Vitamin D and Cancer in African-Americans

H/T The Breviary (here).

Differences in vitamin D status may account for unexplained disparities in cancer survival rates between African and White Americans

Authors: William B. Grant and Alan N. Peiris View affiliations

Abstract:

Considerable disparities in cancer survival rates exist between African Americans (AAs) and white Americans (WAs). Various factors such as differences in socioeconomic status (SES), cancer stage at time of diagnosis, and treatment—which this analysis considers primary explanatory factors—have accounted for many of these differences. An additional factor not usually considered is vitamin D. Previous studies have inversely correlated higher solar UV-B (UVB) doses and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations with incidence and/or mortality rates for about 20 types of cancer and improved survival rates for eight types of cancer. Because of darker skin pigmentation, AAs have 40% lower serum 25(OH)D concentrations than WAs. This study reviews the literature on disparities in cancer survival between AAs and WAs. The journal literature indicates that there are disparities for 13 types of cancer after consideration of SES, stage at diagnosis and treatment: bladder, breast, colon, endometrial, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, testicular, and vaginal cancer; Hodgkin’s lymphoma; and melanoma. Solar UVB doses and/or serum 25(OH)D concentrations have been reported inversely correlated with incidence and/or mortality rates for all of these cancers. This finding suggests that future studies should consider serum 25(OH)D concentrations in addressing cancer survival disparities through both measurements of serum 25(OH)D concentrations and increasing serum 25(OH)D concentrations of those diagnosed with cancer, leading to improved survival rates and reduced disparities.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Vitamin D and Cancer in African-Americans, Cancer Disparities, Survival, Serum (25(OH)D), Deficiency, Acting White

Blue Eyes, Blacks And Occular Albinism

Photographs of this lad have been making the rounds, with what I believe to be a poor explanation of his blue eyes, on top of all the people who claim that it is a case of blatant photoshopping (forgery). He is from Zimbabwe and the photographer was Vanessa Bristow.

It seems that Ms. Bristow happened upon him on a visit to Maramani, and gained his mother's permission to take his photo. That same photographer enlisted the opinion of an ophthalmologist friend to explain his blue eyes - and this is the part that gets me. Rather than describe the ease at which benign mutations of the eye color gene(s) occur in all people, the expert proposes a more far-fetched diagnosis - occular albinism - in light of all we know about eyes and can deduce about this boy.

While it is certainly possible, occular albinism does not normally present blue eyes, but rather green to brown, with three other visible symptoms, poor vision, lazy eye, and involuntary eye movement - none of which the photographer noted or captured. Furthermore, the female carrier of this condition will normally show hyper/hypo-iris pigmentation and iris trans-illumination as evidence. Again, the photographer noted none of these issues in her description of her interactions with the boy's mother. These absences are cause for pause.

Whether it's people claiming a photoshop fake, or doctors reaching past the obvious, it appears that both the ignorant and the educated continue to cling to the notion that blacks cannot simply have blue or green eyes in the same way that those eye colors came about in whites - first by mutation and supported by positive sexual selection. But for the fact that blue eyes and intense African (equatorial) sun are a bad combination for health and longevity, there would be a world full of blue-eyed black people (I suspect) - and others as well.

James C. Collier

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Blue Eyed African Boy From Sierra Leone

I came across this picture of a boy from a remote village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. What really grabbed my attention, beyond his fantastic little smile, was the photographer, April Conway's, notation that the chief of the village said that the little boy was both deaf and mute. This combination is called deaf-mutism, where "profound or total deafness going back to early childhood, without special training, inevitably leads to the absence of oral language development". In deafness, dark pigment, and blue eyes, the lad is presenting strong symptoms of type II Waardenberg syndrome, along with the arguable broadness of his nasal bridge. If we could see under the hat, it might reveal evidence of a tuft of gray hair in the center of the forehead - also a symptom of Waardenberg's.

James C. Collier

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Healthy African Boy With Rare Blue Eyes

This blog was just hit with a mad dash of Russians interested in black people and blue eyes. A quick trace of the flurry of hits revealed the picture before you. It is, perhaps, the best example of a black African, non-mulatto, non-albino, with blue eyes. Also, the boy in the picture does not appear to have Waardenberg Syndrome, also a source of blue eyes in blacks. This leaves the strong possibility of a rare mutation of a key eye color gene.

