Ebony & Ivory Enemas....

Before I pose my question I’d like to make it clear that there are no racial overtones in this post. Internet conversations leave a lot to be desired, and a lot to the imagination, so do not read between any lines here.

I’ve been remodeling houses on & off for about 20 years. Some years back I did a lot of repair & maintenance work for a struggling property manager who was trying to build her business. When I started working with her she had 30 properties. When I left some 4 years later she had 350 properties. About 90% of these properties were Section 8 (welfare housing), mostly duplexes. And, about 90% of the Section 8 property she managed were occupied by supposedly single black women, but I can tell you that there was always a man in the house, except for inspection day.

The vast majority of these houses occupied by black women, well over 50% I’d say, had an enema/douche bag out in plain site somewhere in the bathroom, or stored under the bathroom sink. I’ve worked on a lot of houses over the years owned by white folks and have never seen that many enema bags. Occasionally I will see an enema bag in the bathroom of a white woman, generally an older woman, but not nearly at the level I saw when I was mostly working on houses where black folks lived.

I’ve often wondered why the majority of enema videos/magazines and such feature white women, yet my real life experience of working on people’s houses tells me that more black women use enemas than do whites. Could it be that black women use enemas more for health reasons where white women enjoy the erotic aspect, hence the depiction in the magazines & videos? Or, could it be that the black women are not into enemas at all and simply douche more than white women? I’m really scratching my head here so share your thoughts with me on this one if you have any.

This puzzlement came back to mind again yesterday when I went to a house to look at some work a woman wants me to do. The house is vacant now, but my client’s mother (a black lady) had lived there from 1969 until this past August when she passed away. The kids came in and removed all the furniture, but there was still some junk laying around. When I went into one of the bathrooms I found an old enema bag hanging on the back of the door and remembered all the bags I used to see in the houses of black folks. So, I thought I’d ask the members of this forum if they had any experience with black versus white enema usage.

Regards,

The Cave Man

I recall another thread here asking if, or stating that Black people were less likely to have used enemas.

Anybody else have any recollection on the matter?

I find it strange and not a statistically true fact.Its not the color of the skin its the age that is related with the use of enma the older the more common to find a bag or bulb in a bathroom

I doubt anybody has done a scientific study, thus the various views here, but a colon hydrotherapist once said she had a larger-than-average number of black cleints because the enema bag was still a very respected health tool in their homes. Also, I have read that years ago, black nursemaids were responsible for giving enemas as part of child care.

Gothslt,

Yes, I find it strange as well. That's why I asked the question. Regarding statistical facts, my experience has been that 'statistically' it is a fact that more black women have enema bags in their bathrooms than do white women.

Granted, it may be that black women are less likely to hide their enemas bags, seeing it as no different than leaving a toothbrush out in the open. It might also be that more white women have enema bags, but keep them in places where I wouldn't see them when I was working on their house.

It may also be that black women douche more often than do white women, or use the drugstore-style enema/douche bag for personal care, versus using Fleets or pre-packed douche products. But the fact remains that I've seen more enema/douche bags in the bathrooms of black women than I have in the bathrooms of white women.

Generally speaking, America has not become totally integrated. People from the same background/culture tend to group together. Every culture has its own traditions. Regardless of skin color, traditions are passed down to the next generation. This could explain why I have seen more enema/douche bags in the homes of black women.

As eman5 pointed out, black colon-hydrotherapy clients still see the use of enemas as a respected healthcare tool.

Some years ago when I worked in the medical field, there was an older black woman who was admitted to our Intensive Care Unit after using Lysol to douche with. The solution literally ate away her vaginal tissues and eventually led to her death from systemic sepsis. No one could believe that a woman would do such a thing. I later discovered that there was a time when Lysol was used as a douche solution. I've even got a photo of one of the ads. This was probably something she learned from her mother and didn't understand that the Lysol sold as a douche solution was a much different concentration than that sold to clean your floor.

The Cave Man

Interesting....

Maybe we should take a poll on member's ethnicity?

I'm a mutt myself: hispanic, white, Indian, and yes, some black heritage in there somewhere.

My ex (sadly) boyfriend is black, hispanic, and jewish.

Both of us got the bag quite a bit as kids.

[quote author=Anne B link=topic=16004.msg166264#msg166264 date=1231261484]

Interesting....

Maybe we should take a poll on member's ethnicity?

I'm a mutt myself: hispanic, white, Indian, and yes, some black heritage in there somewhere.

My ex (sadly) boyfriend is black, hispanic, and jewish.

Both of us got the bag quite a bit as kids.

[/quote]

I tried that several months ago, Anne, and it was shot down as being too divisive.

Anne B: Your not a quadroon, octoroon or an hexadecaroon are you? It is sad and scary to think people felt the need to classify other people like that. (But looking back, people can be and are pretty rotten to other people. It would be nice to think those time have past.)

I also had the idea of a poll but figured there was no way to suggest it without offending somebody. I wonder if conditions for the "enema bag on the back of the bathroom door" that Cave Man talked about were less about race and more about socioeconomic conditions?

