Racial Justice Resources
The theme of the MLK Jr. annual Breakfast event for 2023 is Healthcare Perspectives on the Lower Cape and Outer Cape and will address racial disparities in health care with a focus on action steps and solutions. If you are interested in additional reading on this topic, we would like to suggest the following books and articles:
General Medical Health
Books: Highly Recommended
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, by Linda Villarosa
Articles:
https://www.mass.gov/orgs/office-of-health-equity
“How racism skewed estimates of heart disease in women”
https://www.science.org/content/article/how-racism-skewed-estimates-heart-disease-women?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=233676332&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8n4zFE3QXlvDVfghhjtWAcMXeKa686MUJnxl9rwp1CbQiESnECw1zqz4qVXuPbfGv_DGfV_0u-tW7hq7kHhn5rv-q4mw&utm_content=233676332&utm_source=hs_email
“Towards the Abolition of Biological Race in Medicine: Transforming Clinical Education, Research and Practice”, online, May 2020
“Miles to Go Before We Sleep”, by David Williams
“Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care” National Academy of Science, 2002
Organizations:
Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice (CBMHRJ), Tufts University
Founder/Director, Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, offers trainings, Undoing Racism to Health Agencies
White Coats for Black Lives, ( https://whitecoats4blacklives.org )
The Institute for Healing and Justice (https://www.instituteforhealingandjustice.org )
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (https://www.nimhd.nih.gov )
Mental Health
Books:
Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting, by Terrie Williams, 2008
Articles:
“Depression and the Superwoman” by Terrie Williams, Essence Magazine, 2005
“Support organizations preventing Black youth suicide” by Syndey Cobb (she/her). From Anti Racism Daily 11/11/22
“Mental health care is increasingly necessary in the current social and political atmosphere, especially for children and teens. With age, their sources of stress continue to expand while social and structural obstacles bar them from adequately managing them. Lack of support amidst broader and individual struggles can cause a mental and emotional toll with devastating effects. This is becoming more evident with the rise of suicide rates among Black adolescents. While suicide rates have declined for most racial groups, they have increased among Black youths (CDC). A 2021 study found that “from 2013 to 2019 the suicide rate of Black boys and men 15 to 24 years old rose by 47 percent, and by 59 percent for Black girls and women of the same age” (New York Times).
Young Black people’s formative years are often shaped by discrimination, stereotypes, and individual and collective traumas. And historically, access to mental health treatment for Black people has been jeopardized by undertreatment, misdiagnoses, and overall neglect by the healthcare industry. …
Today, African Americans are three to five times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia (National Library of Medicine). Additionally, Black teenagers’ mood disorders are frequently misdiagnosed as behavioral or psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. While a white child may be diagnosed as depressed for not participating or being engaged in class discussions, a Black child may be labeled defiant (Child Mind Institute)”.
Organizations:
The Loveland Foundations (https://thelovelandfoundation.org )
National Alliance on Mental Health (https://www.nami.org )
Intersection of Environment & BIPOC Health:
Fumes Across the Fence Line: The Health Impacts of Pollution From Oil and Gas Facilities on African American Communities”, NAACP and Clean Air Task Force, 2017 (www.naacp.org )
Misc. Related Reading:
Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey
Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality, by Robert Bullard