(Note: The stipple drawing of the boy is from a test version of my iPhone app.)

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Healthy African Boy With Rare Blue Eyes, Eye Color Mutation, Albinism, Waardenberg, Mixed Ancestry, Acting White

Race Meets Intelligence To Tragic End On The Streets Of Chicago

When I saw this headline, "Man Murdered Because of Dripping Air Conditioner" (here), I instinctively considered that those involved, the dead man, his alleged killer, and the six witnesses, were black. Why is that? Is it because black people do, indeed, kill each other in high numbers for the most slight of offenses? Yes, but STOP, that's as far as we can go. The subject of black violence and what might be driving it is taboo, particularly because the measurable intelligence of the perpetrator Charles Sims, and his complaining sister, are drawn directly into question by their actions. We are not allowed to speak of race and intelligence in the same sentence, or risk banishment. But, I'll say it - just did.

African-Americans reflect a one standard deviation difference below the mean intelligence of the non-black population of the US. This is huge, and is/should be, logically, a 'factor-of-interest' for that which has the black population in check-mate, and everybody else blocking. To not consider it is irresponsible. I happen to believe, like U of Mich. Richard Nisbett (here), that intelligence is not as rigid as some people think, and we are ignoring the responsibility to challenge the black community to be 'smarter', in many ways. If black folks can get dumber, the trend that these stories support, then they can also get smarter. Not being able to talk about it for fear of a backlash is keeping everyone ignorant to solutions.

James C. Collier

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Why is Black Hair Curly, Kinky, and/or Nappy?

The single biggest driver in human evolution was the challenge of matching the demands and capacities of our out-sized brain against the relative limitations of a weak physique. When researching the ‘whims of mother nature’, nothing is arbitrary. Sure, there are variances and distributions, but you can be sure that somewhere in the mix resides an objective mean – defining form and substance with a purpose.

Hair, like skin, is part of our genetically malleable, adaptable, outer layer, protecting us from the elements, the heat, cold, wetness, dryness, and utilizing the visible and not-so-visible light (energy) spectrum. Early primates and proto-humans had straight hair, which was an asset in low exertion foraging environs of ranging temperature, but not conducive to extending our physical endurance in the competition for food and survival, especially in mid-day Africa. Tightly coiled, moisture resistant head-hair created an enhanced barrier to ultra-violet (UV) radiation by turning many times on itself. This configuration also allows the release of perspiration droplets into a more optimal evaporative state whereby the droplets capture the heat of air moving around the coils before the perspiration rolls off and evaporates said heat away from the body. Presto! Cool scalp, cool brain, and greater endurance.

Conversely, straight hair was a liability, as it is more moisture absorbent, becoming heavy and causing it to stick to adjacent hair shafts and the scalp, effectively blocking the airflow required for heat exchange and dissipation. The straight hair of those precursors to modern humans would have made them less able to exert themselves for survival and advancement.

So with all due respect to Chris Rock, there is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ hair. Curly, kinky, or nappy hair adaptation meant survival and prosperity as a species, in the birthplace of humanity. Moreover, just as coiled hair and pigmented skin conveyed advantage in Africa, straight hair, and light skin adaptation did the same moving north, in logical ways and for discernable reasons (more on this later). And for the record, Don Imus (here) is a true moron. The Rutgers ladies (pictured) are infinitely more appealing than his sorry behind.

Reference: Nina Jablonski, PhD., "Skin:A Natural History".

James C. Collier

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Why Are Black People Black-Skinned?

While asking the question ‘Why are White People White?’ (here), I touched on that black people are black by the same mechanism. However, my explanation was too brief, and the question deserves its own full answer. Keep in mind this evolutionary cheat-sheet: first, there was panting and hairiness, and then came limited sweating and hairiness, and now we have full-body sweating and no hair (little hair).

To begin, earlier hairy primates, or proto-humans, living in Africa were less efficient at dissipating the body heat that resulted from strenuous exertion (hunting, gathering, and avoiding predators). Panting is the way most mammals cool themselves, rather than through sweating. As an evolutionary alternative, sweat glands appeared first over hairy bodies and then over less-hairy bodies, allowing for rapid cooling and quick evaporation. Evaporative cooling pulls heat away, countering the insulating effect, whereby the moisture stays on the skin, trapped by hair, and increasing in temperature from both the sun and internal exertion.

