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(Music) 

This is your Cronkite News to Go briefing…

(Bring up music briefly and duck below and out )

I’m Ayana Hamilton …

Fighting to make themselves heard in the battle against Black infant mortality

HOST INTRO: In Maricopa County Black babies are two and half times more likely to die before the age of 1. That’s more than any other race.. Roxanne De La Rosa tells us about a state funded program working to combat the high infant mortality rate within the Black community…

<nat sound – outside sounds (interview was done at a public park) >

DE LA ROSA: I met Donnyea Stokes at a neighborhood park in Southwest Phoenix. In 2006 she became pregnant with her daughter while attending college. After becoming ill during her pregnancy her doctor told her it was just morning sickness.

<< STOKES: “The sickness got so bad that I had to withdraw from school altogether. And at the same time I was going back to the doctor and the doctor would say he didn’t know what was wrong and that it was just morning sickness. It got so bad that I was in and out of the hospital like every week.” >>

DE LA ROSA: For seven months Stokes was unable to hold down food and she lost 80 pounds. A female doctor in the same clinic saw that Stokes was weak and could barely walk.

<< STOKES: “One of the other doctors recognized that I was having so much trouble and she pulled me to the side and she said, ‘Donnyea, you shouldn’t be having this much trouble while you’re pregnant. Something else has to be wrong.’ She said, ‘Well, I want you to make an appointment with me.’ And this was a doctor that worked in the same office as the other doctor that I was seeing on a regular basis. And she said, ‘No, I want you to come and see me and we’re going to run some tests and figure out what is going on..” >>

DE LA ROSA: Stokes was diagnosed with thyroid issues. She felt she wasn’t being heard or listened to by her original doctor. Statistics show that black infants in Maricopa County are two-and-a-half times more likely than any other race to die before the age of 1. Meloney Baty is the director of South Phoenix Healthy Start. She knows from experience that these statistics are accurate.

<< BATY: “We see a lot of people who don’t believe that the infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate is as bad as it is. There are a number of things that lead into it structuralized and   systemized racism is you know certainly one of those.” >>

DE LA ROSA: Baty also says access to health care, good nutrition and transportation are factors in high-infant mortality rates.

<< BATY: “We just refer back to the data. Data doesn’t lie. And so when we look at just the numbers we have to then do something about it. We have to try to make health outcomes better for women and men in our community.” >>

DE LA ROSA: South Phoenix Healthy Start is working to bring those numbers down. It offers doula services, childbirth classes and education for moms to advocate for themselves. Tatjana Loncar is a health educator who works one-on-one with mothers and families. Loncar says she hears the same concerns from other women like Stokes.

<< LONCAR: “Something that we see and hear quite often about is the fact that they do not feel heard. They don’t feel that, when they’re going to the doctor, they don’t feel heard. If they’re experiencing symptoms they’re not being taken seriously. They’re not doing specific testing that the mom feels should be done. Pain management is really difficult to really get assistance with. So moms are noticing that they’re being dismissed in what they know that they’re feeling.”>>

DE LA ROSA: Loncar says the solution is to be a disrupter to the system. She says more Black doctors and doulas would also help the disparities.

<< LONCAR: “We are constantly seeing the disparity in how many Black doctors there is, and nurses even doulas. That is really important to be able to see in those spaces and also within making policy changes you cannot have people making changes for community that they are not inviting to the table to make change for.” >>

DE LA ROSA: Today Stokes’ daughter is 16 years old and will be graduating from high school next year. Stokes’ advice to new mothers….

<< STOKES: “I would say if you don’t feel heard, if you don’t feel seen there are other doctors. You can switch providers, you can ask more questions, you can research the doctors that you want to go to. But the main thing is is to really ask questions, write things down. Just focus more on your health care and what your needs are.” >>

Roxanne De La Rosa, Cronkite News….

Shining a light on the problem of missing, murdered Black women and girls

HOST INTRO: Thousands of Black girls and women go missing every year. The racial disparity in the response they get from the police and newsrooms is an increasing problem. Women’s Leadership Project Standing 4 Black Girls wants to increase awareness of the issue and bring justice to the missing and murdered Black girls across the nation…

< sound – Standing for Black Girl Chant >

HAMILTON: In Leimert Park in Los Angeles, Black women came together to share their stories, sing, and chant about the missing and murdered Black girls. Sikivu Hutchinson is the founder of the Women’s Leadership Project. She says the community should be outraged that Black women are more likely to be killed than non-Black women.

