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Harris County Attorney Announces Legal Action Against Landfill Expansion

Harris County will challenge a permit that would expand a controversial landfill located in the Carverdale community in northwest Houston, a historically black community that has largely opposed the expansion. The landfill – known as the Hawthorn Park Recycling & Disposal Facility, operated by USA Waste of Texas Landfills, Inc. – holds construction and demolition waste.

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Is There A Black Doctor in the House?

Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree.Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree. Looking back at the history of Blacks in medicine, it's easy to see why the numbers are so low. However, new data suggests that more black doctors are needed now than ever, and for some, it could mean the difference between life and death. On average, when put in a crowd of a diverse population with no identifying connections, a person will gravitate toward those of their own race. It's a natural behavior because people are more at ease with who or what they know. Generally, being of the same race is an easy commonality to draw towards. This same kind of thinking works in medicine as well. According to studies, Black Americans who have black doctors have more trust in them, practice preventative care, and ultimately live longer lives. "I think we as blacks relate more to people who look like us. Often, we have unspoken similar backgrounds that bring us to a common place of understanding when we have difficulties in our quests for higher education," said Dr. Creaque Charles, Pharm. D. at an accredited HBCU school of pharmacy. How to Improve Representation of African Americans in Medicine? The answer to that question lies in the problems that Blacks have with medicine. To understand the concerns, one must go way back in history to when enslaved men and women were forcibly brought over on ships to America. Those men and women were treated less than humans and stacked on top of each other like property. On that journey, they had to exist in deplorable conditions that were filled with human fecal matter, urine, and other forms of human waste. This resulted in them becoming gravely ill, and some died. None received medical care. The feeling continued when slave owners subjected their Black female slaves to forced sterilization to stop reproduction. Women were also exploited for their bodies to produce more strong slave labor. These women did not also receive any medical care. When the truth about an unethical experiment with Tuskegee men and Syphilis (dubbed the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis) came to light in 1972, prejudices grew.vDuring the era of the Civil War, Blacks were "doomed to extinction" by the medical community of the time, which thought the mental, moral, and physical deterioration of Blacks would send them to an early grave. The distrust of the medical community continues to this day as some doctors of other races may have prior biological beliefs about Blacks that can result in doctors thinking Blacks have a high tolerance for pain, so they may undertreat them for pain. Incidents like the above led some Blacks to believe that they receive better treatment than their own because they know the point of view from which they are coming. They understand it. "When people look at me and they can see themselves in me, that commonality serves as the foundation for a bond of trust," said Dr. Robbyn Traylor, chief medical officer of an urgent medical care clinic, who knows that any doctor can be excellent no matter their race. "There is a level of comfort that is understood and that can remain unspoken when brown and Black patients are treated by brown and Black doctors." A CNN article dives further into the issue of why there is not a surge of Black doctors. Those reasons include factors like the race being excluded from medicine, systematic racism, institutional racism, not being exposed to STEM or STEM careers as a child, and a lack of Black doctors as mentors are among the top reasons. History supports this when looking at the first Black person to earn a medical degree. Dr. James McCune Smith had to go all the way to Scotland to receive his degree in 1837 from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Traylor was fortunate as a child to be heavily exposed to the life of a Black doctor as both of her parents worked in the medical field. She was often at their heels as a child while they worked at one of the best trauma centers in the Texas Medical Center. "I was lucky enough to grow up in a community of people who made me believe that I had the intellect and attitude for medicine." Diversity Matters Diversity Matters After Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington enacted bans on affirmative action, the diversity of the medical schools in those states dropped by a third. Before Black students were wholeheartedly welcomed at these schools in the 1800s and 1900s, they had a choice of seven medical schools, according to research by the Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives. Now only two remain: Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Black students are more likely to attend black medical schools to seek out those who look like them and have proven that their dreams are achievable. Future Black doctors want to attend schools where they don’t have to feel as if they don’t belong. They want to go to schools where they are encouraged to do well, and those who are instructors and mentors truly believe that THEY can do well. Dr. Tamiya Sam, who is a registered pharmacist and holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, knows that whether it is medical, pharmacy, dental, or nurse practitioner school, having a Black mentor matters. "The face of pharmacy is increasingly non-Black. I believe if there were more hands on and dedicated Black pharmacists who truly mentored Black pharmacy students, it would have a higher impact on their completion because they would serve as someone who has been there and genuinely wants to help them succeed." Rosa Terrance, DNP, APRN, GNP-C, agrees with Dr. Sam. "Mentorship absolutely matters and is influential in producing more providers of color. At all times, I make sure of two things: 1) I have a mentor who looks like me, and 2) I am acting as a mentor to someone else. There is a degree of comfort and trust that is birthed out of just being present with someone of your likeness in an otherwise underrepresented space." The Next Generation of Doctors African Americans have a responsibility to expose our children to all the world can offer them. African Americans have a responsibility as a race to step up and be mentors for brown and black children in all fields, not just the medical field. To improve race relations, Blacks must educate our non-Black counterparts. A change must come, and it must start now with each of us.

