it. And keep up  your reporting so that eventually you have covered everything possible and painted the whole picture.

You don’t need a staff of hundreds to get started.

Here is one start – listening to the schools social workers. This is an op ed piece written by a group of Chicago Public School social workers. Consider their points. Contact them. Let’s keep listening, looking and finding better ways of telling a story that truly matters and that keeps us a part of our communities.

Here is what they have written.

Steve–and if please share with us any stories you have written on this

THE VILLAGE MUST BE REHABILITATED!

As violent deaths of our youth continue, the pervasive sense that “nothing can be done” increases. Children and families are left with a marked sense of powerlessness that is compounded on a daily basis. The violent loss of our youth will always be a tragedy and must not be tolerated.

During the past decade we have been inundated with the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”.  The Village is crumbling and we see blatant murders of the weakest in our society. The societal Village is fragmented, mutilated and discouraged; it has essentially renounced its responsibility. It is clear the Village has not only lost its way but is in need of a massive overhaul.

School social workers are acutely aware of the terrible toll youth violence has taken, yet they continue to be significant components of the Village, invested in preparing students to assume positive roles in society. In many ways, the school social worker has become the primary Village to many children.

School social workers see firsthand the tragedy of constant exposure to violence, the deep-seated anger and rage, the fear, the risk-taking, the disregard for life and the difficulty trusting others and themselves. School social workers see the catastrophic effect of students unable to focus and learn, thus reducing their ability to have a productive and positive future.

Students expect to be fairly safe within the school confines but when they emerge, it is indisputable that the “buck stops at the school door”.  When students step outside there is a change of priorities and a harsh reality becomes shockingly conspicuous.

In order to combat these feelings, school social workers sponsor conflict resolution, anger management classes, positive problem-solving techniques, social awareness and improved social functioning programs all within the guidelines of the Social/Emotional Learning Standards.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for students is excellent and has been regularly proven to change attitudes and behaviors while improving outcomes for school communities that foster its engagement.  Social Emotional Learning skills are organized around three simple but galvanizing goals:

Goal 1: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success

Goal 2: Use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships

Goal 3: Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.

In order for the Village to be effective, everyone must be trained and share a similar view; we must restore the Village by teaching Social Emotional Learning standards to all its members.  SEL must leap from school to society so there is no longer a collision of students trained and not those of the desolate Village. This would ensure the seamless transitions of students into society.

In order to encompass the Village foundations, several major groups must be immediately involved in the process of learning SEL.

All city employees, whether having direct contact with the public or not, must be trained. Parents must receive trainings; SEL should be a mandatory course for all graduates of higher learning institutions, all those in correctional system must be targeted.

A special department is necessary to establish SEL trainings, monitor them and issue relevant materials. Ongoing public service announcements related and adapted to SEL skills is necessary. These trainings, and eventually, the associated activities would be integrated into the culture of the City of Chicago.

A cultural shift is required to save the Village and all of its inhabitants. The Village culture must be steeped in the basics of maintaining a civil and humane society.

It not enough that school social workers heed this message. The goal is to be inclusive of all. SEL must no longer be limited to students, as we all know being a life-long learner is optimal. Life-long SEL makes for an improved quality of life for all

We want you. Want you to help us. Want to help you. Want you to help us reach people who are unreached. That is how the mantra went.

The lure of advertising dollars rang in the ears of ethnic news media just scraping by.

But apparently the government’s desire to spread the word has been limited and not all ethnic news media have benefited.

If you reach an immigrant or minority community in the Chicago area that needs to make sure it is counted in this Census, especially one that barely took part in the last count, and you didn’t get any of the Census campaign funds, let me know.

I’ll pass your word along to the U.S. Census, New America Media and to the advertising firms in charge of locating the ethnic news media and allocating the federal dollars. Don’t give up.

You can reach me at steve@newstips.org or 312 369 6400.

Here is testimony from Sandy Close of the New America Media about this problem:

NEW AMERICA MEDIA TELLS CONGRESS TO USE THE NATION’S ETHNIC MEDIA MORE EFFECTIVELY TO INCREASE ACCURACY OF THE 2010 CENSUS COUNT

WASHINGTON-The US Census Bureau is missing opportunities to provide reporting instructions to diverse communities in the United States by failing to fully utilize the ethnic media that can reach more than 60 million adults in those communities, according to testimony from New America Media (NAM) in Congress today.

Sandy Close, NAM’s executive director, called the 2010 Census advertising program an “unprecedented investment” in ethnic and community media, having identified 3,000 media outlets across the country. But she cautioned that many key media outlets were left out, including 47% of those that attended roundtable sessions organized by NAM and the Census Bureau last year to learn how they could help with the count.  She noted that several prominent African American papers had been excluded.

“Many are frustrated – they don’t know why they fell through the cracks.  Some are bitter. All very urgently want a role – even if small – and believe, as I do, that together they can move the needle those extra percentage points,” said Ms. Close, testifying before the Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives. Her organization represents more than 2,500 ethnic media outlets across the country.

