Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month
Dr. Lizette Navarrete-Burks, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership
National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationwide from September 15 to October 15, honoring the histories, cultures, and contributions of Latinx/e Americans. This year, Jovita Idar was the first-ever Tejana to be featured on a U.S. quarter after its release in August 2023. Jovita’s is the ninth release of the American Women Quarters Program and the quarter features her image and inscriptions that depict her contributions as a Mexican-American journalist, political activist, nurse, teacher, and suffragist. Jovita and her family challenged segregation, lynching, and other injustices endured by Mexican-Americans in the early 20th Century choosing to document the brutality by using their newspapers as truth-tellers. Among the legacy Jovita and her family left behind, she believed education was critical for a better future. She received her teaching certificate in 1903 and later founded a free Kindergarten school in San Antonio, her final resting place. National and community-based organizations celebrate Jovita Idar during this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month.
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at UHD, I urge us to reflect on our role as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) to honor the legacies of freedom dreamers like Jovita Idar.
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia’s recent research on HSIs describes the different “types” of HSIs: Latinx-enrolling (least effective), Latinx-enhancing, Latinx-producing, and Latinx-serving (most-effective). She challenges us to think about “servingness” and how diversity alone is insufficient for achieving a dynamic learning environment.
Learn more about Jovita Idar in the below clip from PBS American Masters.
Days of Awe: Celebrating Jewish High Holidays
By Rabbi Kenny Weiss and Dr. Ayden Adler
This year the Jewish High Holidays begin at sundown on September 15 and conclude on September 25. Houston has a large Jewish population and Houston Hillel serves as a place of engagement for college students and a resource for faculty across all the Houston-area universities.
I spoke with Rabbi Kenny Weiss, executive director of Houston Hillel, and asked him to share some information about the Jewish holidays at this time of year:
"The Jewish High Holidays, known in Hebrew as the “Days of Awe,” provide the Jewish community with an opportunity for deep reflection, repentance, and renewal. The High Holidays include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the ten days in between.
Rosh Hashanah, meaning "Head of the Year" in Hebrew, takes place on in September or October. (The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle with a leap month every few years.) Rosh Hashanah celebrates the world's creation and is a time for personal introspection. A central tradition is the sounding of the shofar, a ram's horn, symbolizing spiritual self-examination and repentance.
After Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance lead to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the Jewish year, devoted to seeking forgiveness through prayer, fasting, and reflection. The English word, “repentance,” is not entirely accurate for this time of year. Rather, Jews engage in teshuvah, a process of adjusting one’s life in a more appropriate direction.
The High Holidays stress self-improvement, forgiveness, and reconciling with others. Jews participate in prayer services, Tashlich ceremonies (casting away sins symbolically into a body of water), and festive meals. Apples dipped in honey signify hopes for a sweet, prosperous year, and round challah (egg bread) symbolizes a crown and God’s role in judgment.
The High Holidays are some of the most universally observed and celebrated days in the Jewish calendar. Should you encounter a Jewish friend or acquaintance during this time you can extend to them the greeting, “Shanah tovah,” Happy New Year.”
Important Links:
Houston Hillel - Jewish Life on College Campuses in Southeast Texas
Jewston - Houston’s Community for Jewish Twentysomethings
QJews - Providing a celebratory space for Houston's Queer Jews in their Twenties and Thirties
Rabbi Kenny Weiss is Executive Director of Houston Hillel, which fosters Jewish campus life in Houston and throughout Southeast Texas. Learn more at houstonhillel.org.
Ayden Adler, Ph.D., D.M.A., serves as Assistant Professor of Arts Administration at UHD, where she also teaches in the MA in Nonprofit Management program and the MA in Strategic Communications program. Dr. Adler's vision is to sustain the arts through robust inclusivity and diversity, superlative artistry and leadership, and innovative approaches to audience engagement and retention. Her academic research focuses on the history of arts and culture institutions in the United States from the Gilded Age to the present. Her current book project, Orchestrating Whiteness: Serge Koussevitzky, Arthur Fiedler, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under contract with the University of Illinois Press, addresses the historical roots of systemic racism in classical music in the United States. Dr. Adler is a first-year fellow at the Center for Critical Race Studies.
.
The Impact of Privileged Resistance and the Legacy of Harm in Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Jerry Johnson, Professor of Biology & Biochemistry
In 2003, a Republican-sponsored bill (the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act) written by pharmaceutical lobbyists was passed at 3 A.M. in the dead of night so as not to draw scrutiny. This bill included a noninterference provision that barred the federal government from negotiating the price paid for drugs by Medicare and the Department of Veterans Affairs to the pharmaceutical industry. This law ensured that the pharmaceutical companies could charge people in the U.S. exorbitantly high prices for drugs that they simultaneously sold for cheaper to other countries that were empowered to negotiate drug prices.