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Moulin Rouge! The Musical Premieres in Houston at the Hobby Center February 22 – March 12, 2023

Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center announces tickets for the first North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical will go on sale Friday, November 4 at 10AM. Moulin Rouge! The Musical will play the Hobby Center February 22 – March 12, 2023.

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BAFTA Awards 2023: See the full list of nominees

Nominations for the 2023 British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTA Awards, have been announced.

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UMHB Announces Confirmed Graduates from 166th Graduating Class

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) held commencement services for summer and fall graduates on Friday, December 2, 2022 at the Bell County Expo Center. This was the university's 166th graduating class.

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Untold Story: Three upcoming book projects on the history of PVAMU

Prairie View A&M University is affectionately known as “The Hill” by students and alumni. The University is the second-oldest public higher education institution in Texas, and it remains a pinnacle of academic excellence[1].

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PVAMU’s new Communication Fellows Program partners students with key industry leaders

Prairie View A&M University’s newly created Communication Fellows Program just celebrated its first cohort.

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Court TV's hit true crime series 'Someone They Knew With Tamron Hall' returns for all-new second season Sunday, Feb. 19

Court TV, the popular multi-platform network devoted to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage, in-depth legal reporting and expert analysis of the nation's most important and compelling trials and crime stories, announced today that its hit true-crime series, "Someone They Knew With Tamron Hall," will return for its second season on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, with the first of 24 new episodes to be seen Sunday nights.

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Fact-checking President Biden's State of the Union speech

President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union address on Tuesday.

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'He was one of these rockstars': Former FBI agents shocked at the indictment of one of their own

The insular world of FBI counterintelligence agents was rocked last month when one of their own, Charles F. McGonigal, formerly the FBI's top counterintelligence official in New York, was indicted for allegedly selling access to Russian and Albanian officials in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

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Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York, leaves court, Jan. 23, 2023, in New York. Mandatory Credit: …

Published on February 6, 2023

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MLK Day encourages service

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, although King was actually born on the 15th of January 1929, 94 years ago.

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Zula King & Queen Ball

The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Inc. hosted the King and Queen Party honoring …

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Black Content Creator, Hip Rock Star, Announces Exclusive, World Premier of Miami's Richmond Heights: The Black Shangri-La – A 2-Part DocSeries

Hip Rock Star Advertising, an award-winning, socially conscious media production, and 360 agency, is excited to announce the exclusive premiere of the 2-part DocuSeries Miami's Richmond Heights: The Black Shangri-La. The DocuSeries' world premiere is Wednesday, February 15, 2023, and will debut on streaming platforms including Crackle, Plex, and LG.

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NYC bike path terror suspect found guilty on all counts in killing of 8 people

Sayfullo Saipov was found guilty of murder by a federal jury for using a rented truck to fatally strike eight people on a New York City bike path on Halloween Day in 2017.