Antiracism
Racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now.
Together, we can work to eliminate racial inequities and other systems that drive health disparities through programs and practices that strive to interrupt inequities, and by continuing to learn and unlearn together.
The following are some of the resources we have found most helpful in understanding racism as a public health crisis and building skills to dismantle it. We invite you to explore them with us.
Resources & Links
This is an extraordinary podcast series from the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, North Carolina. It takes the listener on a journey from the 1500s through to the modern day. This is one of the most helpful resources we used in building our critical analysis of race and racism in America.
The entire 1619 Project is essential reading to deepen our understanding of racism. This episode from The 1619 Project unpacks the racist origins of both our public health and health care systems.
An amazing series of short video conversations on race and identity from people with vastly different lived experiences from across America.
The first mainstream film to unpack race as a social construct with no basis in biology, while also demonstrating that our invention of race continues to have devastating consequences on people’s bodies.
The Groundwater Approach is a powerful framework designed to build a practical understanding of structural racism.
As we work to address the public health crisis of racism, understanding what white supremacy culture is and what some antidotes to it are is an important part of our work together. Tema Okun recently created this extraordinary website to help us learn together and avoid getting stuck in fear around these difficult and uncomfortable conversations. Find a section you'd like to gather community members around for a conversation? Let us know how we can help.
What this looks like in the Silver Thread Public Health District
Silver Thread Public Health District recognizes that racism is a public health crisis, in alignment with the APHA & CDPHE's formal declaration. Black and Brown lives matter. Achieving our public health vision of a community culture rooted in belonging for everyone is not possible without abolishing systemic racism and white supremacy.
We are committed to addressing injustice in our communities, because inequity is a threat to public health & everyone's wellbeing. Our work will continue until all residents and visitors in our communities have the opportunity to thrive in a way that celebrates their intersectional identities.
We would like to express our enormous gratitude to the Violence and Injury Prevention – Mental Health Promotion team at CDPHE (who funds our prevention coalition work) for their leadership and language on moving towards action on dismantling racism. You can view their antiracism statement and action plan here.
Our Health Equity Learning Pages are one example of our work to learn about how racism operates and how we can address it through a public health lens. Integrating an antiracist approach throughout our prevention and other public health services is critical to addressing racism as a public health crisis in our communities.
If your business or organization is actively working on antiracism and wants to partner with public health please contact us here.