Indeed, sweat glands were an improvement over panting, allowing for greater exertion, but there was another hurdle. Full-body hair on proto humans grew out of ‘white (non-pigmented) skin’ underneath, in combination to regulate Vitamin D(3) production, for bone and reproductive health. Without the hair to block the sun, the skin had to take on this critical task by itself, via melanin production, thereby making the evolutionary case from fully covered, dark haired, white-skinned, proto-humans into hair-less dark-skinned humanoid descendants. Viola, black people!

It was relentless large brain demands (thinking) of proto-humans that drove body evolution to change and advance. Hairlessness, sweat glands, and dark-skin proved a potent combination in response, allowing humans to run greater distances, fight longer fights, dehydrate at a slower pace, and recover normal body temperature more quickly. Humanoids quickly became formidable foes, as their body capabilities ‘caught up to’ their brainy demands.

Reference: Nina Jablonski, PhD., "Skin:A Natural History".

James C. Collier

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Why are White People White-Skinned?

Being black, I scarcely wondered why I was black, but I did often wonder why white people were white. I never believed in the ‘God wanted it that way’ answer. It seems very natural that whites and blacks would harbor the same question, however taboo it is to toss it into conversation. Indeed, science has provided us with an answer, but I hardly see it in print for non-scientists.

The scientific record shows relatively hair-less humans evolving from hairy primates in Africa. At the time when hairy proto-humans ‘loss’ their hair and developed sweat glands for cooling their big brains, they also needed to adapt their production and regulation of the pro-steroid hormone, Vitamin D(3), which was critical to healthy bones and reproduction. The result was an adaptive higher level of melanin in the skin, turning it dark. Viola, healthy dark-skin humans to populate the world!

As early Africans migrated north to Eurasia, with its lessened sun intensity, dark skin posed a problem. Vitamin D(3) fell to unhealthy levels, except that built-in genetically adaptive skin traits quickly kicked-in to lightened skin responsible for producing the required D(3). The farther north they ventured the lighter the skin needed to be to absorb the right amount of sun. It really is that simple. There is a great book that explains all of this in detail, written by recognized skin authority, Nina Jablonski PhD., called “Skin: A Natural History” (here).

So there it is - latitude (north/south position) on the globe pretty much dictates skin color (here). There are a few exceptions to this rule, associated with levels of Vitamin D in the diet. By example, the Inuits (indigenous Arctic people) are relatively darker, even at such a high latitude, because of oily-fish diets laden with Vitamin D(3). Aborigines in continental Australia, arriving via the ‘intercoastal migration’, maintained their melanin through similar fish-rich diets, on the coast, coupled with the fierce demands of an intense interior desert sun.

As a side bar, and from a Vitamin D(3) healthiness perspective, the continental US is (on average) too sunny for most fair whites, and not sunny enough for most brown-skin blacks. Everyone needs Vitamin D management for good health.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Why are White People White-Skinned?, Vitamin D, Melanin, Pigment, Acting Black, Acting White

Obesity: America’s Savior

This blog typically attempts to recognize and, at times, bluntly reconcile the fall of our once great society, viewed through the lens of race (ethnicity). In today’s post, however, I will look through the lens of health.

While eating a public breakfast on Sunday, with what seemed like a herd of obesity, it dawned on me that if fat is the choking underbrush of our society, then flat screens are the match sticks lighting it up in TV rooms across America. Overeating, sedentary living, and resulting obesity are the sure remedies to relieving our society of the social, economic, and environmental burdens of too many people, whose health cost now exceed what they pay for it (coverage). In crude respects, it can’t happen fast enough.

Before our health care system completely collapses, or in the wake of it actually going under, providers, with the help of employers and the government, will withdraw medical support for obesity complications. The system will reach a point where it has to simply let obese people die, in a least-cost manner. Companies that are reaping huge profits from providing products and services to treat obese people, and their expensive downstream results, are going to fall on hard times. Mark my words.