I wonder what classification I fit into? --- Fred

P.S. The spell checker need to study racial history. It wants to make the following substitutions: quadroon => squadron, octoroon => octagon, hexadecaroon => huckstering. Please have your spell checker read this Wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadroon

Lol, no fred, I'm not a quadroon. I am a living testiment to the beautiful melting pot of diversity that makes this nation great.

It's interesting that merely asking people's ethnicity is offensive and divisive.

[quote author=Anne B link=topic=16004.msg166596#msg166596 date=1231303106]

It's interesting that merely asking people's ethnicity is offensive and divisive.

[/quote]

I agree, Anne, but I agreed to have the poll taken down. Maybe the poll query should be-"Do you find it offensive and divisive to be asked your ethnicity in the context of finding out what group is more into enemas?"

Since I was the author of the first one, I would rather someone else do the honors, if members think this is a good idea.

I think it is an innocent question-not meaning to be offensive but curious.Some nationalities have certain practices that are more prevalent than others which is normal to ask about.Some practices are quite different and not tolerated by other cultures.Hope this helps Lady Di! 😄

I certainly don't have a problem with asking about folks' ethnicity. It's merely a simple fact. Personally, I'm Irish, English, Scots and Native American.

What really bothers me is the fact that folks get so wound up over it. I work for a state university in Texas and we have a "Center for Diversity Initiaves".

I find that totally counterproductiive, because the more you remind people how different they are the longer it'll take for us to find the innate commonality that we all have.

We need to back off of this 'diversity' stuff, and just let people find out that, regardless of color or whatever, we're all humans and we can get along.

ldb

I get offended by forms asking racial questions. If it were medically related, OK, but it seems to always be politically reminding people to be so, so polarized. I think people happy to practice the enema art, are more grounded in practicality and reasonableness. I have a bad thyroid that was cooked by exposure to a lot of radio wave heat on radio towers. I take 3 pills a day for it. Would it make logical sense to also be doping with purgatives as well? That's crazy! But that is also typical US medicine. Bless the people that have a culture willing to think for themselves, its not easy to do so.

I find it extremely offensive to be asked my ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation etc., on a form.

The offence is engendered solely because the questions are asked for no other purpose than to appear to be 'politically correct'. They have absolutely no relationship to services required or needed by the person filling in the form.

Beside that - when I worked in local government I handled many forms calling for such information to be entered. They were never ever separated off from the form - as they were supposed to be - because there was nowhere to send them to - and no one ever took statistical information from them!

For my part I draw a heavy diagonal line on the page - and write - "who wants to know?"

As a South African, I will never answer questions about ethnicity - we fought apartheid to get rid of that. And even our new, supposedly non-racial government forms do go right on asking. As a marriage officer, I send them back with the boxes blank. I once got them returned with a note requiring me to fill them in. I didn't; and invited the goverment thing-person to go ahead and jail me. I never heard another word from them.

But like others here, I have no problem volunteering ths information. We're all proud of who we are! I'm pretty much north country English, but have to go back to my great great grandparents to give a location, because the rest of us have been here ever since.

Where I live, the majority of folks are amaZulu; and the enema is very much a part of their culture, as it is with the amaXhosa (Nelson Mandela's people). That doesn't mean the equipment is on display in the homes I have visited, though! Uchatho is a traditiional enema funnel (generally a horn - cattle or buck). Ukupotsha is to administer an enema. Strangely, enemas of water blessed by a holy man are much sought after as powerful cures (don't try asking your local Catholic priest, please!). It is something the iNyanga (herbalist) is expected to prescribe. Christian clergy have to be cautious about supplying holy water in quantities larger than an eggcupful, because it's going to end up where the church would NOT be happy to see it go!

But I reckon my black friends probably make more use of enemas than my white or brown ones.

Johnny

What an interesting discourse Eleutheros on a culture most of us will never encounter. Thank you for it - a thumbs up and karma too

This thread may have started out with a curiosity about ethnicity and enemas ... but in reading some of the replies I saw some descriptions of enemas in other countries. Those are interesting.

Are there posts on this site about enema use and customs in other countries or cultures?

Gibby: I recall seeing topics on the use of enemas in Italian, German, eastern European and Slavic families. They seem to be big in the former Soviet block countries, especially the Ukraine.

The civil rights era changed everything. There is not even a racial breakdown on most product's sales data any more.

Just as well.

We are now seeing the same pattern in the gay community that we saw in the black community in the 1960s. The least-free people are the most in-your-face with the freedoms they DO have!!!

Can you blame them??

I have read that it used to be that the black people took more enemas than white people. I was surprised about that, as I thought it was the other way, and it was the white people that took more enemas.

Redrub

Medically there may be an explanation for different frequency of usage of enema across ethnicities.

