Activism

Third Opinion: How My Dad’s Terminal Diagnosis Taught Me the Importance of Self Advocacy

…there I was, sitting in the living room where I was raised, learning from my father that a CAT scan had revealed that the basilar artery that carried blood from his heart to his brain was completely blocked. The diagnosis was that he had mere weeks left to live. The timetable, he confided, seemed inaccurate. “I don’t feel like I’m dying,” he said, hefting my suitcase over his shoulder and walking it upstairs, an exertion that was absolutely against doctor’s orders.

Published

2 years ago

July 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Keenan Norris

By Keenan Norris, Special to California Black Media Partners

One moment, I was decompressing after my day at work in Oakland, the next I was being called home to Southern California to learn something too serious for telephone conversation. I remember playing the same song for the entire six-hour drive down south.

Then, there I was, sitting in the living room where I was raised, learning from my father that a CAT scan had revealed that the basilar artery that carried blood from his heart to his brain was completely blocked. The diagnosis was that he had mere weeks left to live. The timetable, he confided, seemed inaccurate. “I don’t feel like I’m dying,” he said, hefting my suitcase over his shoulder and walking it upstairs, an exertion that was absolutely against doctor’s orders.

The disconnect between my father’s lived experience and his diagnosis was just one rift that would arise between my family and the medical system. In the weeks that followed, he suffered a series of small strokes, obvious symptoms of occlusion. At the local hospitals we took him to, the staff all but told us he was a dead man.

Unwilling to accept this premature conclusion, my family took it upon ourselves to do what the medical establishment seemed unwilling to do. We fought for my father, pushing for referrals and further tests. And it was because of our family’s advocacy that the terminal diagnosis given to my father was not, in fact, the last word on his life.

Debra Law is a lecturer at The Valley Foundation School of Nursing at San Jose State. Formerly a medical-surgical nurse and adult kidney transplant coordinator at Stanford University Medical Center, Law, who is African American, explains that “Patient advocacy can come in many different forms, and it does not require medical knowledge, per se.”

“As a nurse, when we know that a patient has someone in the room that sends the message, ‘My loved one is important.’ If they put the call light on for their loved one, then they are the voice for their loved one,” she added.

Nurses, Law notes, can serve as a vitally important “last line of defense” for patients.

For my family, there was no such defense. Upon disclosing his condition to medical personnel, we were consistently told that the situation was hopeless. My mother, however, would not accept the resignation of the medical establishment and instead talked her way into a referral to a large public research and teaching hospital in the Los Angeles Area.

At that hospital, respected for its leading-edge research, we were informed that only four people on record had survived a complete occlusion of their basilar artery for any significant period. But there might be cause for hope: A subsequent CAT scan revealed that new blood vessels had emerged and were beginning to substitute for the blocked artery. We would have to monitor my father’s blood pressure all day and all night, the world-class neurologist told us, making sure it did not drop so low that blood flow to the brain would ebb irrecoverably, causing a deadly stroke. The home remedies to increase blood pressure suggested to us were primitive: Salt tablets, hot water, beer. If we could keep his blood pressure high enough for long enough, the new vessels might grow large enough to save his life.

We did our best, monitoring my father’s blood pressure 24/7, rejecting sleep and sanity. The constant care schedule exhausted us. The experience of those days and nights was so far beyond rationality, that it feels like another human body than my own lived through it. I am a writer, but I have no words for what we went through.

After days of that madness, somehow, he was still alive. The strokes began to dissipate.

We returned to the local hospital. The doctor who had originally diagnosed him with the death sentence ordered another CAT scan: The new blood vessels had long since grown strong enough to sustain my father’s brain, he determined.

