“The empowerment of Black women constitutes the empowerment of our entire community.” — Kimberle Crenshaw
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis
Our Commitment
Racism is one of the most urgent public health crises that we face, and we commit to addressing it through the following actions:
- Review and strengthen organizational policies to ensure they actively advance anti-racism and equity.
- Integrate a diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism lens into all AMWA committees, programs, and initiatives.
- Champion policies and practices that eliminate racism within healthcare systems and promote equitable care for all patients.
- Advocate for comprehensive education in medical schools and residency programs on social determinants of health and the impact of racism on health outcomes.
- Deconstruct the notion of race as a biological determinant in health, science, and medicine
- Promote law enforcement accountability and transparency, including the prohibition of deadly force and other harmful restraint methods.
- Call for accountability at institutional, state, and national levels to address and prevent systemic racism.
- Urge government recognition of racism as a public health crisis and support federal research on the health impacts of racism.
- Provide education and training for physicians and students on racism, bias, and active allyship.
- Develop learning opportunities for physicians and students to engage meaningfully in anti-racism work and advocacy.
Read the full 2020 statement HERE.
AMWA joined professional associations in a Joint Statement: Collective Action Addressing Racism: Acknowledging Betsey, Lucy and Anarcha
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- The Death of George Floyd, in Context May 28, 2020
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- The 1619 Project-New York Times
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- ‘It Is Time for Reparations’ June 30, 2020
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- George Floyd Could Have Been My Brother Rita Omokha for Elle
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- In Order to Understand the Brutality of American Capitalism, You Have to Start on the Plantation New York Times Magazine August 14, 2019
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- “The Case for Reparations,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates for The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6eeOh_3X6gIVaz6tBh2FQAiVEAAYASAAEgINpfD_BwE
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- “How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change,” by Barack Obama in Medium medium.com/@BarackObama/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067
Books
- Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini
- Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel
- Just Medicine by Dana Bowen Matthew
- Seeing Patients by Augustus A. White
- Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts
- Black Man in a White Coat by Damon Tweedy
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
- A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature by Jacqueline Goldsby
- We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
- So You Want to Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo
- The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality by Thomas M. Shapiro
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
- My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
- White Rage by Carol Anderson
- When Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson
- What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- Dying of Whiteness by John Metzl
- Mindful of Race by Ruth King
- Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington
- Medical Bondage by Deirdre Cooper Owens
- Biased by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
- Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children In A Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady
- Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era by Jerry Mitchell
- They Were Her Property by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- The Color of LawT by Richard Rothstein
- The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
- Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
- Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
- Anything by Angie Thomas
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady
- The Colors Of Us by Karen Katz
- Skin Again by bell hooks
- Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Monster by Walter Dean Myers
- This Promise of Change by Jo Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy
- This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa
- 100 Best Books by Black Female Authors, 1850 – Present | ZORA
- Anti-Racism Books for Kids
- Twelve Books to Help Children Understand Race, Anti-Racism and Protest
Position Statements and Academic Articles:
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- Bailey, Z. D., Krieger, N., Agénor, M., Graves, J., Linos, N., & Bassett, M. T. (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1453-1463
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- Bailey, Z. D., Krieger, N., Agénor, M., Graves, J., Linos, N., & Bassett, M. T. (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1453-1463.
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- Nieblas-Bedolla, E., Christophers, B., Nkinsi, N. T., Schumann, P. D., & Stein, E. (2020).Changing How Race Is Portrayed in Medical Education: Recommendations From Medical Students Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Accessed 29 May 2020.
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- Eneanya, N. D., Yang, W., & Reese, P. P. (2019).Reconsidering the consequences of using race to estimate kidney function JAMA, 322(2), 113-114. Accessed 29 May 2020.
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- Hardeman R, Burgess D, Murphy K, Satin DJ, et al. Developing a medical school curriculum on racism: Multidisciplinary, Multiracial conversations informed by Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP).ethndis.org/edonline/index.php/ethndis/article/view/930/1251 2018; Ethnicity & Dis; 28 (Supp 1):271-278
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- Hagopian A, West KM, Ornelas IJ, Hart AN, Hagedorn J, Spigner C. Adopting an Anti-racism public health curriculum competency: The University of Washington Experience. 2018. Public Health Reports; 133(4):507-513.
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- Ford CL & Jeffers Kia Skrine. Ch. 16 – Critical Race Theory’s Anti-racism approaches: Moving from the Ivory Tower to the Front lines of public health. In: Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional. Eds: Chandra L. Ford, Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce, Keon L. Gilbert. 2019. APHA.
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- Fleming, Paul. The Importance of Teaching History of Inequities in Public Health Programs. 2020; Pedagogy in Health Promotion. Online first. doi.org/10.1177/2373379920915228
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- DallaPiazza M, PadillaRegister M, Dwarakanath M, Obamedo E, Hill J, Soto-Greene ML. Exploring racism and health: an intensive interactive session for medical students. MedEdPORTAL. 2018;14:10783.
