In Black America; Ms. Chaney Allen

Thank you! In Black America, reflections of the Black experience in American society. Alcoholism is one of this country's leading health problems. Almost 10 men Americans are alcoholics, and most of them won't admit they are ill. One woman has admitted that she has an alcohol problem. Ms. Cheney Allen has just written a book about her alcoholism. It is the first autobiography by a Black woman alcoholic. The book is entitled, I'm Black and I'm sober, published by Comp Care Publications. I'm John Hanson, and this week I focus on author Cheney Allen in Black America.

I worked very hard in the ghetto. If anyone has ever been to San Diego, I worked within the ghetto, within the ghetto, around 32nd in Imperial. So as I worked as a counselor, I noticed a couple of things start to happen and very unique at our program, that they were not having at the other programs. One thing about it, when I climbed till walked in, in many cases they were standing in the middle of everything they owned in this world. They had no clue, no clothes, no shelter left. Let's see what we can do. We got together, we begged nickels and dimes. We went to Sears in different places and asked for old faded out clothes. We went in our closet, had rummaged sales. We sold barbecue, we had chitlin' suppers, and everything we could. To find out we were able to get enough money to purchase a shack in the Black ghetto.

With this shack, we women mixed concrete, like men, set out flowers, everything we could. We got AA members who donated time and some people material. Everyone came in to try to help us. And in this shack, we were able to put 11 men to bed in the ghetto for the first time. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism represent a far more severe crisis than is generally recognized by the Black community. In fact, the misuse of alcohol is not always seen as a crisis at all. Alcohol is at the base of much of the crime committed by Blacks. And the number of illnesses with secondary diagnosis of alcoholism is continually on the rise. At the present time, there is very little information on the problem of women alcoholics. Of the information that we do have states that those women who do drink heavily are likely to have men who encourage them to drink heavily. Or are likely to pursue a more active social life where frequent and heavy drinking is expected.

There is also a smaller group of Black women who drink heavily because of psychological reasons, such as loneliness, lack of hope, and personal misfortune. Miss Cheney Allen is a Black woman alcoholic. She has just written a book about her problem with alcohol, entitled, I'm Black and I'm sober. A lot of biography is a vivid story about a minister's daughter fighting the disease of alcoholism and winning. Miss Cheney Allen is the founder of the California Black Commission on Alcoholism and founder of the California Women's Commission on Alcoholism. Since 1971, she has been associated with alcoholism and counseling education center, where she developed techniques for working with minority alcoholics. A women's detoxification center and two rehabilitation houses have been organized under her guidance. The U.S. Neighborhood Rehabilitation Clinic in San Diego calls on her regularly to lecture counselor trainees. I asked Miss Allen the reasons behind writing her book. Because I worked as a counselor right in the Black ghetto.

And as I worked, all the materials that kept coming across my desk, I just simply couldn't use it with my clientele. It was a material written by like PhDs and doctors and upper milk class white people that the poor blacks couldn't identify with. And it was too educated because men in my clientele alone was third or fourth grade students. And I just couldn't work with the material. So I decided, okay, I'm going to try to do something about it. What I'll do is I'll get up, try anyway since I stayed drunk and out there in the streets for 20 years. So I decided I'm going to try it. I didn't know how to write a book. But I just set down number one, I prayed.

I asked God for knowledge. I asked God to do for me what he did for King Solomon, which is supposed to be the wisest man in the world. I'm probably being a minister and he told me, Charlie's not so smart. Anything he asked God to do, God helped him. And he do the same thing for you. So I tried it. So at first came out as I'm black and I'm drunk and it wasn't edited. But I published it myself. I saved my drinking money and put the book out there. And when I did, about the first 500 copies in two months, I was trying to get 500 more printed. One of my friends had a printing press in his kitchen and that's the way it was put out. I had different friends. That's how we correlated the book and did the best we could. Coming from a good Christian background, how did you happen to become an abuse of alcohol? Well, I had to learn in later years that people are allergic to alcohol,

