Racism / Health Crisis Declaration

Project caption here

Initiative Info

No one is born racist; it is modeled, learned, and passed along through generations where it poisons and paralyzes its victims and corrupts its perpetrators. If we are to eradicate this persistent evil we must see to its structural and institutional roots. And with swift and collective action hold those that govern and that are governed accountable for its elimination.” – Dr. Joy DeGruy

As of October 2020, a total of 1,270 individuals and 172 organizations have signed the declaration.

    • We agree that Racism is a Public Health Crisis and commit to taking urgent action because: 
    •  Race is a social construct with no biological basis. 
    •  Racism is a system that creates structures of opportunity and assigns value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, while unfairly providing advantages to other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources. 
    • Racism causes persistent racial discrimination in housing, education, health care, employment, criminal justice, business, and economic mobility. There is an emerging body of research that demonstrates racism as a social determinant of health. 
    •