Why hadn’t the world-class neurologist at the large research and teaching hospital seen what this local physician could see so clearly? Why had my father been dispatched to us in what amounted to a nightmarish outpatient procedure? It might be, the local physician told us, that his counterpart at the research hospital was more concerned with studying my father’s rare condition than with him as a patient. The obscene history of medical experimentation on Black people — from the Tuskegee syphilis experiment to the commandeering of Henrietta Lacks’s cells — was not as well known then as it is now.

The reality of poorer health outcomes for Black people across so many indices is proof of the persistence of racialized maltreatment in our healthcare system to this day.

We need to advocate for ourselves and our loved ones in the medical system. Law cites the Black Infant Health Program and the increase in doulas to address the disturbingly high rates both of Black infant and maternal mortality as examples of Black healthcare advocacy.

Hearing the doctor out, my dad just shrugged. Hadn’t we heard him when he said he didn’t feel like he was dying? He’d been advocating for himself all along.

We went home; my dad weeded the garden under the sweltering sun that afternoon and would go on to live for five more years. I let myself sleep, finally, for the first time in what felt like forever.

About the Author

Keenan Norris’s books include Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings and The Confession of Copeland Cane. He had been the recipient of the Northern California Book Award and National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. He teaches at San Jose State University.

Third Opinion is a California Black Media (CBM) series of personal essays written by Black patients, advocates and medical providers in California that provide experience-based cues for health and wellbeing as well as insights into understanding and navigating the state’s health care delivery system. The articles produced are resources of CBM’s California Black Health Journalism Project.

This article is supported by the California Black Health Journalism Project, a program created by California Black Media, that addresses the top health challenges African Americans in California face. It relies on the input of community and practitioners; an awareness of historical factors, social contexts and root causes; and a strong focus on solutions as determined by policymakers, advocates and patients.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

BREAKING NEWS: President Joe Biden Announces He Will Not Seek Re-Election

Don't Miss

Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Museum Presents Landmark Retrospective Celebrating Beloved Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard

“Poetics of Memory” coincides with a year of major recognition for Howard. In 2026, she received the California Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary Award, honoring artists whose work has shaped California’s cultural and civic life, as well as the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Artist Impact Award. In 2025, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her transformative contributions to American cultural life.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Mildred Howard. Photo by Christine Cueto for the Oakland Museum of California, 2025.

Special to The Post

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,” the first major museum survey of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, on June 12.

The exhibition spans five decades of Howard’s influential work, bringing together immersive installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, and new commissions that explore memory, identity, and power in American life.

Howard was born in San Francisco in 1945 and raised in the East Bay, where she went on to study Afro-Haitian dance, make and sell clothing, and experiment with collage and sculpture.

Her multimedia art practice emerged from these experiences, later becoming associated with West Coast conceptual art, San Francisco funk, and a vibrant community of artists like Oliver Jackson, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. Since the 1970s, she has used found materials and family stories to explore memory—both individual and collective.

At OMCA, visitors enter “Poetics of Memory” through a series of intimate galleries featuring Howard’s early mixed-media pieces and sculptures, along with a large video projection of a number of her public artworks.

Together, they emphasize Howard’s interest in everyday objects as powerful carriers of individual and shared stories. Highlights include collages that remix images of the artist herself; found-object sculptures like The History of the United States with a few Parts Missing (2007) that address omissions in dominant narratives; and public works like “Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges” (2001) that transform urban space into a meditation on access and labor.

This culminates in a richly detailed “studio” environment, where works in progress, archival exhibition flyers, historic photographs of Howard and her community, postcards from fellow artists, and other materials offer insight into her creative process and daily life.

The exhibition then opens into a high-ceilinged, dramatically lit space that brings together Howard’s signature immersive installations. On one end, “Crossings” (1997/2026) – a field of hundreds of ceramic eggs leading to an ornate mirror – suggests cycles of birth, motherhood, and transition, while drawing on the emotional echoes of the Middle Passage. On the other end, “Blackbird in a Red Sky” (a.k.a. “Fall of the Blood House”) (2002) – a red glass shack bordered by a pond – also uses reflection and transparency to draw viewers into the work and prompt consideration of themes of identity and home.