just as people are allergic to certain foods, certain medications. And of course, I didn't know it. And as I started, and if there's anything like a person being, some doctors say, yes, some said no. But if there's anything like a person being born in alcohol, then I'm one of those people. I never did drink socially. In the beginning, I was in trouble with alcohol and was drinking just a little, but I'm allergic to it. And if a person is allergic to alcohol, it is a two-fold illness, a physical allergy to the body, coupled with a mental obsession. A person is both physically and psychologically addicted with this stuff. This is a two-fold illness. So that's what happened to me. When I picked it up, the disease just took off. And we have to teach us if you're allergic to something, it's going to cause an abnormal reaction.

That's what we have to teach us. If a person allergic to certain foods, let's say strawberries, and you eat them, and they break you out, that's abnormal. If you're allergic to penicillin, it's going to get an abnormal reaction. If you allergic to alcohol, you're going to get an abnormal reaction. Now, the abnormality of this alcohol is you're going to keep drinking until you get drunk. And the average alcoholic have no intention of getting drunk before they get drunk. They want to do just like anyone else who's not allergic to it. They want to have a couple of cocktails and enjoy themselves. No one wants to drink until they drink themselves in jail. That's abnormal. To drink to the point of falling out drunk someplace, that's abnormal. Drink to the point that you spend up all the money from your family and abuse your family. It's abnormal. So this is what I'm saying. I didn't know I was an alcoholic for years.

Were there any support systems when you knew you had a problem with alcohol that you could go through? Yes. My number one support system that I could go back and say again is God. It's number one, as God for help. From that, I was directed into the program. When I got into the program, I worked with my 12 steps. And other, my sponsor, and other recovered alcoholics. And this is how, thank God, I've been able to stay sober since August the 30th, 1968, which was 15 years ago. Do you think the black community perceived that alcoholism is a problem in our community? Are we turning a deaf ear to the problem? Our community know that we have a problem. The average even the black alcoholic, they know they have a problem. All alcoholics know that they in trouble we before they scream for help.

But they may not know exactly what to do because you see as a black, I was taught. And blacks are always taught usually. The alcoholism is a sin. We come in from the religious point. Alcoholism is a sin. When they told me, you see, the way I understood it, that there's no place in heaven for the way with the woman. The drunkard, the divorcee, the adulteries. Well, hell, I speak, there's no use to me keep praying because I was guilty of everything. I did them all wrong. You see what I mean? So this is what I'm saying. The idea is that alcoholics and help them to understand that alcoholism is an illness. It's a disease. Once I ever was able to understand that, then the first question I asked, is there anything I can do about it? And the answer was yes.

What? Then what they told me to do, I started to do it. I started following. That's how I would be coming to the program we call them babies. Because you don't know, you don't know which way to go, you're lost. Physically, mentally, morally, bankrupted. Because I was just that sick. I was not a home drinker. I was a bar drinker. And that one out there, those bars getting drunk, gets in all kinds of problems. Until I had no health left, no self respect. Because I reached the point. Well, if you sit and talk into the bar, and then I would go into a blackout, and bring that out, blackout, memory to blackout, that is not passing out. We're talking about two different things. The pass out is the farmer going to sleep.

You may fall, pass out behind the wheel. You may fall out in the middle of the floor and go to sleep. You may go to bed and go to sleep. Some people sit up in the chair, they live hanging down, slap or run out of it, but they're going to sleep. That's passing out. But I never would pass out so much, but I would blackout. And that is when you continue to function, but you don't remember. You could drive the car home and couldn't remember how the car got there. And this is often said in the black neighborhood. I took out the one man to see my wheels was out there. I don't know when I drove home last night. Or something crazy that you did. And while he was in a blackout, and your friends got to tell you about it. You know that reminds me of an old song years ago. Years ago. And I didn't understand it then. I was drinking then. And this song had to come in maybe from an alcoholic. The song said I sure had a wonderful time last night.

