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At this time, hospital conditions were bad and people didn’t have access to their own records and didn’t have the right to be treated well. So, the second success, another important thing, is the Patient’s Bill of Rights, which is the 10 points that you find in hospital rooms. The Patient’s Bill of Rights was actually the result of a collaboration between members of the Young Lords and the Black Panther Party, with the assistance of the doctors, and written by me. Although it is considerably watered down now, you still find that Patient’s Bill of Rights on the wall of every hospital. It’s not as radical as the original … but still includes some of the issues we highlighted, such as the ability to have access to your medical records. The ability to be treated like a human being, not to have research done on you unless you give your consent. All those things are really important.

A third important thing is the Lincoln Hospital drug detoxification program, which still is in existence today. We started that program. It was established by Panama [Vicente “Panama” Alba] and Butch [Ford, a Bronx activist who had run a detox program in his home] with the support of the Young Lords, the Black Panthers, and the radical doctors. It’s still in existence today, of course, but considerably watered down by the people who are running it now. But it wouldn’t have been there without our struggle.

Several key NY Black Panther Party members played a prominent role in leading these initiatives; including Michael Tabor who identified the link between fighting drug addiction and revolution, Zayd Shakur who spearheaded the occupation of Lincoln Hospital, Assata Shakur and Joan Bird who used their positions as nurses to improve access to healthcare for the people, Cleo Silvers who drafted the Patient’s Bill of Rights, Curtis Powell’s work in acupuncture and drug treatment, and Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s establishment of a multiracial drug treatment clinic

How so? For starters.

American finance grew on the back of slaves

Economic Consequences of Segregation

GI Bill: White male affirmative action program

Predatory Lending in Black Communities and Black Wealth

African-Americans With College Degrees Are Twice As Likely to Be Unemployed as Other Graduates

America’s giant wealth disparity is driven by a history of racist redlining

Black Graduates From Top Colleges Face Discrimination In Job Search, Salaries

A Black College Student Has The Same Chances Of Getting A Job As A White High School Dropout

40 Acres and a Mule Would Be at Least $6.4 Trillion Today—What the U.S. Really Owes Black America

Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning

Race, Opportunity and Uneven Development in Urban America

so please…

African-Americans With College Degrees Are Twice As Likely to Be Unemployed as Other Graduates https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/african-americans-with-college-degrees-are-twice-as-likely-to-be-unemployed-as-other-graduates/430971/

A Black College Student Has The Same Chances Of Getting A Job As A White High School Dropout https://archive.thinkprogress.org/a-black-college-student-has-the-same-chances-of-getting-a-job-as-a-white-high-school-dropout-b7639607fdf1/

                THE IFA CONCEPT OF SOCIOLOGY

Yoruba culture has used the Ifa paradigm of the cosmos as the basis for building their major cities. The structure of the Yoruba Nation was a federation of city states. Each city was ruled by an Oba. In ancient times the Oba was never seen by his subjects, so he became the invisible nucleus of the circle that formed the city. He was surrounded by a female council of elders called Odu and a predominantly male council of elders called Ogboni. The city itself was supported by male and female work parties who tended to divide their labor along gender lines. The men were traditionally farmers and the women traditionally controlled the market place. Both men and women participated in craft guilds that preserved the techniques used in the arts. The cities were built in a circular formation with the compound of the Oba at the center. The symbolic image of Yoruba culture appears as follows:

There is some archeological evidence in the Yoruba cities of Ile Ife and Oyo that suggests that this design was used as the basis for the actual layout of those cities. The extent to which this occurred in other cities has not been thoroughly researched. It does appear that this structure was used in pre-colonial times as the basis for establishing political and religious institutions both of which were built upon the cosmological model found in Ifa.

Variations on this structure involved the system of establishing the location for sacred shrines. The system is called Gede which is a very old form of astrology. In Gede the path of solar bodies and planets is marked in relationship to the ways that they transverse the landscape. Celestial bodies are believed to enhance the ase (inherent power) of natural forces that arise from the Earth. By correlating the influences of Olorun and Ile, the ancient diviners were able to consecrate their shrines in places that reflected the essence of specific Odu.

Earth (ile) was considered a reflection of Heaven (Orun) and the layout of Yoruba cities was designed to make them mirrors of the cosmic order. The religion of Ifa originally comes from the city of Ile Ife. In lfa scripture, Ile Ifa is described as the original home of humans. The words: “Ile Ife” translate to mean; “Spreading Earth.” So Ile Ife is a city and it is any place where land formed on Earth that allowed for human evolution to take place. Ifa scripture also refers to Ile Ife as a Spiritual place. It is the home for those ancestors who have returned to Source.

D. THE IFA CONCEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Perhaps the most accessible manifestation of Odu is through the portal of individual consciousness. Ifa teaches that Odu represent the energy patterns that create consciousness. They are analogous to what Carl Jung called archetypes of the collective unconscious. Jung believed that there exists a set of primal patterns that form the content of self-perception and place the self in relationship to the world. According to Jung, these patterns remain abstract until the unconscious gives them a cultural and personal context. In both Jungian psychology and the Ifa concept of consciousness, Odu (archetypes) can be revealed through dreams, where they take on personal qualities and manifest as mythic drama. By grasping this particular manifestation of Odu, Ifa teaches that it is possible to create internal balance which is the foundation of living in harmony with Nature.

Ifa psychology is linked to the concept of ori. The literal translation of ori is “head.” This is a limited definition because ori also implies consciousness and Ifa cosmology teaches that all Forces in Nature have ori or consciousness.31 Because Ifa believes in reincarnation, every ori forms a polarity with ipori. The ipori is the eternal consciousness that exists in Orun (Heaven).32 It is the ipori that forms the link between past and future lives. If a scripture describes the ipori as the perfect double of ori. According to Ifa cosmology, every ori makes an agreement with Olorun prior to each incarnation.33 This agreement outlines the type of life that is to be lived and the lessons that are to be learned in a given lifetime. At the moment of birth the content of this agreement is lost to conscious thought. Part of the process of establishing internal balance is viewed as the task of remembering the original agreement between ori and Olorun.

This agreement is the source of individual destiny. Because divination is considered a method for discovering destiny, all divination based on Ifa is related to the question of enhancing the alignment between ori and ipori.

The link between ori and ipori lies within ori inu.35 The Yoruba words; “ori inu” translate to mean; “inner head.” This is a reference to what Jung called the individual consciousness or self. Ori inu is the nucleus of that circle of Forces that creates self-awareness.

In addition to the polarity between ori and ipori, ori inu is the center point of the polarity between ara and emi. Ara is the physical body. Ifa psychology includes the heart (okan) and the emotions (egbe) as part of the physical self. According to lfa, the nature of one’s ipori can only be grasped if the head and the heart are in alignment. In other words, the mind and the emotions must be in agreement if spiritual insight is to occur. Similarly, Jung understood that a conflict between the mind and the emotions is one of the sources of mental illness.36 In Ifa this conflict is called ori ibi. It is difficult to make a literal translation of ori ibi, but the term suggests a lack of alignment between ori and ipori. When the ori and ipori are functioning as one, it creates a condition called ori ire. A literal translation of ori ire would be; “wise head.” .Jung referred to this condition as individuation, which was his basis for defining mental health.37

Ara or the physical body exists in polarity with emi. The Yoruba word emi means; “breath.” Ifa teaches that the breath of life comes from Olodumare and contains the eternal essence of consciousness. Emi in this context would translate to mean; "soul.” The Ifa symbol of self would appear as follows: