Q&A: Activists, artists, and academics collaborate to tackle racism's toll on heath
A new group called Race and Health is launching today with a mission to bring together people across the world from multiple fields — from medicine to art to architecture — toward dismantling systematic racism and discrimination in health. The group was already coming together as the Covid-19 pandemic hit and had a devastating impact on marginalized communities, and today it will host a webinar on the impacts of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination on health beyond the pandemic. I spoke with Sujitha Selvarajah, an OB-GYN and a core organizer of Race and Health, to learn more.
What is Race and Health?
[We're] a collective of a wide range of people ... from public health academics to activists, artists, grassroots organizations, all the way down to individuals who have an interest in what we do and share our vision. Our main aim is to address, tackle, and minimize the effects of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination on health. Looking at those three things and how they affect health in particular we feel sometimes gets missed in public discourse. And we look at discrimination that’s based on race, skin color, caste, religion, migratory status, and how that discrimination can adversely affect health all across the world.
Why is this topic important beyond Covid-19?
[T]he pandemic is only making social vulnerabilities worse. It’s very important that we look at what we can do long term. So even if you even look at health, the structures within health are part of structural racism and perpetuate inequalities. It’s issues beyond just the pandemic: Black and brown people are dealing with problems with employment, problems with education, structural racism at work. It’s short-sighted — and misses the point — to only focus on the pandemic.
Read the rest of our conversation here.
[We're] a collective of a wide range of people ... from public health academics to activists, artists, grassroots organizations, all the way down to individuals who have an interest in what we do and share our vision. Our main aim is to address, tackle, and minimize the effects of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination on health. Looking at those three things and how they affect health in particular we feel sometimes gets missed in public discourse. And we look at discrimination that’s based on race, skin color, caste, religion, migratory status, and how that discrimination can adversely affect health all across the world.
Why is this topic important beyond Covid-19?
[T]he pandemic is only making social vulnerabilities worse. It’s very important that we look at what we can do long term. So even if you even look at health, the structures within health are part of structural racism and perpetuate inequalities. It’s issues beyond just the pandemic: Black and brown people are dealing with problems with employment, problems with education, structural racism at work. It’s short-sighted — and misses the point — to only focus on the pandemic.
Read the rest of our conversation here.
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