So, if your business services those with heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, vascular disease, cancer, or arthritis, do not get too comfortable with all that dough that is currently rolling your way, in the form of health insurance payments. Your endless riches, based upon today’s behavior and economy, are on their way out. And yes, some of you may call me a hard-hearted bastard, but really I am the opposite. I care about everyone, but I can only advocate for those who care for themselves.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Obesity: America’s Savior, Hypertension, Stroke, Heart Disease, Acting Black, Acting White

Acting White: Blacks and Blue Eye Color

In an earlier and surprisingly most popular post (here), I explained why it is very uncommon for people of African ancestry to have blue eyes. What I did not say in that post is how some Blacks today, nevertheless, come by their natural blue eyes. I did not mean to imply that Blacks cannot have natural blue eyes. This topic applies to all light-colored, non-brown eyes, including green and hazel, but remember that there is a hierarchy of gene color dominance.

If a Black person has White ancestry (17% on average) on both sides, the genes that produce blue eyes can lay dormant for many generations, before suddenly appearing, ‘out of nowhere’. No, blue eyes does not prove that mom was stepping out on dad. However, if you look back in the family tree for a few generations you should see other examples of blue eyes popping up.

The other way, albeit more rare, to get blue eyes is by gene mutation of the OAC2. The idea of a recurring mutation runs counter to those researchers who believe that all blue-eyed people are related to one person with the mutation, who lived 6-10,000 years ago. Not sure when the issue will be resolved. I tend to believe the recurring mutation theory.

It seems that away from the equator, however, that colored eyes confers sexual advantage within dark-skin people, similar to that experienced by those with light skin. All people seem to be attracted to colors. I remember, as a kid, how the Black girls cooed over a dark brown-skin neighbor boy, with green eyes. He was the only one in his extended family with such eyes (that I saw). If only Smokey Robinson's eyes could talk (here).

So, are Black people color-struck when it comes to eye-color? If yes, is this a bad thing? Please be thoughtful, as these comments are likely to get a lot of reads.

Update: Check out this post (here) if you are interested in why people find blue eyes attractive. Interesting theory.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Blacks and Blue Eye Color, Genetics, Mutation, Smokey, Acting Black, Acting White

Black vs. White and Other Tales from the Toaster

If the planet’s age, at 4.5 billion years, were put into terms of a 24 hour clock, all of human (homo sapien) existence has occurred roughly in the last 2.88 seconds. In other words, figure that the earth’s ‘party’ started at 12:00:00 AM, we arrived late at 11:57:05 PM that same day, and in those nearly three seconds we have infested the joint and set the course, as I see it, for humanity’s natural exit. This makes us no better, or worse, than 99.99% of all other living creatures that have come and gone in 4.5 billion years.

Humans conflict by nature. Some might say that conflict is the essence of our advancement and to-be short-lived dominion. All the while, we search for leverage to dismantle our tendency to fight with each other. 'Do this, do that, shut your mouth, get out of my face!' But, we continue to lose the war for peace. North fights south, black fights white, Jew fights Muslim, male fights female, young fights old, and so on. Perhaps the fighting is inevitable.

The conflict goes farther than just with humanity. We conflict outside ourselves, with nature. We conflict inside ourselves, about who we are and why we are here. Finally, we conflict with the unseen, the God that we believe created us. We assert and immediately defy Godly rules. Challenging our natural tendency, or need, to conflict is our ultimate battle, and if we ever win, it just might be our unique undoing. But we won’t win, and our status quo undoing is our back-up plan.

To err is certainly human, and forgiveness may be divine, but conflict floats our boat. Without it we are toast. With it, we are also toast. So I guess what I’m saying is that the earth will live on, until the universe un-big-bang’s itself, but humanity is toast. Personally, I’m agnostic about toast. So, you live the moment in the toaster, with your favorite spreadable waiting, knowing that when it’s gone, it’s gone. And that will be OK.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled conflicts…

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Black vs. White and Other Tales from the Toaster, Conflict, Nature, Evolution, Acting Black, Acting White

Blacks, Violence and Honor Cultures

Against the backdrop of a generally more violent world, Blacks own the statistical lead for behaving violently towards others, and against their own. But they are far from being alone. Some will say that selective pursuit, prosecution or reporting is what drives up these group numbers, but this chicken-versus-egg argument does not cut it. Rather than ignore or deny, or blame others, I looked for research that might help explain this phenomenon. I have not seen any evidence that Blacks are genetically pre-disposed to higher violence than others.