The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) enacted in 2010 expanded the Medicaid insurance program to cover all adults (not just senior citizens) that earn an annual income 138% below the federal poverty level, and made affordable insurance available to anyone with incomes between 100 – 400% of the federal poverty level. States were required to ‘opt-in’ to the Medicaid expansion, which would allow eligible adults to have access to the Medicare price points normally available only to senior citizens in the U.S. For states that chose to opt-in, access to cheaper medications through Medicare and Medicaid became available to millions more people in the U.S, although not as cheap as in some other countries.
To date, ten states have chosen not to adopt the Medicaid expansion allowable under the Affordable Care Act. These ten states, including Texas, either have a legislature controlled by Republicans, or have a Republican as governor. These ten states have chosen to deny their residents access to cheaper drugs that are available to enrollees in those states that did opt-in to the Medicaid expansion. The 2003 law forbidding negotiations on drug prices and the refusal of states to expand Medicare disproportionately and negatively impacts the elderly, the poor, People of Color, and other facets of our communities that have historically been pushed to the margins.
Is the Cruelty the Point?
The original 2003 bill and refusal to opt-in to the Medicaid expansion denies access to critical healthcare and medications required for the quality of life and continued survival of millions of people in the U.S. Why would elected representatives put the profits of private companies over the health and financial well-being of potentially millions of constituents that they were elected to represent? These choices have cost lives.
On August 29, 2023, the White House announced that through the Inflation Reduction Act (passed last year), Medicare can now negotiate with U.S. Pharmaceutical companies to negotiate the price of ten selected drugs for the first time. The ten drugs chosen are among those with the highest total spending in Medicare Part D ($3.4 billion out-of-pocket cost in 2022), and over 9 Million Medicare enrollees depend on these medications to treat a variety of conditions, from heart failure to diabetes and Crohn’s disease to Rheumatoid and Psoriatic forms of arthritis. Both traditional Medicare enrollees and those that benefit from the Medicaid expansion in 40 of 50 states will benefit from the negotiated lower prices on these ten drugs.
What Are We Waiting For?
Make no mistake, we should all applaud and be thankful for the victory by the Biden administration to negotiate lower prices for these ten drugs, as well as those drugs identified for future negotiation. However, why is it just ten drugs? After two decades of restricted access and high prices in order to bolster the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, what are we waiting for? If you are going to suit-up to negotiate for the ten drugs that are responsible for almost 80% of the Medicare Part D costs annually, why not just go for it all? How many millions of people will still be denied access to critical medications because we were not willing to go-all-in?
The pharmaceutical companies, as owners of the property (drugs) in question, assumes the right to determine the rules pertaining that property. The pharmaceutical companies enjoy the rights of disposition, the right to use and enjoy, the right to reputation and status resulting from that ownership, and the absolute right to exclude. The owner of the property defines the conditions around which the property is sold, and to whom it can be sold. This is the law under the economic model of capitalism, and the power to define is a central part of domination and oppression.
The full extent of the harm is one of legacy.
Yes, we should celebrate the victory of 10 drugs, but we should also recognize that the pharmaceutical companies still hold the privileged position in this matter, and the level of privileged resistance dictates the parameters of the remedy to the problem. The Biden administration has won a battle, but not the war, and the fault of all parties in this matter, is that they all assume that the immediate cost of the drugs is the only harm that needs a remedy.
Who Will be Held Accountable?
For years, needy people have been denied access to needed medications due to high price points, and/or the decision of our lawmakers to protect those high price points (2003) or to continue to deny their citizens access to programs that could improve access (denying Medicaid expansion). How many people have suffered and died because of these decisions? The ability to negotiate the price points of ten drugs is a limited remedy from this point forward, but does not address the responsibility to eradicate inequality in resource allocation, nor does it absolve anyone of the harms of the past. Who will be held accountable for the millions that have suffered and died because of these decisions?
When will we stop celebrating limited victories that only address the immediate harm and start asking how we will address the legacy of harm perpetrated against those marginalized in our society? All of us need access to medication, and all of us have felt the sting of high prices, or complete lack of access. Access to medication is a life-and-death issue, and we should treat it as such by holding elected officials accountable for political decisions that cost lives. If we have the courage to hold them accountable and remove them from office, then maybe we will be better positioned to address the legacy of harm.
GHANA STUDY ABROAD HIGHLIGHTS
Dr. Antoinette Wilson, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Editor of The Connect
This summer, Dr. Vida Robertson and I led our students on a two-week study abroad trip to the beautiful and vibrant country of Ghana, West Africa. Students in Dr. Robertson's ENG 3340/HUM 3310: Studies in Contemporary Ghanaian Fiction and Literature course and my PSY 4317: Multicultural Psychology course deepened their understandings of contemporary Ghanaian literature, culture, pan-African identity, and social justice.
