(In)Equity in Healthcare
Part 2 of this series will examine how racism has contributed to widespread social inequities that, in turn, have produced disparities in health and health outcomes among people of color. These inequities have led to higher rates of chronic disease and premature death.
“Equity is the absence of unfair, avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically or by other dimensions of inequality (e.g. sex, gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation). Health is a fundamental human right. Health equity is achieved when everyone can attain their full potential for health and well-being.”[1]
“In the wake of the police killings of Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks, the heart-wrenching public murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, and the premature and disproportionate deaths of tens of thousands of African Americans from COVID-19, our national racism bleeds anew, into the open, exposing the intersecting forms of violence that continue to threaten Black lives.
In short, racism kills. Whether through force, deprivation, or discrimination, it is a fundamental cause of disease and the strange but familiar root of racial health inequities.”[2]
