The Opioid Epidemic and Keeping it Real

Not many are black people; now it becomes important to society.

"They were in a small city in a rural county, fertile ground for prescription drug addiction, though they traveled from as far as Nashville and Missouri. They were young or middle-aged and ranged from blue-collar workers to businesspeople. They said painkillers prescribed after accidents or injuries paved the way to their dependence on opioids. They also were all white. Of all deaths in 2015 from opioid and heroin overdoses in Tennessee and nationwide, about 90 percent of the people were white. Black people accounted for little more than 6 percent in Tennessee and 8 percent across the country, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.Among African-Americans critical of the modern drug war launched four decades ago by President Richard Nixon, the fact that the opioid epidemic is primarily striking the majority race helps explain why it is largely being called an epidemic and treated as a public health crisis, rather than a war." From: Largely White Opioid Epidemic Highlights Black Frustration.

by Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT (response)

          People say there are many versions of the United States; Black, White, Red, and Yellow.

Don Allen, M.A. Ed.  - Teacher/Researcher
and Editorial Columnist 

From these many versions, no matter who you are, you can see that some are treated with less attention to generational challenges. I'm not trash-talking, nor whining, but let's face the facts; when an epidemic like Opioid misuse dug in and stayed with Black, Yellow, and Red versions, there was no outcry for help. The people in the mainstream just looked the other way, opened up treatment centers (multicultural disparities are a billion-dollar enterprise), and walked away wealthy from multi-version pain. 

          Now the Opioid epidemic has enveloped the White version of the United States killing children of well-off, poor and middle-class. Like the sun rising in the morning, all attention is now focused on saving "one version" when for generations the other versions have suffered catastrophic losses. 

          As a teacher, if I cannot present our world within a timely and relevant, and factual lens, our students do not benefit. I will not teach Black History because in reality its American History. Black people did not begin their journey in slavery, so while this topic is relevant, I know many black historical figures that invented thousands of machines, processes and guided many with words printed in some of the finest books ever. Once we decide to keep it real, Achievement Gaps disappear; crime rates drop; unemployment becomes a memory of a time long ago, and our families become reunited with the ideal that integrity, respect, politeness and love have always been the utility for us as people to make the world go around. Remember, we need each other; I need you, you need me...we cannot survive in any other construct no matter how far apart the differences might be.