What can we learn by examining racism as a public health crisis? [richlandsource.com]

Racism is an adverse childhood experience (ACE). So is poverty. So is bullying. So is witnessing violence in the community. So is inequity. So are a kajillion other daily experiences, "micro" aggressions endured by millions of Americans. Billions of people worldwide.

All of these ACEs are an inherent part of being a Black or Brown American, for most Black and Brown Americans.

I am not Black or Brown.

But I know the stress of this pandemic: the fear, uncertainty, isolation, sense of loss, grief of losing people, terror of having friends who are ill with the virus, inability to see loved ones as the direct result of the virus, fears about my healthcare benefits (and I have them!), fears about job security (and I have a job I love and am gainfully employed), fears for my children and other loved ones, fears that this will not end. Fears that the people in charge don't give a damn about our well being.  ("It is what it is.")

Recently dear friends, among them four people of color, and I had a conversation about racism and inequity and it hit me:

The fear and stress I am feeling as a result of the pandemic may be something akin to the grating, health-destroying, confidence-draining, spirit-crushing, immune-system busting, overwhelming sense of "why bother" and despair that some of my friends have felt ALL. THEIR. LIVES. BECAUSE. OF. THE. COLOR. OF. THEIR. SKIN.

I cannot know how they feel anymore than they can know the White Privilege I experience as I walk into a bank, a store, a meeting; or as I drive not needing to worry about being pulled over for Driving While Black or Brown.

AND I know racism is a public health CRISIS. It is killing people. And has killed millions of people. In hospitals, in police custody, on backroads, in fields and battlefields, in childbirth, in medical tests, in policies and practices that are baked into our capitalist economic system, which protects the rich and mighty at the expense of the working poor and middle class.

Racism has relegated people to substandard healthcare, education, housing, employment, economic and other opportunities for centuries. AND I know that the conditions in which people of color live and work made and make them more susceptible to this virus, therefore making us ALL more susceptible to the virus. And so I am reminded of the beautiful quote I share often:

"Each of us must come to care about everyone else's children. We must recognize that the wellbeing of our own children is intimately linked to the wellbeing of all other people's children. After all, when one of our children needs life-saving surgery, someone else's child will perform it. When one of our children is harmed by violence, someone else's child will have committed it. The good life for our children can be secured only if it is also secured for all other people's children. But to work for the well-being of all children is not just a practical matter -- it is also a right." Lilian Katz