Howard’s newest video installation, “Moving Stills” (2026), repurposes never-before-seen family footage she took as a teenager on a train trip to the American South. Projected onto cascading layers of translucent fabric that stretch across an entire gallery wall, the piece immerses viewers in a layered meditation on memory, migration, and time.

The “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” exhibit will be on display through Oct. 11 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays to 9 p.m.

This story is sourced from the Oakland Museum of California press office.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Stop the Hate Symposium Brings Oakland Together Through Dialogue, Partnership, and Community Healing

More than a meeting and panel discussion, the annual symposium serves as a powerful example of what can happen when neighbors, community leaders, and organizations choose conversation over division, and unity over silence.

Published

1 week ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Speakers and guests at the annual ‘Stop the Hate Symposium posed with Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council ambassadors. Photo by Marcus Calloway.

By Dr. Maritony Jones, Special to The Post

With the purpose of creating safer, stronger, and more inclusive communities, and in partnership with the Oakland Private Industry Council and other community organizations, the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council (OCIC) hosted the ‘Stop the Hate Symposium’ on June 13 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

The free event featured keynote speakers, breakout sessions, cultural programming, creating a space where people from many backgrounds sat together with a shared purpose.

The turnout itself reflected the urgency and importance of the topic. The room was packed with community members eager not only to listen, but also to participate. Throughout the event, speakers shared data, personal experiences, research, and practical solutions designed to address hate, violence, social inequity, and community safety.

The keynote panel featured respected leaders and advocates, including Ray Bobbitt, founder of the African American Sports & Entertainment Group (AASEG); Ryan Takemiya from RAMA; Caheri Gutierrez from the Unity Council; honorary guest speaker Oakland City Councilmember at-Large Rowena Brown and City Councilmember Charlene Wang; representatives for Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, with Gia Vang of NBC serving as moderator.

The symposium also offered multiple breakout sessions that addressed issues affecting communities across Oakland and Alameda County:

Session 1, 2, 3: Building Safer and More Inclusive Communities, led by Pastor Raymond Lankfort, CEO of Oakland Private Industry Council (OPIC), Jessica Kang, research manager for Stop AAPI Hate, Kara Guerra of The Unity Council, and Gabriela delaRiva of the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation
Session 4: Talk Story: Collective Healing and Relationship Repair, presented by Ryan Takemiya, executive director of RAMA
Session 5: Sexual Violence Prevention, presented by Tunisia Owens, interim deputy director of Realized Potential
Session 6: Violent Attacks on Teens, presented by MaryAnn Alvarado, program manager of Youth Alive

Every session contributed to an important truth: meaningful change begins within communities, through honest dialogue and a willingness to work together.

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the day was the need to create more conversations and stronger partnerships—not just during times of crisis, but consistently and intentionally. Relationships among organizations, neighborhoods, and community leaders often operate behind the scenes but are not always highlighted or celebrated.

Bobbitt spoke powerfully about this issue, noting that partnerships and relationships often go unrecognized despite being essential to community progress. He pointed to examples such as the partnership between OPIC and OCHIC, emphasizing that these collaborations deserve more visibility, investment, and expansion.

Perhaps his most memorable message resonated deeply throughout the room. Bobbitt explained that when a grandparent is attacked or harmed, the impact extends beyond race or ethnicity because today’s families and communities are increasingly multicultural and interconnected.

“We are not going to see our grandparents as just Latino, Asian, Caucasian, or African American,” he shared in essence. “We are going to see them simply as our grandparents.”

Those words reflected the heart of the symposium. Hate may target one group, but pain and loss are felt by everyone. Likewise, healing and progress are shared responsibilities.

For more information about the Stop The Hate Program visit the website: https://www.oaklandchinatownchamber.org/stop-the-hate (or) https://oaklandpic.or