<< HUTCHINSON: “This event and this gathering is to really uplift and amplify the voices, the lived experiences and the stories of Black girls who continue to be adultified, who continue to be demonized, who continue to be dehumanized and not being held space for. We are holding space unapologetically for Black girls and women across sexuality – queer, cis, transgender expansive, fem Black women and girls.”>>

HAMILTON: Hutchinson said they started the hashtag StandingForBlackGirls at the height of the pandemic to address the fact that there are many Black girls who couldn’t find affordable healthcare

<< HUTCHINSON: “From 2003 to 2019, the rates of suicide among Black girls, babies, 12 to 14 years old, increased by 49%. Can we go to sleep on that as a community? [The crowd: No!] We will never go to sleep and turn our backs on Black girls who are suffering, who are dying, who are crying out for mentors and crying out for care.”>>

< sound Standing For Black Girls Song >

HAMILTON: Hutchinson is also part of a rock band, Distant Engines, along with event photographer Zorrie Petrus. They premiered their new song “Standing For Black Girls.” Another artist, Honey Bluu, brought up the energy with her music.

<< BLUU: “Yeah. Take a look. Take a look through my eyes. Take a look through my eyes. It’s no surprise, no surprise. Take a look at my eyes. Take a look through our eyes… This movement and this event are about the Black women that are continuously murdered, that is continuously gone missing. If y’all don’t take a look through any of the women’s eyes here in these photos that you see in any of the stories, if you don’t see your stories in any of these women, these are our babies, these are our sisters, these are our families.” >>

HAMILTON: One women’s story was highlighted throughout the day. Her name is Mitrice Richardson she was a 24-year-old Black queer woman whose murder has never been solved. Dr. Ronda Hampton shared the journey of the attempt to find Mitrice.

<< HAMPTON: “There was one man he had filmed for like, uh, I think it was Channel 11, and he pulled me off to the side, and he said, ‘Listen, you can’t listen to what they’re saying to you.’ And that’s where I first heard the term missing white woman syndrome. I had never heard of that.” >>

HAMILTON:  A term coined by the late PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill, missing white woman syndrome refers to “the mainstream media’s seeming fascination with covering missing or endangered white women, and its seeming disinterest in cases involving missing people of color.”

<< HAMPTON: “I had never heard of that. And he said, you are gonna have, here’s a number, and you’re gonna have to start calling the media, and you’re gonna have to start getting help because no one’s gonna care. She’s a Black woman, and she’s missing.” >>

HAMILTON: Hampton says she called the media, and they showed up, but unfortunately, the story was twisted. It was up to the people who cared about her to keep her true story alive. Mitrice’s story opened her eyes to the missing Black women out there. The fight still continues to get other stories like Mitrice’s heard.

For Cronkite News Los Angeles, I’m Ayana Hamilton

Getting credit – tax credit – for your charitable works

HOST INTRO: Tax credits bring in a lot of money for nonprofits and schools. Here’s Kenny Rasmussen discussing how tax credits can be used to reduce the taxes you owe directly to the state.

RASMUSSEN: The state tax credit program is a way to potentially benefit charitable organizations. Rebecca Wilder of the Arizona Department of Revenue describes it as a mutual benefit to taxpayers and charities.

<< WILDER: “This program is an opportunity for taxpayers to be able to put some of their tax dollars toward a qualifying charitable organization of their choice.”>>

RASMUSSEN: Money given to organizations found within the Department of Revenue’s Qualified Charitable Organizations list can be written off your taxes. In 2021, state taxpayers got $750 million worth of credit. Wilder states as a general rule, people participating in the tax credit program have increased over time.

<< WILDER: “It varies from year to year, but we’re seeing over time, more and more people are participating in this tax credit.”>>

RASMUSSEN: The Southwest Human Development Center is a qualified charitable organization, focused on assisting families with children ages 5 and below. Their Chief Development Officer, Jake Adams says the tax credit program makes a huge difference to the work he does.

<< ADAMS: “And then right now in the spring time, as people are doing their taxes, this is when we see the largest number of individual contributions to Southwest Human Development. And we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.”>>

RASMUSSEN: One thing Southwest Human Development puts its credits towards is books, which Adams says are incorporated into every program. Generally, Adams believes that with the assistance of the program, Southwest Human Development is able to improve its outreach and assist more developing children.

<< ADAMS: “We would not be able to reach nearly the number of families that we’re able to reach because of the tax credit if it did not exist.”>>

RASMUSSEN: Hundreds of charitable organizations in Arizona qualify for this program, including other education-based organizations, foster care centers, and charities with a variety of causes.

Kenny Rasmussen… Cronkite News…

HOST OUTRO: For more information on tax credits, visit A-Z-D-O-R-dot-gov-slash-tax-credits…

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HOST: We had help today from Roxanne De La Rosa and Kenny Rasmussen.

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HOST: You can learn more about the stories you heard in today’s news update by going to cronkitenews-dot-a-z-p-b-s-dot-org.

HOST: That’s all for your Cronkite News 2 Go.. I’m Ayana Hamilton.

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