I have never lived in the South, but found two avenues that are the drivers for ‘honor cultures’, those societies prone to higher violence in order to maintain protective reputations of strength and toughness (here). The first is the correlation of violence to economic vulnerability, and the second is its correlation to weak compliance systems (enforcement), both attributes of the early and colonial White South. Even today, southern White men are significantly more violent than their northern peers. Black men, alternately, show no geographical bias in their behavior, as you would expect, given their recent migration to all parts of the US from the South.

But before they were in the South, Blacks were in West Africa, also plagued by societies of economic vulnerability and weak compliance, even prior to colonialism. So, the honor culture of the South’s clanish, herding, Scotch-Irish settlers was wholly consistent with West African tribal character. Add to this, the modern-day insular urban areas where Blacks live, with continuing economic vulnerability and localized codes of enforcement and response, and the result is more violence and crime. Lastly, there is a spill-over effect as northern culture and southern-influenced black culture cross migratory paths north and west of the Mason-Dixon. Researchers would expect a higher rate of black-on-white and black-on-black crime, given these historical influences.

This post barely scratches the surface, but it points the way to understanding the interplay between job opportunity (legitimate work) and law enforcement (threat of punishment from illegitimate 'work'). With respect to punishment, we need to either punish offenders much more harshly or honestly attempt to rehabilitate them (my vote). Simply locking them up for some amount of time is no effective deterrent. Any attempt to rehabilitate must put real salable skills into the hands of offenders, and says we should consider making a GED (minimum skills) a requirement for parole, regardless of the offense.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Blacks, Violence and Honor Cultures, Honor Killing, Violence, Crime, Acting Black, Acting White

#5 Blacks And Not Swimming

This post is about keeping kids alive. Yesterday, I saw an old friend taking her three year old daughter to a swim lesson.

I swim a mile three times a week, so I’m a magnet for questions like why so few Black folks swim – even from Black people. These kinds of questions frequent the time of the winter Olympics because so few Blacks compete at the highest level in the winter games. I, for one, don’t need to ask why fewer Whites compete in the traditional Olympics, given the latitude of Greece and the running nature of events of the summer games. No rocket science here.

So why can only 30% of Black people swim? How about, ‘they ain’t supposed to be swimming in the first place’. This is what you would hear on comedian Dave Chappelles, “I Know Black People”. You don’t see Africans swimming do you? Not with all those crocodiles and pythons just waiting months for some silly fool who thinks a little dip would be refreshing’. And it’s got nothing to do with buoyancy. Not swimming is embedded in 150,000 years of genetic survival coding. Swimming is the lunch bell for Crocs.

Fast-forward to recent times, there are two ways to learn to swim. Either from a relative, who already knows, or you learn at a local public pool. Blacks had no evolved base of swimming-ready relatives to teach them, and Jim Crow did not locate pools and programs near Blacks, therefore fewer Black swimmers. There is also the embarrassment factor driving current adult-age folks to deny or ignore this inability and treat pools as purely social settings, where getting wet is optional. And let’s not forget how swimming jacks-up Black hair.

These obstacles, whichever you like, have created a situation where Black kids in the US drown at 3X the national average. But we are in America, not Africa, where jumping into bodies of water can be relatively safe and commonplace. So the next time you see someone you care about lacing-up for a little round ball or putting on their dancing shoes, take some time to emphasize how important, and fun, swimming is and offer to sponsor them at the nearest YMCA. This just might save their life too.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: #5 Blacks And Not Swimming, Olympics, Drowning, Dave Chappelle, I Know Black People, Acting White

Malaria, Africa, And The Old/New World Order

The NYTimes just reported on a study and discovery that Egyptian King Tut (Tutankhamen) most likely died from malaria (p. falciparum)(here). I know, I know, you are saying, so what. However, beyond the amazing fact that researchers were able to pinpoint a cause of a death so long ago (1324 BC), the idea that the most well-known African King died from malaria, perhaps the oldest human disease of record, is clear invite into the reach of the disease, and impact on the evolution of Africa and humanity, and across the ocean.