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- Cogburn C. Culture, Race, and Health: Implications for Racial Inequities and Population Health. The Milbank Quarterly [0887-378X], 2019 vol:97 iss:3 pg:736 -761
Articles in the Media
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- The Death of George Floyd, in Context May 28, 2020
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- The 1619 Project-New York Times
-
- ‘It Is Time for Reparations’ June 30, 2020
-
- George Floyd Could Have Been My Brother Rita Omokha for Elle
-
- In Order to Understand the Brutality of American Capitalism, You Have to Start on the Plantation New York Times Magazine August 14, 2019
-
- “The Case for Reparations,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates for The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6eeOh_3X6gIVaz6tBh2FQAiVEAAYASAAEgINpfD_BwE
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- “How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change,” by Barack Obama in Medium medium.com/@BarackObama/how-to-make-this-moment-the-turning-point-for-real-change-9fa209806067
- The Hate U Give, a film based on the YA novel offering an intimate portrait of race in America
- Just Mercy, a film based on civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s work on death row in Alabama
- How W. Kamau Bell tackles white supremacy in CNN’s “United Shades” New season begins July 19, 2020 discussing white supremacy
- Watch America Inside Out with Katie Couric Season 1 Episode 1 Re-Righting History Online
- Let It Fall, a Netflix documentary looking at racial tensions in Los Angeles and the 1992 riots over LAPD officers’ brutal assault on Rodney King
- When They See Us, a Netflix documentary series from Ava DuVernay about the Central Park Five
- 13th, a Netflix documentary exposing racial inequality within the criminal justice system
- Selma, a film that chronicles the marches of the Civil Rights Movement
- Whose Streets? | Magnolia Pictures, a documentary about the uprising in Ferguson
- Dear White People, a Netflix series about being black at a predominantly white college
- The Kalief Browder Story, a Netflix documentary series
- Do The Right Thing, a film by Spike Lee
- The Uncomfortable Truth, a documentary film by Loki Mulholland, Amazon Prime
- The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, a documentary film by Keith Beauchamp, Amazon Prime
- Becoming, a Netflix documentary following Michelle Obama on her book tour
- Hidden Figures, a film about the brilliant African American women of NASA
- Remember the Titans, a film telling the story of a newly-integrated football team
- A Class Divided
- How can we win?
- Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology, by Deirdre Cooper
- 26 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students
- UNNATURAL CAUSES | CALIFORNIA NEWSREEL
- Dorothy Roberts: The problem with race-based medicine | TED Talk
- Dr. Camara Jones’ TEDX: Allegories on Race and Racism (external URL)
- I Am Not Your Negro, a film envisioning James Baldwin’s unfinished book, by Director Raoul Peck available on Amazon
- Mobile in Black and White Race in the 21st Century, a documentary from mobileinblackandwhite.org on Amazon
- How Doctors’ Racial Biases Can Harm Black Patients (VIDEO)
- Medical Apartheid Part 1
- Medical Apartheid Part 2
- Medical Apartheid Part 3
- Race/Racism in Medicine–curated podcast episodes
- Code Switch Code Switch NPR
- UNNATURAL CAUSES | Explore Health Equity | CALIFORNIA NEWSREEL
- Dear White Women: The Podcast
- White Lies
- ‘1619,’ a Podcast From The New York Times
- Silence is Not an Option – Podcast on CNN Audio
- Yo, Is This Racist?
- Pod Save the People on Apple Podcasts
- Seeing White
- MIXED COMPANY’s stream on SoundCloud – Hear the world’s sounds
- Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay on Apple Podcasts
- A Race Forward Podcast | EP8 Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
- United States of Anxiety
- The Nod on Apple Podcasts
- Still Processing
- Come Through with Rebecca Carroll
- The Stoop
- The Curbsiders episode #222 Addressing Anti-Black Racism in Medicine Utibe Essien MD, MPH
- The OSA Insider episode 61: Race and Medicine-An Introduction
The group meets regularly throughout the year and has hosted this series of events:
- Discussing Ijeoma Oluo’s Book So You Want To Talk About Race?: June 25, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Discussing Racial Bias & Disparities in Pain Management: July 16, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Discussing Racial Disparities in Maternal & Infant Health: August 29, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Discussing Harriet A. Washington’s Book Medical Apartheid- Part 1: September 19, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Discussing Harriet A. Washington’s Book Medical Apartheid- Part 2: October 24, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Discussing Harriet A. Washington’s Book Medical Apartheid- Part 3: December 12, 2020 5:30 PM EST
- Racism in Medicine Panel Discussion: January 23, 2023 5:30 PM EST