We began our journey in Accra, visiting sites such the W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan-African Culture, the University of Ghana, and the Presidential Library of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana after colonial liberation.
We continued to the peaceful Volta Region where we hiked to the Wli waterfalls and monkeyed around in the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. After a long journey to Kumasi we were immersed in the cultural traditions of the Ashanti kingdom and tried our hands at printing our own Adinkra symbols on Kente cloths.
For me and many of our students, one of the most powerful and poignant parts of our journey was walking barefoot on the same paths enslaved Africans were taken to get to the Ancestral Slave River. This is where they took their last baths before being held in dungeons in Elmina and Cape Coast among others, to be sold, stripped of their identities, and sent on ships through the Door of No Return never to see their homeland again. To now stand at this door, look out at the Atlantic Ocean from the African coast for the first time, and make the very return that my ancestors did not get to make was an emotional experience I won’t soon forget.
Take a moment to view the below video for highlights of this deeply moving and enlightening experience.
The Takeover of HISD: A Cause for Concern
Dr. Nina Barbieri, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
Over the summer, Houstonians learned that the Houston Independent School District (HISD) would be formally taken over by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This comes as a result of several concerns the TEA had regarding services and resources provided to students with disabilities, allegations of misconduct against the school board, and prolonged unsuccessful academic performance at Wheatley High School. On June 1st, Mike Miles was appointed by TEA to serve as the new superintendent of HISD amidst protests from local communities, families, and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. Further, the nine elected members of the school board were also replaced by state-appointed trustees.
Mr. Miles has initiated several new procedures including a 20% reduction in administrative staff and the reassigning of three principals of high schools located in Sharpstown, Sunnyside, and the Third Ward. These schools have been historically economically disadvantaged and serve a majority of students who identify as Black or Hispanic. But perhaps most upsetting is the elimination of libraries to be redesigned as “team centers” in 29 “high-priority, high-need campuses”, as determined by Mr. Miles and his board. On these campuses, disruptive students are removed from their classes and placed in this team center to be monitored by learning coaches and join their original class via Zoom. These 29 schools are overwhelmingly located in low-income communities of color, furthering potentially disparate educational outcomes for these students.
Research on the impacts of exclusionary educational practices have found many troubling trends:
1) Male students of color are disproportionality impacted by these practices and this only furthers gaps in educational attainment and the school-to-prison pipeline (source).
2) All students in schools with high exclusionary practices are negatively harmed. In other words, removing “disruptive” students does not yield increases in the other students’ academics or learning outcomes. Students in stricter, less tolerant schools have higher rates of arrests and incarceration (source).
3) The forced removal from their class can impede students’ sense of belongingness. Students may feel negatively labeled and mis-valued, ultimately disconnecting them from a learning environment meant to foster positive growth (source).
Education scholars, researchers, and advocates have urged for the reduction of exclusionary disciplinary practices and other zero-tolerance policies. Implementing evidence-based strategies, such as restorative justice practices and the teaching of socio-emotional skills, are much more effective in targeting the underlying causes of problematic behaviors. The continued failure of our policymakers and leaders to address the root causes of disruptive students struggling with their academics will only cause further disparate and negative long-term outcomes. These young students need the support and guidance meant to be received in the school environment, not to be left behind.
Remembering Lorenzo Thomas
Dr. Stalina Villarreal, Assistant Professor of English
UHD’s Lorenzo Thomas was a poet who was born in Panama and raised in the United States. Today, one could say he was Afro-Panamanian American, but according to literary scholar Laura Vrana, he identified as African American. In surveys conducted Pew Research Center a few months before the pandemic, out of the 6 million Afro-Latinxs in the Unites States, about 800,000 did not identify as Hispanic or Latino. He started living in the United States at the age of four, and he became a U. S. veteran. As a poet, he participated in the Black Arts Movement, and as Vrana points out, he was the only Black poet included in the early editions of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine. Among his many accolades, he first moved to Houston as a writer-in-residence at Texas Southern University. Later, he settled as a professor on our campus and was the director of the Cultural Enrichment Center.
In his poem “Survivors” Thomas expresses affirmation:
America would be beautiful
If you willing to trade
And go speaking proverbs
This passage is conditional, but Thomas paints a positive portrait of the United States that could be accessible for many. The key is communication as he reiterates in his poem “Discovering America Again” where he underscores “speech.” Indeed, his poems show a history of oral traditions that include singing, though he also used visual elements in some of his poems. Even the visuals can be seen a sensory form of communication. Communication is part of his legacy.