We know from statistics and the work of organizations like the Gates Foundation, that malaria kills one million Africans, mostly children, per year. Until most recently, the disease has taken the second chair behind HIV, estimated to have killed 22 million Africans. While taking nothing away from HIV, malaria’s death total is reasonably up wards of 5 billion (100,000 avg. deaths/year x 50,000 years: assuming 100 billion total births). So what happens to a continent and a people who evolve under such harsh conditions, not to mention tropical challenges – heat, drought, famine, wild animals, poor agriculture, etc.?

The great African brain drain of the best and brightest. Everyone who could leave did leave – not to return. Still do. Societies develop at a relatively slower pace (hundredths/year), because a disproportionate share of resources is sucked away by a disease that has no craftier equal. The slower pace of development increases vulnerability to hostile and advanced outsiders. Viola! Colonization, slavery, exploitation, etc. It is amazing (at least to me) that something so simple as what killed King Tut so long ago, can so readily begin to explain so much today.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Malaria, Africa, And The Old/New World Order, King Tut, LA, Egypt, Disparity, Brain Drain, Acting White

Haiti: Orphan of West

Rushing to the aid of earthquake devastated Haiti is a no-brainer. The out-pouring of grief and support for the poorest of the poor in the western world is as it should be. It is only right, despite what the ilk of Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh might say. But what happens after we have delivered water, food, and medical help during this emergency? How do we really help them long-term? Is it possible? The knee-jerk answer is yes, but what do we rebuild, and for what reason, really? This is a much more difficult question.

Haiti represents the worse of all that went wrong with the Atlantic Slave Trade. Displacing these people from their African birthplace a continent away, enslaving them under a sketchy government – the French – only to abandon them to their own limitations on a tiny island. And finally, saddling them with a cost of their freedom which guaranteed a bad start and no-win future. This is Haiti.

At the base of the country’s economic tale of woe is a population size that slams its diminishing agricultural base. The population density of the country is 10X that of the US. Ten million is too many people, half of them illiterate! Haiti is a prime example of ‘ecoside’, or suicide by a plunder of one’s living environment. The country has been deforested, over the past 200 years, to the point where living off the land is impossible, and they have no other means of trade. With no exports to trade for petroleum as fuel, they have consumed their forest for heating and cooking, and left themselves no escape route.

So, the world can respond to the current devastation, but only via an indefinite emergency-type aid scenario, where we provide the basics year after year. They are wards of the industrial world, orphans. There is no infrastructure to rebuild, no economy to repair, no confidence to bolster. If the reparations-extracting French had any moral backbone, or true patriotism, they should be ashamed for this mess of a country created in the wake of their colonial exploits. But hey, they are the French.

Anyway, what to do? Our thinking needs to get crazy. Haiti needs to be recognized for what it is, a malnourished ecological/economic/political orphan of colonial Europe and the west. The G7/8 need to collectively take it over, install a provisional government, tear it down and build it back, as if they were freed just yesterday. The French and US - those who blockaded the fledge-ling nation for nearly 60 years, owe them and need to pay up first, and pay big, including paying French-speaking Africa to accept, voluntarily, as many of the ‘too-many’ inhabitants as possible. The population density must be reduced immediately. This may all seem heavy and nut-zo, but drastic is called for, otherwise we should get ready to continue witnessing, from our top-side front-row seat, their annual devastation, punctuated by disaster, accompanied by expensive, high-tech, band-aid rescues.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Haiti: Orphan of West, France, Slavery, Population, Disaster, Acting White

Acting White: Why Black Women Die of Breast Cancer

The wife of a friend recently died from breast cancer. That she has been in the US for over 20 years as a first generation immigrant from Liberia made me pause a little longer over this heartbreaking event. The breast cancer rate for Liberia is less than half of the US. It is sadly ironic that by coming to the US for a better life, this Liberian woman dramatically increased her chances of dying from breast cancer.

As the chart shows, the Liberian rate is approximately 40 incidences per thousand, while in the US it is 92 per thousand, more than double. So why the dramatic difference? When cancer rates are higher there are only two places to look, external and internal. There are many external causes for breast cancer but only one internal protection, our immune system. Working properly, it turns cancerous cells off, killing them and saving our lives. It has been doing this job in humanoids for millions of years.

Assuming no extraordinary exposure to carcinogenic substances, why would the internal protection system in a woman from Liberia breakdown, exposing her to high risk? The problem is sunlight, which is different in the US than in Liberia. The latitude of the US is higher, yielding significantly less sun intensity. Liberian skin is less suited for our reduced sun and the result is a compromised immune system and higher cancer rates, due to vitamin D3 deficiency. The solution is in a little pill, sold over-the-counter at pharmacies, which cost about $0.04. It is vitamin D3.