At least they tell me I did. You see? So your friends or someone who got to tell you what you did last night. You was doing it. That's a blackout. Now that's serious. There have been rape, robbery, accidents, everything committed to our persons in this memory blackout. There was absolutely functioning. And this is caused from brain damage. Did you suffer any physical ailments from the problems of alcoholism? Did I, do I? Do you? Did you? All right. Yes, I did. When I reached my bottom, August 30th, 1968. I'm 142 now. I waited 91 pounds. Because when the type of alcoholic could not eat when I drank. I'm drinking. I'm starving with plenty of food. I went into DTs.

Snakes coming out of the faucet, hearing voices and drums. Bugs all over the house, all over me. I no longer felt the urge to go to the bathroom. I lay there in my own bodyways, wet bed, filthy bed, vomit, blood into death as many female alcoholics would do because alcohol will regulate a lot of women's menstrual flow. Barmanton blood also, which I still have, I woke up and I always felt diabetic, became diabetic, everything I'm saying is alcohol related. Surgery done on my feet, they still hurt from alcoholism because of course I regulated a lot of blood, where the blood flows, it gets lumpy, where that lumpy blood flow, it damages. So, the whole body was damaged. And I just reached my bottom. That's when I asked God, if he would reach his mighty hands at one more time and pick me up off the floor and give me better reason of health and self-respect.

I also understand that you attempted on suicide. Yes, I attempted suicide in 1962. I could not stand another day of drinking and at reach the point where I couldn't stop. I knew that my whole life was out of control. I was headed nowhere. I was sick and I couldn't put it down. I was hooked. And I didn't know any way out. I didn't know how to come out. No one had ever told me I was an alcoholic. I had never seen a person in my life in 1962 who said there was an alcoholic. I knew nothing about any program. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what was wrong. Except I knew I had to be going insane because you see the average alcoholic, when they know they're out of control, the average alcoholic will stop and ask themselves or tell themselves, I had to be crazy to do what I did last night. And the truth of the matter is, they are.

First in dealing with these women is we said there must be identification. The wound to be healed must first be revealed. She had to realize first there is an existing problem. Too often we is helpless. Somebody walked in the front door and soon as they sit down we take the name and address and start counseling them. And they are not ready. What are you doing standing at counseling, counseling, counseling, the alcoholic who doesn't even know what they're an alcoholic yet? The wound to be healed must first be revealed. I always have a four part education class that I always work with new people with. Alcohol education, without even doing that, don't ever do it. I'm not pulling my thing. I work with my films. I go and let them give them whole four weeks education class. And many come in. I just judge sent me here. This is the only reason I'm coming. I want you to know right now. I ain't no alcoholic. I didn't call you one.

I didn't call you an alcoholic. By the time they can finish class and come and say, Miss Chen, I didn't know I was an alcoholic. You said it, darling. I didn't. You see what I mean? We have to work with that person. When I said persons are hard for me to deal just with women since alcohol isn't male or female. That's almost I have to deal with people. Next thing, as I said, too, is it is very hard to cover a board right across here and work with the alcoholic woman. Like if I have to do something and say work with the black woman, we cannot place... I'm trying to say we are dealing with individuals. You cannot say the woman because you see women comes in classes. We have our middle and upper class woman. Then we have one this year. Very poor. We have about three classes there. What I'm trying to say what it takes for one woman to survive, it doesn't take that for the other one.

I just don't need what the great big people like that, the Malibu heels out in California and sliding off the hill. I don't need what they need to survive. You see what I mean? I don't need that. I don't need the $500,000 house and a rose royal. I don't need that. Here is some lady who is on welfare five or six children. She really doesn't need what I need. That poor thing that needs the essentials of life is that the judge was reading here. This is what I'm talking about just to mirrorless survive. We can't just go and put everything across the board. We do know that alcohol will affect all of us the same weight. So for instance, let's say if the woman realized there's a problem. So she's going to school to try to help herself. As I said, the alcoholic woman in the ghetto type, she cannot go when she has a very poor education.