The roundtable discussions organized last year included more than 600 ethnic media representatives in 12 cities from coast to coast.  The ethnic media participating included media giants like Univision, Asian language dailies, BET and Clear Channel stations to established black and Spanish language weeklies, upstart radio and TV stations, as well as niche print and online outlets serving Burmese, Ethiopian, Arab, Russian, Mixtec, Punjabi and Samoan communities.
“Their hunger to participate in the 2010 Campaign is intense—you could cut the exuberance at these gatherings with a knife,” Ms. Close testified.  “For many media, it was the first time they’d come together as a media sector in the same city. They get the Census: they get their community’s stake in a complete count, and they get their own.”
In citing the importance of an accurate Census count not only on federal dollars, but private ones as well, she noted the experience of Juan Carlos Ramos of the El Tiempo Hispanic newspaper in New Orleans. Mr. Ramos said the 2000 Census undercounted Hispanics in New Orleans and as a result Coca Cola dropped New Orleans, and his paper, from their national ad campaign.

Many ethnic media outlets are frustrated by being excluded from the Census advertising.

“From our first briefing in March of 09 until our last one in early December, ethnic media attendees also expressed a uniform anxiety over the lack of transparency in the decision making process of the Census ad buy,” Ms. Close said, adding that she has received correspondence from ethnic media outlets across the country not been utilized.
Moreover, there was also criticism that some of the communications vehicles chosen by the Census Bureau are not having the desired impact. She quoted Joe Orozco, of Hoopa Radio in northern California, lamenting that the Census spent the “the biggest chunk of money to reach American Indians” on billboards that don’t have much of an impact on isolated reservations like his. “Most of us don’t do a lot of freeway driving,” she quoted Mr. Orozco as saying.
Ms. Close said that hundreds of ethnic media like Hoopa Radio want to inform and mobilize their communities to participate in the Census.  As the Census Bureau recognizes the regions with the lowest response rates, she recommended that the government fund a program similar to a NAM project launched to reach American Indian and indigenous communities in California.

The Save our Services campaign for Census 2010 replicates an approach that NAM has pioneered through numerous social marketing campaigns over the last decade. It relies upon local ethnic media outlets to design their own messaging campaigns and earned media components.  Under this program, Hoopa Radio received a small grant of $2,000 that will help pay to develop a PSA that will grab listeners’ attention with a message that says:  “If we don’t let ourselves be counted, they’ll say no one lives here and take away our water rights.”
Ms. Close cited reasons why the Census Bureau should utilize the ethnic media more. She noted that a survey by San Francisco State’s Renaissance Center last year found that 68 percent of ethnic media leaders described their primary goal as service to the community, with less than a third listing making a profit as their goal. In addition, she said that while mainstream media audiences have sharply declined, there has been a 16 percent growth in the ethnic media audiences over the last five years.

“Even a modest investment of $2 million in those outlets that have been left out or, like Joe Orozco, believe they have more effective ways to message to their audiences could increase the response rate dramatically in some regions between the crucial period between April 15 and the end of July,” Ms. Close said. “More important, it would acknowledge that not just the primary ethnic news outlets but the entire ethnic media sector has an indispensible role to play in how government communicates with the governed.”

They can’t seem to find friends, find a place for themselves, find their voices, find a way to feel at ease, at home, at rest, at last, at rest.

The elderly suffer from depression, but the ethnic elderly endure it even more greatly.

This is one of the topics we’ll talk about at our meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 23rda in a briefing for the ethnic news media from 10 am to noon at Age Options,  1048 Lake St. Suite 300, Oak Park.

And here is a story from New America Media that precisely makes the point about the mental health of the ethnic elderly.

See you there, Steve, steve@newstips.org or 773 595 8667

Managing her diabetes day-to-day is a constant struggle for Maria Carr. Like so many black elders, the 68-year-old San Franciscan must wrestle so much with the debilitating effects of chronic illness—the neuropathy that weakens her ability to walk or the continual pin pricks to test for blood sugar levels—that it gets her down.

It’s in those low hours that Carr’s thoughts often drift back to her “rotten childhood” on a farm in her native Jamaica and the constant verbal abuse she endured from her stepfather.

“People think about their past history,” said Carr. “I’m prepared for the worst. I’m not in the best health, but my mind is still okay. When I get depressed, though, it’s very difficult. Sometimes I wish I could die.”
Study: Ethnic Differences Suggest How Mental Health Services Can Better Serve Elders
“Racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower overall mental health care,” including less outpatient care and fewer visits to mental health specialists, said Daniel E. Jimenez, a research associate at Dartmouth Medical School.

But ending disparities in mental health care between ethnic elders and non-Latino Whites, Jimenez said, isn’t a simple matter of improving access to care. At the Gerontological Society of America conference last fall, Jimenez and colleagues at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research showed that mental health care providers need to better understand differences among various groups to realize how to treat each more effectively.

Although groups of ethnic elders experience percentages of serious depression similar to that of older whites (about one in six people ages 50 or older at some point) mental health experts say that African-American, Latino, Asian and Native-American seniors are less apt to get treated. That’s because of their higher levels of poverty, lack of insurance or access to treatment and the pervasive stigma of mental illness in many cultures.

http://tinyurl.com/yg7su6d