There are numerous studies (here) and (here) on the efficacy of D3 for all women, but the medical community is moving very slow, mostly because big pharmaceutical companies do not pay doctors to push non-prescription medicines that, by definition, are not proprietary and wildly profitable. The cancer industry, people who research cures, do not care about D3 because little research is needed, therefore billions do not need to be begged, and this would mean these people would have to find other things to do with their time.

So we wait, and women like the spouse of my friend suffer and die – needlessly. It's not just breast cancer, but all forms of internal cancers that exploit our D3-compromised immune systems, prostate, colon, et al. The search for a human-made cure for cancer could be called the great medical pipe-dream, as broken cell replication is an inevitable and infintiely randomized by-product of living. Our healthy immune system evolved over millions of years to halt cancer, only begging our rightful care and feeding to do its proper job.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: No More Tigers

Tiger Woods is back playing golf for now, and those who love him better enjoy it while it last. Those long drives have taken their toll on the knees and we are witnessing the beginning of the end of one of the greatest golfers that ever played the game. But the question of the day is why I believe no black golfer will likely ever replace the spot he’s owned at the top, and why so few will even make the cut to try.

To illustrate this I reach back to a lesser-known Russian sprinter from the Ukraine, Valeri Borzov (featured). Borzov was one lighting-fast white man who briefly held the gold-spot in the sprints at the time of the 1972 Olympics, and long after blacks had come to dominate the fast-twitch muscle-fiber events. But Borzov loved soccer and was a diligent student as well, so his track and field glory faded quickly, mostly by his lack of focus.

As Borzov was a sprinter who happened to be white, Tiger is a golfer who happens to be a physical and cultural admixture, largely black. We made him a hopeful breakthrough of future black professional golfers, but this has not happened, and makes no more sense than Russians expecting that Borzov was the beginning of more than a smidgen of Russian presence in the 100 and 200 meter sprints.

Golf is a game steeped in European culture, just as running and sprinting is steeped in primordial African and African-American culture. Earl Woods was a golf-maniac who got lucky in having a gifted son. Little else mattered than little Tiger with a club in his hand. But be clear that the elder and junior Woods were driven partly by the No Negros Allowed experience, just as the Politburo reveled in a fast Ukrainian crashing the podium gatherings of black Americans, something Hitler promised in 1942, but failed to do.

The up-shot is that we get all excited about first, Obama coming to mind, but the truth is that somewhere on the planet there will always exist persons of any ethnic background and possessing the gifts to unlock any door humanity can present. This is inclusive of different cultures advancing at different rates and to different heights, with disparities that coax out the best and worse. It is also why experiencing other cultures is so vital to progress, compared to living in a shell.

“Only an idiot would ever measure the heights of lovers by their physiques.”

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Intelligence Matters

Everyday people act stupid. In fact, they seem to be getting dumber with each new You Tube. Black people compete too well in this category. I recall seeing a black woman, just the other day, attempt to justify breastfeeding her infant child and talking on a cell phone, while driving an air-bag-equipped mini-van. She had the audacity to say (on camera) that she would do it again, despite what the police confirmed. This brings up how intelligence is not just a begrudging distinction, by those who failed physical education (PE) in grade school.

Intelligence matters because disparities in intelligence matter. Disparities matter because they settle, on average, the competition for scarce resources, while establishing who will have or have not, enjoy or suffer, or even live or die. Measures of intelligence like IQ, however imperfect, matter because we need relative short-cuts for identifying who’s got it and who does not. More is better and less is not.

So now, who cares? What’s the big deal anyway? Well, we all should care. Blacks definitely should care. Backing up, when whites long-ago said that blacks were inferior and could not cogitate to their level, blacks took it upon themselves to prove them wrong. Blacks begged, borrowed, and stole education as a way to disprove the empirical inferiority exampled by whites. The more whites argued black inferiority with charts and graphs, the greater the commitment of blacks to prove them wrong. Not a bad strategy for focusing black energies onto the win-win of education, and the benefits of the rule-of-law beneath it.

