People want to age with dignity, but it’s not always possible – especially for Black adults, says an advocate for Black seniors.
“It’s very difficult to do that if they’ve had a lifetime of dealing with challenges and barriers simply because of their race, their zip code, their ethnicity,” said Karyne Jones, the CEO and President of the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging.
That’s how intersectionality plays a role in aging – racism and discrimination have affected the policies and opportunities, Jones said.
“It’s historical policies that continue to exist. It’s societal attitudes that continue to think of people differently,” she said.
The National Caucus and Center on Black Aging was founded in 1970 to ensure that the particular concerns of elderly minorities would be addressed in the then-upcoming 1971 White House Conference on Aging. Since then, they’ve been focused on helping protect and improve the quality of life for aging adults through initiatives like health and wellness programs, advocacy and more, she said.
Key quotes from Jones:
“If a woman comes in who has never worked, she stayed at home, she took care of the family, she was the one that was responsible, budgeting, making sure there was money for food, rent, whatever was there, husband dies or gets sick, and there she is and she said, ‘Well, I don’t have never done anything. I’ve just always been a homemaker.’ We point out to her,(18:09) ‘If you have been able to maneuver and keep your family going all this, you’ve got skills.’ And so, we do a lot of psychology work too, and encouragement with people who already come in thinking that nothing’s going to help me or maybe you can help me.”
“…We aren’t involved in long-term care, but we get thousands of calls annually from people who are thrown into those situations who are calling about, ‘I now have to take care of my family member. I have to quit my job because there’s no one else to do it.’ And so, we try to gear them to the right place where they can get some sort of resources and support.
“We, unfortunately, in this country, still don’t value our differences in our diversity, which is really the beauty of our country. If we were all just the same. It would be so boring. I mean, I like the fact that everybody has on different colors, and everybody seems to come from different [ethnicities]. I mean, that’s the greatness of this, and we should draw from our strength.”
“So I always take these opportunities, particularly with you young journalists who will really influence so many people on how they think. You have a very, very strong and important role in changing the attitudes in this country, and it’s going to take a whole lot of whole work because we have a lot of folks out there who are just afraid of the changing demographics.”
“I don’t run away from the R word. Racism is uncomfortable for some people, but I don’t care because if we are going to be a society that succeeds and finds ourselves in situation where all people can be treated with value, then we need to talk about it. It’s not a comfortable conversation for some people. And I say it’s uncomfortable for you if you’re a racist. If you’re not a racist, it should not be uncomfortable.”
Access the full transcript here.
The America’s Long-Term Care Crisis Fellowship is sponsored by AARP, which also sponsors the AARP Award for Excellence in Journalism on Aging. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
