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Omega Psi Phi Presents Health Seminar At Mosque Maryam

By James G. Muhammad -Contributing Editor- | Last updated: Jul 12, 2016 - 2:46:31 PM

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Photos: Haroon Rajaee

CHICAGO—Men of Omega Psi Phi fraternity were welcomed to Mosque Maryam June 18 by Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad for a seminar to discuss trauma and the effects of violence in the Black community.

The seminar was part of an Omega day of action that included a health fair and peace march sponsored by 7th ward alderman and fraternity member Greg Mitchell and the Ques for peace.

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Men listen intently to a presentation on health and health-related issues during at Mosque Maryam.
The day of action also was held to uplift Michael Parks, a fraternity member whose daughter was recently a victim of gun violence.

“Many of the brothers want to carry out the Minister’s directives given at the 20th anniversary rally of the Million Man March. I want to bring them here to help the Minister,” said Bro. Stanley Muhammad, who helped to organize the mosque event.

“We have been marching in our communities to stop the violence and to support Brother Parks. We must work together to end violence,” he said.

Words of love for Min. Farrakhan from the fraternity’s national president, Grand Basileus Antonio Knox Sr., also were passed on.

The science-based presentations revealed the impact of slavery on the Black community and how it persists today through the continued stress on Black lives. Speakers said the evidence lays a foundation for the demand for reparations.

Erwin McEwen described “relational neurobiology”, a scientific term that explains the impact of childhood trauma on development that forms the basis for adulthood relationships.

Too much harsh correction of children from stressed-out parents has an impact on how a child forms emotional relationships. Loving your child to death can also present challenges, he said.

“Then they don’t know how to spot trouble and think everybody is a friend and everybody ain’t,” he said.

Mr. McEwen, a former director of the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, explained three levels of stress -- positive, tolerable and toxic. When stress is continuous and the body never returns to a place of rest, that’s toxic, he said.

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James G. Muhammad, former editor-in-chief of The Final Call newspaper

Prolonged trauma produces such consequences as hypervigilance, impulsivity, poor attention span, and an inability to accurately anticipate and weigh consequences of behavior, he said. Most alarming is the fact that Black children are being misdiagnosed as having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when they really are demonstrating behaviors that result from trauma in their lives, he said.

“If you give kids Ritalin and they don’t have the imbalance, then you might as well give them cocaine,” he said. “And when they get old enough they’re going to use cocaine. Then we give them Haldol (and other drugs) and keep upping the ante. It doesn’t work because that ain’t the problem.

“They know these adverse conditions that we’ve grown up in has resulted in our poor health. The problem is how they are assessing our children,” he said.

Dr. Ken Nave explained “epigenetics”, which he described as the transmission of clinical diseases like diabetes from generation to generation.

The epigene is a portion of a gene that unravels under stress and actually changes the function of the gene and can result in pathological behaviors, he said.  When young people whose reproductive organs are developing live in constant stress, those genetic changes can be transferred to future generations, he said.

“When you put a group of people under constant stress it automatically brings about changes in their genetic structures and functions which leads to pathological disease behavioral stages,” he explained.

Dr. Nave said obesity has been linked to the pesticide known as DDT and has been genetically passed along from Blacks working in the poisoned fields of the south. Other stress-related illnesses passed along include hypertension, diabetes and prostate cancer.

The environment for Black people in America is “developing personality disorders in our people and are very difficult to treat. That’s why they are building more prisons, he said.

“We’re looking at the downstream problem but the problem is upstream where the river is blocked,” he said, “and it’s all in the pathology of the community.”

Speakers agreed that solutions include healthier physical and nutritional lifestyles, stop using illegal drugs and alcohol, providing children with moral and spiritual guidance and organizations like the Nation of Islam which provide nurturing environments.

Dr. Nave also urged Black organizations to push for legislation and policies that address the issues from a disease perspective and for Blacks to launch lawsuits and complaints.

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Student Minister Ishmael R. Muhammad (front row, third from right) with members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity who presented a health seminar at Mosque Maryam in Chicago.

Former Chicago State University President Wayne Watson agreed that every Black institution must challenge racism. “The Nation of Islam is one of the solutions to the problems in our communities,” he said, “that’s why (the power structure) fight you so hard.”

Min. Ishmael Muhammad said the common denominator that ran through every presentation is the impact of White supremacy. It is the “hidden hand” root of the pathologies in Black communities, he said.

White supremacy is a culture and mindset that is unnatural to Black people but Blacks are still trying to assimilate and navigate in a hostile environment, he said.

He asked if it’s possible that Blacks in America are hated because they have been chosen to be God’s people? Everything Black people have done to be accepted by Whites have been rejected, he said. The only solution, he concluded, is for Blacks to change their way of thinking.

“The education the White man gave us is not designed for the Black man and woman to develop properly. Real education gives us tools we can use to create something out of nothing.

“At the root of every civilization is a knowledge and inherent in that knowledge is an idea that gives direction to that civilization,” he said. “Our problem is that we don’t have the right idea.”

The men were joined by Illinois State Rep. Marcus Evans (D-33rd) during the peace march after the seminar.

“In order to reduce violence, you have to reduce poverty and hopelessness,” Rep. Evans said.  “You don’t see this kind of violence in prosperous communities. It’s always a result of poverty and hopelessness.

“This is a step toward addressing those problems,” he said.