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Kris Benz, a disabled Black veteran, is no stranger to cancer. In 2012, he was diagnosed with salivary duct carcinoma, a cancer so rare it strikes only about 1 in a million people each year.” But he beat it after six weeks of radiation and removal of his right salivary gland.

“I was cancer-free after six months,” he said.

Now, a new concerning mass has appeared in his neck despite months of scans. His doctor suspects it is cancerous, but Benz, who lives near Palm Springs, will not know for certain until a biopsy.

Compounding that uncertainty is a gap in his coverage. Benz is two work credits short of qualifying for Medicare, but returning to work could jeopardize his Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability status and funding. Buying Medicare Part A would cost $568 a month, leaving him “winging it.”

Benz is also frustrated that the VA will not schedule his scan and biopsy before his consultation, which will require another round of appointments afterward.

“It’s about money,” he said. “Doctor’s appointments, they get the money. There’s no preventive medicine here anymore.”

Although he calls the VA “a great organization,” he believes it is hampered by bureaucracy. For now, he remains “in limbo” waiting to complete his appointments. 

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Restoring Hearts and Transforming Communities

His experience reflects one of the most persistent health equity challenges facing Black communities: access to care.

According to a UC Davis study, “The Burden of Cancer Among Black/African Americans in California,” Black cancer patients were more likely than White patients to be diagnosed at a later stage and to have multiple health conditions, making treatment more difficult. They were also far more likely to live in low-income communities and rely on public insurance—evidence that economic inequality and barriers to care are helping drive disparities in the state’s cancer crisis.

That same study reports that between 2014 and 2018, the ten cancers most frequently diagnosed among Black/African American women in California were, from one to ten, breast, lung, colorectal, uterine, pancreatic, kidney, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, thyroid, myeloma, and ovarian cancers. During the same period, the ten most commonly occurring cancers among Black/African American men in California were, from one to ten, prostate, lung, colorectal, kidney, bladder, liver, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic, myeloma, and oropharyngeal cancers. 

Researchers attribute the gaps not to biology but to social and economic inequality connected to structural racism. An American Cancer Society analysis found educational attainment was a stronger predictor of the mortality gap than race alone.

“These disparities are not because Black people are inherently less healthy,” said Rhonda Smith, executive director of the California Black Health Network. “They are the result of decades of inequitable policies, structural racism, unequal access to quality care, and chronic underinvestment in our communities.”

Dr. Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and public health policy expert, said health outcomes are shaped as much by circumstances as by biology. She traced her understanding of disparities to her father’s death from heart disease at age 47. He began smoking as a child when tobacco companies marketed cigarettes aggressively and disproportionately to Black communities.

“My father’s story is not about individual choices,” Cofer said. “My father’s story speaks to institutional and systemic harm.”

“Health is not just what happens in the doctor’s office,” she added. Social determinants include neighborhood conditions, housing stability, nutritious food, transportation, and the ability to take time off work for care.

At federally qualified health centers, tight appointment schedules can make it difficult for medical providers to detect cancer early and earn the trust patients need to discuss troubling symptoms.

“We have only 15 minutes when you are working in a federally qualified health center — you have 15 minutes to assess, diagnose, treat, and write your note per patient,” said Jamie Garcia, a registered nurse who has been certified in oncology nursing for more than a decade and works at AdventHealth White Memorial in East Los Angeles.

Garcia said the rushed pace, driven partly by billing requirements tied to federal funding, leaves little time for providers to build relationships with patients. It can also allow health care professionals’ implicit biases to go unrecognized and unchallenged.

For Garcia’s patients, who are predominantly Black and Latino residents of surrounding communities, the consequences can be immediate and alarming. Many arrive with visibly advanced tumors after going without insurance, adequate coverage, a primary care physician or routine screenings.

Garcia recalled treating one patient whose tumor had grown large enough to be visible through the skin.

“The fact that I even got to see that is a failure and an atrocity,” she said.

Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City) sought to reduce another barrier through Assembly Bill 1570, which would have eliminated out-of-pocket costs for medically necessary diagnostic and supplemental breast imaging. It passed the Assembly Health Committee 16-0 but died in the Appropriations Committee. Wilson plans to reintroduce it during the next legislative session without biopsy coverage.

Wilson announced her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2023. She received timely, quality care but “saw others with similar diagnoses face different outcomes.”

“Some people who got diagnosed at the same time as me — their timing of their surgeries and treatment was delayed in comparison to my own,” she said. “Watching people go through and suffering unnecessarily was heartbreaking to me.”

Her follow-up imaging required only a $10 copay. “I’ve had friends have to pay $1,000 to get that secondary screening,” Wilson said.

Smith warned that policy changes could further erode access. California’s Every Woman Counts screening program is losing funding and being scaled back, she said. About one in three Black Californians relies on Medi-Cal, according to the state.

