Sicko CT, In Black And White

Move over, Michael Moore. New Haven has a filmmaker who has something she wants to say about the state of health care, in Connecticut.

Crystal Emery (pictured) is making a documentary about disparities in American health care. But, she says, ​“disparities” is a ​“bogus word, like a smoke screen. The fire is racism. But nobody wants to talk about that.”

Emery met at the Arts Council Tuesday afternoon with a handful of people in yet another focus group leading up to a discussion Oct. 18 that will be filmed as part of her documentary about the sad state of health care in Connecticut. The project also includes following two families — one black, one white — as they maneuver through the complexities of the so-called ​“health care” system.

Emery’s project comes as the NAACP is calling for creation of a new state Office of Minority Health, in the wake of a new report on how Connecticut’s health-care system is leaving behind African-Americans. (Click here to read about that.)

Emery is nothing if not opinionated. She’s invited two good friends and longtime arts activists, former Arts Council chief Frances ​“Bitsie” Clark (now an alderwoman, pictured), and Maryann Ott, now associate director of the NewAlliance Bank Foundation, to give her their feedback on her project-in-development. They all joked that she probably won’t take their advice.

Emery said focusing on class, not race, as the source of disparity is ​“skipping the fire.” Click here to listen to her thoughts.

Is it who you are or your approach to the health care system that determines the kind of care you receive? Helen Murphy, in her first day on the job as Emery’s assistant, offered that she comes from a family of nurses who all say it’s the latter. ​“If you go in with a victim mentality, that’s how you’re going to be treated,” regardless of your race or gender, she said. Click here to hear more of her comments.

Emery disagreed. In her own experience and in the stories of many other people, she said, the defining element is race. ​“And everyone in America — black or white — is a racist,” she added, because of structural racism in American society. ​“How do we begin a conversation about race without being alienating and unproductive?”

Clark told of how a small group including black and white New Haveners organized at the Q House almost two decades ago enabled participants to develop enough trust and a sense of safety ​“to have an honest discussion about race.” But she said she hasn’t participated in one since.

The forum on Oct. 18 will be an open discussion, a chance for people to express their feelings more than their policy prescriptions. Emery plans to pose six questions to participants. She asked for help in determining what they should be, especially the all-important first question to get people talking. Ott (pictured) suggested, ​“Ask about a situation when they did not feel respected in a health care situation.” She also emphasized the importance of a good facilitator in the discussion.

Emery already knows what her last question will be to each participant: ​“What are you doing to close the gap” in the provision of health care? She said her documentary will be a call to action, about connecting the energies of people already working around the state to fundamentally change the health care system.