But Miller upperclass lady, once she can go into treatment, get herself back together, then that will help her to hold on to what she already have. We're talking about different needs now. Let her hold what she already have. This other little lady don't have anything in the first place, so we're not saying these people need the same things. Next thing about it, you're going to find that Miller and upperclass people will not holler use your poor programs. Some people are able to go to shicks and roll their heels and all the care units and pay $10,000 a cure when some people are not. And almost a person with that type of money, you almost won't get them anyway. Not in your little walk-in store front. They're not going to come in there. You're going to get a certain type of clientele that is the un-skilled, un-kept, and the unwanted, right? This is what you're going to get. And unfortunate, those are the poor ladies that's almost written out on our programs.

They're almost forgotten. As I worked there in the ghetto, that burned me up too. Here's a unique problem with the ladies. Just written right out almost on the program. As I said, they did not take in consideration that some things couldn't be done. You know something? I know somebody who knows what I'm talking about, but I won't call in. All right? You know with my program there for my funding, one of my funding agencies. I had to do a 60-day and 180-day follow-up. I had to have that. If this wasn't done, they would send those papers all the way back from Maryland and the computer would kick them out. There I had to do so many family counseling sessions. Anybody know what I'm talking about? This person had to be involved in so many group sessions. And all this good stuff had to be done to send. Now, many of those people, men and women, when they came in and I did an intake,

I said, where do you live? I ain't got no way to stay. No food, no clothes, no dress. If they had a family, I guess they could have cared less. And this is what I was running into. But still, I'm supposed to do this follow-up on this nomadic type cocktail. Will you, for heaven's sake, tell me where in the world can you find what society called a skit road alcoholic moving from place to place in six months? Where are they? But if you don't fill out this paper, you end trouble for funding the next fiscal year. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Another thing, let's talk about here on some of these women that we run into. And that is sometimes, as we said, when those women go and help children, get pregnant, those women are not always ready for motherhood every time they get pregnant.

Okay, open prostitution, you know, all this before the children, profane language, sometimes ride the bus and what do you think these children learn in all this language from? These are the things we have to work. Back to the women now, for heaven's sake, let us stop. Two doggo men and new uncles keep showing up over those children. You know, there's Uncle Bill, Uncle Joe. Every time their babies walk, they wake up. There's a new uncle in that house. It's your nothing but mama's man, that's all it is. You see what I mean? Watch that. Is it addicts, stigma, being a woman, and an alcoholic, and admitting that you're on alcoholic? Three stigmas. Female alcoholic and black. Every strike is against you. Female alcoholic and black. Everyone is against you, definitely.

That's for sure. Society, hate to see that drunk woman taking off her pedestal. Women, it's supposed to be her pedestal. You just don't expect women to act like that, do you know what I mean? And all dropped out. And of course, we know there's already precious on the black woman anyway, so we know that. In your traveling around the country, are you finding more women willing to admit that they have a problem with alcohol? Women are now beginning to come out of the woodwork. More women are coming forward as other women are models out there. You see what I mean? A woman will stay hidden, but when they can see another woman come out, they don't have to feel so ashamed anymore. Now, this is one other reason for me writing a book, traveling. Anyone, because God knows, you cannot be prejudiced deals in this field.

You've got to work with everyone else. But I hope, and I'm trying, to be a model for my black woman. If I'm not ashamed to pull the cover off myself, come on out and admit it. I appreciate like Betty Ford and all those people that come out like that and admit it that they were alcoholists. We need that to keep us from having to feel ashamed, because for years they had us thinking that was men and white folk disease. And I'm sorry. Alcoholist is not prejudiced toward anybody, so that's that. Miss Cheney Allen, teacher, lecture, and author of the book entitled, I'm Black and I'm Silver, the first autobiography by black woman alcoholic. If you have a comment or would like to purchase a cassette copy of this program, write us, the address is in Black America, longhorn radio network Austin 78712. For in Black America's technical producer Walter Morgan, I'm John Hanson.

Join us next week. You've been listening to in Black America, reflections of the Black experience in American society. In Black America is produced and distributed by the Center for Telecommunication Services at UT Austin, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Texas at Austin or the station. This is the Longhorn Radio Network.