Smith also cited federal Medi-Cal work requirements projected to cause 1.1 million Californians to lose coverage by 2029-30. “Health equity is no longer simply about improving outcomes,” she said. “It’s about protecting access.” 

Californians seeking low-cost cancer screening can contact a local federally qualified health center or the California Department of Public Health’s Every Woman Counts program. The California Black Health Network also offers referrals and advocacy resources.

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Pete Hegseth insists that he is restoring “merit” to the United States military. But after months of dismissals, blocked promotions, and ideological purges, the evidence tells a different story. His campaign against so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has become something far more dangerous: an assault on equal opportunity that falls with particular force on African Americans, while also targeting women, Latinos, gay Americans, and transgender service members.

The latest example is both troubling and infuriating.

Once again, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly blocked the promotion of an exceptionally qualified woman—Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt. Bauernschmidt is no ordinary officer. She became the Navy’s first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of the most demanding leadership assignments in the world. Her career reflects decades of exemplary performance, operational excellence, and leadership under extraordinary pressure.

Yet once again, a distinguished military career appears to have been subordinated to an ideological agenda masquerading as “merit.”

I call BS!

The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

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The pattern has become impossible to ignore.

General Charles Q. Brown Jr., only the second African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed despite a career that placed him among the most accomplished military leaders of his generation.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman ever to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, was removed despite decades of distinguished command experience.

Reports have documented interventions that blocked or delayed the promotions of Black officers and women selected through the military’s rigorous promotion system.

Now Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt joins the growing list of highly accomplished officers whose careers have been derailed for reasons that have never been persuasively explained.

Where is Congress?

Its silence has become deafening.

Congress has an independent constitutional responsibility to oversee the armed forces. Instead, too many lawmakers have watched silently while one of the nation’s most respected institutions is subjected to ideological litmus tests and political interference.

This is not military reform.  It is testosterone-fueled performative masculinity disguised as a philosophy of military excellence.

The irony is impossible to miss. Hegseth repeatedly invokes “merit,” yet his rhetoric begins with the assumption that Black officers, women, and other historically excluded Americans must somehow justify their achievements in ways that white male officers are rarely required to do.

That is not meritocracy.  It is prejudice wrapped in patriotic language.

No one is asking that anyone be promoted because of race or gender. Americans simply expect that promotions be based on demonstrated competence, leadership, integrity, and service. The officers being targeted have already proven themselves repeatedly under one of the world’s most demanding evaluation systems.

Their records speak for themselves.

The attack on African American military leadership has been especially pernicious.

For generations, Black Americans fought in segregated units, earned decorations while denied equal treatment, and repeatedly demonstrated loyalty to a nation that often failed to extend them full citizenship. They broke barriers not because standards were lowered but because excellence finally overcame institutional discrimination.

Today’s campaign against “diversity” threatens to revive old assumptions under new slogans.

The implication that Black generals and admirals somehow owe their success to affirmative action rather than extraordinary performance echoes some of the ugliest stereotypes of the Jim Crow era. Yesterday’s segregationists claimed Black Americans were inherently less qualified. Today’s culture warriors simply employ more politically acceptable language while inviting the same suspicion about Black achievement.

That is why Hegseth’s campaign increasingly resembles Jim Crow 2.0.

The targets may now wear stars on their shoulders instead of military patches on segregated uniforms, but the underlying message is hauntingly familiar: Black excellence is presumed suspect, while white excellence is presumed earned.

America’s military became the finest fighting force in history because it opened its doors to talent wherever it could be found. It grew stronger after President Truman desegregated the armed forces. It became stronger when women assumed greater command responsibilities. It became stronger when every qualified American was given the opportunity to serve to the fullest extent of their abilities.

Diversity is not a concession.  It is a strategic advantage.

The nation’s adversaries do not fear an American military because it is racially homogeneous. They fear it because it draws upon the talents of more than 340 million Americans whose diverse experiences, perspectives, and abilities make our armed forces unmatched anywhere in the world.

Every politically motivated dismissal of a distinguished officer sends a chilling message throughout the ranks: excellence alone may no longer be enough if you belong to the wrong demographic group.

That weakens morale.  It weakens recruitment.  It weakens retention.

And ultimately, it weakens national security.

Pete Hegseth has every right to pursue military readiness. He has no right to redefine merit in ways that repeatedly cast suspicion upon the accomplishments of Black officers, women, and others who have devoted their lives to defending this nation.

America deserves better.  The men and women who wear the uniform deserve better.  The Constitution deserves better.

And unless Congress finds the courage to exercise meaningful oversight, history may well remember this period not as a restoration of military excellence, but as the moment political ideology attempted to resurrect, in modern form, the old poison of exclusion.

Jim Crow did not strengthen America.  Jim Crow 2.0 will not strengthen America’s military.  It will only diminish it

Wade Henderson
Strategic Advisor
Civil and Human Rights
wade@wadejhenderson.com

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