Harlem
By Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes, arguably the best-known poet of the Harlem renaissance and important American literary figure used to live on my street.

Most days as I walk to work I pass his house; see the bronze plaque denoting its cultural importance and I consider his poem ‘Harlem,’ which I first came across as a 17-year-old English student.

The poem, which explores the possible consequences of allowing a dream to go unfulfilled, is believed by many to be Hughes’ response to the long-postponed and frustrated dream of liberty, social equality and opportunity (in short, the American Dream) for African-Americans. It is this dream I think about during my commute.

The poem offers an insight into Hughes’ mindset in the period leading to the Civil Rights Movement. Hughes uses similes to symbolize what could happen if this dream is constantly deferred. If it dries up, the suggestion is that it loses vitality and sustenance, the words ‘fester’ and ‘stink’ bring to mind resentment and contempt, sagging ‘like a heavy load’ implies giving up or accepting defeat and finally there are connotations of violence and unrest if the dream explodes.

Although since 1951 when the poem was published, the Civil Rights Movement effectively ended the legal basis for racial discrimination in the United States and secured protection of the citizenship rights enumerated in the constitution, disparities remain. The national ethos that everyone should have the opportunity for upward social mobility achieved through hard work, an ethos heavily rooted in the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that ‘all men are created equal’ with the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ regardless of social class or circumstances of birth is deferred still.

What is liberty in this statement? Is it the state of being free within a society? Or being free from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority? Henry Ward Beecher, the social reformer and abolitionist once said that “Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope”[1]. Let us take these words at face value – everyone has the right to breathe, but what happens when the air we breathe is tainted?

Harlem’s air is tainted. Although air pollution is a serious concern across the entire city of New York, Harlem is disproportionately affected.

The placement of industrial and transportation sites that cause air pollution demonstrates a long term, deep-rooted injustice that is undermining the health of Harlem residents, particularly children.

This injustice constitutes a form of discrimination, where differential enforcement of environmental rules and regulations (intentional or otherwise) disproportionately affects minority communities. Environmental justice campaigner Robert Bullard writes that low-income communities, particularly Hispanic and African-Americans, bear greater environmental health risks in their homes, workplaces and schools than society at large. When this is coupled with the exclusion of those community members from public and private boards, commissions and regulatory bodies, these communities may face greater exposure to pollution with fewer means to fight and avoid it[2].

To put this in context, there are at least 18 major air-polluting sites on the island of Manhattan, 13 are based in in the northern half and nine are in Harlem. Of these, six are diesel bus depots, which are near facilities like schools and hospitals.

What is the effect of these air polluting sites? To sum it up: asthma. Harlem bears an excessive burden of the city’s air pollution and its children, predominantly African American and Hispanic, pay with increased levels of asthma.

This sign reads: “Don’t leave your engine running: Asthma-free school zone”

Although asthma can be caused by many sources, diesel exhaust fumes pose the greatest threat. Bus depots produce a vast amount of pollution from the increased concentration of smog when buses enter to undergo cleaning and maintenance and thus raise the risk of asthma in the surrounding community. The closer people live to these pollution sources, the likelihood of developing asthma increases and children are most at risk.

Across New York City over 200,000 children suffer from this affliction, however more than 20% of Harlem’s children have asthma compared with 8% in the rest of city. Asthma rates in Harlem are five times the national average and asthma is the main reason children are hospitalized. Death due to asthma is more likely in the South Bronx and Harlem than almost anywhere else in the United States [3].

To relate this to Langston Hughes and the American Dream, imagine pursuing life, liberty and happiness when you’re wheezing and short of breath.

These both comprise the long term health effects of asthma, as well as: a greater risk of developing obesity due to inactivity and scarring of the airways, which also causes daily chest tightness and fatigue. All of which become progressively more serious later in life and could affect an individual’s ability to study, work and live. If you are from a low-income background, breaking the revolving cycle of poverty is hard enough without a chronic disease caused and exacerbated by breathing the air in your own neighborhood.

Asthma is also the primary reason children miss school in Harlem. Aside from health effects, when a child misses school only 10% of the time, their grades drop by 67%. When grades drop, opportunities to continue further education may lessen and there may be a domino effect reducing access to well-paying jobs and subsequent opportunities for prosperity.

Harlem’s children are being failed. Their dream is being deferred. Their childhood is one characterized by shortness of breath and trips to the emergency room becoming a normal part of growing up. Despite promissory notes of an indiscriminate society, the disparity in something as fundamental as breathable air reveals an incredibly unjust social determinant of health.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Asthma is a manageable disease. To reduce this disparity, government policymakers, health professionals, researchers, and community groups need to work together.

As the Programs and Evaluation fellow at Single Stop I work with a number of partner sites, one of which, Harlem Children’s Zone, started an asthma initiative known as A.I.R Harlem to help families cope with asthma and advocate for clean air.

The initiative works by providing home visits from community health workers who create custom asthma action plans. They also educate communities to the risk and symptoms in school-based programs tailored for children, parents and educators. In this manner the initiative increases knowledge of asthma which aims to lessen the effects, thereby reducing emergency room visits and missed days of school.

Importantly the initiative also provides essential legal support for families requiring counsel in the face of significant housing problems and carries out important environmental mitigation advocating for healthier living environments.

It is through this combined approach of education, personalized medical care and legal advocacy that Harlem can end its asthma crisis and help generations of its children pursue their dreams.

 

For more information about asthma in Harlem or environmental discrimination, please see the following websites:

http://www.harlemasthma.org/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_258.pdf

http://www.rootsofhealthinequity.org/polluting-sites-in-manhattan.php

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839908725577#.VOd6RPnF_as


[1] Thank you Matt Damon in ‘Good Will Hunting’

[2] Bullard, Robert D. (1999). “Dismantling Environmental Racism in the USA“. Local Environment 4: 5.

[3] www.harlemasthma.org

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