Just recently a study was published that investigated diverticular disease (a disease in which the colon shows pouches or outpocketings of the mucosa that tend to get infected due to residual feces) in an ethnically diverse patient population http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=abstract&id=716473

In this study black people seem to be more likely to suffer from diverticular disease than whites.

Here is my hypothesis (nothing more): with diverticular disease you are more likely to use enemas because you want to prevent deposits of fecal matter in the divertuculi in the hope to prevent infection and inflammation. Knowing this, possibly black people are more inclined to look after their colonic health than whites and generally use enemas more frequently.

(The cited study, however, was small and probably not much more representative than Caveman's observations...)

Of course, there may be another explanation for your findings, Caveman: some special sort of selection bias. Possibly you just noticed the bags more in black ladies' homes because you find black women particularly attractive :-)

(I hope this is a politically correct post... It can be a sensitive matter.If anybody feels offended, my sincere apologies.)

I would say its more a matter of money than any other factor. Lots of people took the health aspects of enemas to heart. So when money is short to nonexistent the possibility that regular enemas will keep the doc at bay is a very attractive concept. Taken that money has been very tight among black folk for a good long while enemas have kept there place in preventive medical practice well into the modern age.

I'm in agreement with what j[color=#2b63ed]mont24 said about economics and how that would apply to enemas & douching. & I grew up in the city, living in racially mixed neighborhoods. I've heard from folks 1rst hand on the subject. Not that the subject of enemas & douching is a "dinner table" subject. But the subject does arise on occasion. & almost always concerning hygene.[/color]

[color=#2b63ed][/color]

I don't know if blacks use enemas more often than whites, but I do know that black women douche more often and a higher per centage of them douche, than white women.

When I worked for the Massengill Co., we had surveys done on age range, ethnic groups, etc. for douching and every survey showed that black women douched much more than white women. This was important data to know, because we would go into black neighborhoods and try to get the pharmacies to stock more of our powder than other drug stores. We'd always leave more free samples of powder on the cash register counters in these stores and we would place samples of powder inside boxes of syringes. The sales of douche powder to these stores far surpassed that sold in white areas.

Does this mean that because more black homes had douche bags in them, more enemas were also taken? Who can say?

In grade school, I asked kids if they got the bag at home and black kids responses were the same as white kids; this was in the 50's and all of us got hosed out often.

I don't see why anyone would take exception to knowing this information; it's critical in marketing plans. Does anyone get upset by knowing if immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Russia rely on enemas more often?

I came to the conclussion that the earlier person on the list is correct. Enemas become a very attractive practice when money is low and preventive care is at an alltime high. When you weigh the pros and cons of medicines and side affects. The toxins in common food makes people sicker now than ever. A free moving system is becoming more and more important to every one, take a look at advertisings and media to see for youself. As for me and my family regular enemas are going to be mandatory.

As to ethnicity being asked on forms, particularly for employment, consider those places that have to prove just how diverse they are. With less than 20 employees it would be not significant. Here in Oklahoma, it is more important how many American Indians you have in your employment. Just some justification for that question.

R

This thread was started by Caveman over 2 years ago asking about the frequency of enema/douche use in black/white households. His interest was piqued by observations he made while in different houses as part of his being in the remodeling business. Sounds like a perfectly legitimate and interesting subject to me. Why does asking an intelligent question that happens to be about race cause so many people to recoil? Some walk on their tip toes for fear of being misinterpreted as being racist, others are offended by merely raising the question and really need to take a chill pill and lighten up, others get hung up on terminology which seems to change as political correctness gets more heavy handed, first it was Negro, then it was black, now it's African-American or some other form of Hyphenated-American. What's next?

I long ago came to the conclusion that most people don't really care but there is a lot of money to be made and control at stake by keeping racism alive and well, particularly by those in government and community activism. Look around, you know who they are, the ones you don't dare stand in front of when the cameras are rolling. There are many, many mixed communities all over this country where the neighbors all get along fine. People of many races work together every day at their jobs and the ones who it means the least to, children, go to school every day together.

The sooner we all get over it and start ignoring the racial profiteers the better off we will all be. Can you handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson would say?

I'm just guessing the big reason you saw enema bags was probably because the cost of the bag is the only investment needed. You buy or are handed down a bag and after that you only pay for a little water. That's it. As for them being in plain sight if you're raised thinking that its normal then its a non issue.

For me though. I'm a Zook, I eat my bread with the butter side DOWN as its the only way to properly do it and all others should be destroyed.

"first it was Negro, then it was black, now it's African-American or some other form of Hyphenated-American."

Several years ago I was watching a national TV news broadcast reporting about unrest in Soweto, near Johannesburg, and the on-camera lady referred to it as an "African-American area."

One of our company's pilots a couple of years ago was as black, not brown, as a human gets, and he loathed the "African-American" epithet, and used to jokingly call me the "Irish-American" girl. I never did ask him if he got lots of enemas growing up. Darn, I should have!

Flying is a wondrous melting pot in that the airplane doesn't give a hoot about the color of the pilot's skin or the architecture of the pilot's genitals.

Hugs,

Diane