Now fast-forward to today where we see every excuse under the sun why 50% of black kids fail to pass an eighth-grade reading test, derailing their chance to gain a high school diploma. Minus a diploma, they will undoubtedly live an inferior life dictated by an inferior intelligence, exampled by unapologetic women breastfeeding their precious infants, while 200 mph bags threaten to blast said infants into lifeless oblivion. And whereupon sadly, a white lawyer will sue the automaker, the cell phone maker, the airbag maker, and the unused child-seat manufacturer, for millions on behalf of the ‘poor’ disadvantaged family.

Intelligence matters.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: The Real Charles Darwin

We are approaching the bicentennial of the birth of British naturalist, Charles Darwin, Thursday February 12, 2009. I have always found myself nearly alone as both black and an admirer of the man most commonly associated with the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’. I first learned of Darwin early in high school, from the Jesuits, and have never associated him with the racist labels too quickly attached in the crossfire of racial rhetoric.

Darwin dismissed the scientific arguments of more than one human species, a centerpiece to propositions of white superiority. To this day, and still consistent with his beliefs, science has yet to show more than rare mutative hints of physiological differences in our most recent version, homo sapiens sapiens. This is not to ignore the differing empirical deposits of humankind spread around the globe, but rather to say the drivers are not genetic difference, but rather genetic distribution. Our version of humankind simply has not been around long enough and/or isolated enough to genetically split off; compared to other species Darwin studied.

The most popular jabs taken at Darwin stem from the association of eugenics, a term coined by his half-cousin F.Galton in the year after his death in 1882. While Darwin acknowledged the existence of heredity, he was always clear on the folly of selective breeding in humans with the goal of a master race. He thought the idea of ‘hereditary improvement’ to be impractical, and that people would reject it. Genetic engineering ran counter to Darwin’s belief that sympathy was ‘the noblest part of our nature’ and incompatible with purposeful 'weeding'.

Darwin was strongly against slavery and the rank-ordering of humans into so-called races of sub-species. Nonetheless, others of his day, and long after his death, abused his ideas under the Darwinism brand, for exploiting people and circumstances for greedy purposes. He does not deserve this continued besmirching of his good name.

My own thanks go to the man whose work encouraged me to search for the connection between the distributions of intelligence we see around the world today, and how it came to be, beginning with our oldest known relative, an Ethiopian woman, mother to modern humankind, who lived and died 160,000 years ago in Africa.

The original Chuck D, a great man in my book.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Friends Close…Enemies Closer…Part II

President-elect Obama has offered the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton, and it looks like she will accept – this is a good thing in my view, but why? During the campaign on matters of foreign policy, Clinton and Obama seemed the farthest apart, she as traditionalist and he looking for new approaches to a dangerous world.

As irritated as the Clinton's must be with up-start Obama, their cooler heads must tell them that he took everything they and McCain had to throw and still came out on top. This counts for something, even in Clintonian politics. As gestures go, Obama’s offer is as good as it gets in showing respect, which is the most Clinton could expect to collect.

From Hillary’s view, returning to the Senate puts her in the company of other senate long-shot losers, Kerry for one, and is not going to get her any closer to the White House (if she gets another chance). The high-profile Sec. State job keeps her in the thick of things, recognizes her skill set, and gives potential and significant accomplishments to put on her resume. It’s also a good place to shine, separate from any stumble Obama might make on the home-front.

From Obama’s view, it is more difficult for her to undermine him, if she is on the team with her hands full negotiating around the world. Also, any meddling she might attempt will be more obvious than if she is in the senate, looking out for her constituents on issues of domestic interest. All in all, I think it’s a good trade.

As a sidebar, I am not a big fan of the Larry Summers selection to run the National Economic Council, and not because of his foot-in-mouth about women in science, while at Harvard, or his falling out with Black Studies professor Cornell West. Rather, his view of Africa as a best-practice dumping ground for G-7 industrial waste, while chief economist of the World Bank, was abominable. His statement that the resulting increases in cancer in Africans from toxic waste were mitigated by their inherent shorter life spans, showed him to be a true low-life. Obama could definitely regret having a guy with such a high IQ and low emotional intelligence on the team. On one side he helps you, then he kills you.

On balance, I think Obama’s setting up the table nicely, but he’s got a very tough row to hoe – indeed.

James C. Collier

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