Article author:
Associated Press
Aaron Morrison
As a young man in Memphis, Tennessee, Robert Dubney Jr. wanted to pave the way for a better life for his family. So, two weeks after graduating from high school in 1998, he joined the United States Army at the age of 18.
During his nine years of work, including two tours in Iraq, Dubney was a combat medical expert. However, after leaving the Army in 2007 and returning to Memphis to marry his children, he had a hard time knowing what he could benefit from his service.
He "exchanged youth, ambition, and vitality for a limited future for mental health," diagnosed in 2013 with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Dabney was said.
He said his experience of seeking treatment through the veterans' health care system was plagued by challenges. After navigating the system as a black veteran, can he help others find more culturally competent services that appear to be unequipped by the federal government? I was wondering.
Testimony like Doveney was shared at the first ever National Policy Conference for Black Veterans in Washington on Thursday. Representatives of nearly 20 advocacy groups for Color service members address the long-standing racial, economic and social inequality faced by more than 2 million African-American veterans. I was cooperating with the legislative agenda.
"For many in the black and brown (veteran) community, we are starting elsewhere in our lives," said 42-year-old Doveney. They have the same idea as when they passed through the army and have different meanings to us.
In addition to military judicial system, homelessness, and unemployment disparities, federal veterans' benefit data show black military personnel since September. Eleven disability claims are accepted at a lower rate than white claims. Proponents say that racial inequality in access to the interests of veterans hinders or even worsens the lives of those who proudly serve their country.
"The system does not contain us, we do," said Victor Laglon, chairman of the Black Veterans Empowerment Council, who organized the meeting on Thursday. .. "People need to have these systematic and legislative discussions to keep avoiding problems until they are fully transparent and accountable."
Scheduled speakers will include secretaries of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor, as well as staff of veterans service agencies in some states and regions.
Former Army medic Richard Brookscher, who served in the Afghanistan War, said his main goal was to be a black veteran served by the black veterans community in World War II.
"To demand that, the black veterans community needs a critical mass," said Brookshire, who co-founded the Black Veterans Project. "We begin to see the seeds sown and the trees bear fruit."
The Black Veterans Empowerment Council is in the House of Representatives in a national calculation following police killing of George Floyd. Established in 2020 as a roundtable of black veterans' groups advising the Veterans Commission. Members of the council said some of their work was obtaining data to prove how black veterans had unequal access to benefit schemes.
According to the Veterans Benefits Management Record analyzed by the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Clinic and reviewed by AP Communications, black and white veterans claim disability results There is a statistically significant difference. The approval rate for disability claims is generally low, but significantly lower for black veterans.
Between 2002 and 2020, black veterans had the lowest claim approval rate of 30.3% compared to non-black veterans. White veterans approved 37.1% of their claims, while Hispanic veterans had a 36% approval rate and Asian or Pacific Islander veterans had a 30.7% rate.
Lindaman, co-founder of the African-American Relief Network at Columbia University's Faculty of International Public Affairs, led a group of students who performed additional analysis on profit data. According to their findings, the disparity in how black veterans are assessed for the severity of their condition has led to reduced disability compensation and reduced eligibility for other VA benefits.
These findings are based on historical racial inequality in the interests of veterans dating back to the military integration of the late 1940s. Black soldiers who fought in World War II were denied or blocked from maximizing the benefits of housing and education through the GI bill. Black veterans of the Korean War had a similar experience with this program. Proponents say that from a wealth perspective, the intergenerational impact of discrimination is still felt today.
"What most people usually say is that we have experienced the civil rights movement and things are getting better," Mann said, which is supported by the statistics of the Information Disclosure Act. There wasn't.
"Continuous inequality between the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs was tracked not only by the FOIA data we examined, but also by practices and policies," Mann said.
VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said that the Biden administration's focus on the fairness of the federal government as a whole was "all veterans, especially historically marginalized. Underserved veterans. "
" We used the voices of veterans as the North Pole, "Haze said in a statement.
Last year, the Black Veterans Project and the National Veterans Council sued VA over a request for racial profit data under the Information Disclosure Act. They won access. In April, the White House released an overview of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Fair Action Plan. The plan recognizes racial and gender disparities in access to the interests of veterans.
Dubney eventually paved the way for himself, attending college and becoming a pastor at a Chicago hospital. But before he found his vocation, he had to overcome alcoholism, infidelity, and a descent into self-neglect.
After being diagnosed with PTSD and depression, he was connected to a mental health counseling service via VA at a community-based outpatient center near Chicago. The assigned counselor, a white woman, frustrated Doveney because she felt she couldn't relate to the complexity of his identity as a war veteran and black from the rough beginnings in Memphis.
"Yes, yes, that's it," recalled Dubney. "Instead of claiming myself, I started shaping what I said based on what they thought they could understand. In doing so, I really opened my heart to them. I couldn't show my perfect self. "
He was ready to give up, but what he really needed was that he stick to it. He said he was a companion to encourage.
Currently, Dabney manages a peer apprenticeship program at the Depression and Bipolar Disorder Support Alliance in Chicago. The program assists other black veterans through a network of peer-led mental health resources.
"It is these relationships that encourage individuals to seek further help and seek help from clinicians," said Doveney.
Warida Bennett, founder and director of the Multi-Religious Veterans Initiative at DePaul University in Chicago, is working to provide black churches and clergy with resources to serve veterans in their congregation. I'm out.
Bennett's son, Sard Muhammad, a veteran of the Iraq War, committed suicide in 2013 and, 10 years after his death, launched 15 community sites for endangered veterans. Established. According to VA's 2021 annual report on veterans' suicide prevention, black veterans' suicide rates are on the rise, rising from 11.8% to 14.5% between 2001 and 2019, but white. Veterans' suicide rates remain high.
"If we had the community space we have today, it could have been very helpful to my son," Bennett said.
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Contributed by New York AP writer Larry Fenn.
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