1. In a departure from takes that decry the lack of leadership in the current administration, we call attention to the dangers of white supremacy, authoritarianism, and nationalism-lethal threats to our democracy, our lives and the viability of the planet. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
2. We focus on the adverse impact this administration has had on our nation’s health and well-being - an impact illustrated by, and extending far beyond, the deadly toll of the current pandemic.
3. In fact, to capture the broad extent of this administration’s adverse impact on health, particularly the health of folks of color, we created a panel. This panel is just a brief selection of what voters cannot forget. (We cut it down multiple times just to fit it on the page.)
4. While the article does not center solely on the pandemic, we clarify that “Ultimately, unfettered racism, truncated rights, anaemic protections, and the resource inequities these exposures create shorten lives. Anyone who doubts this needs to only consider the past 9 months.”
5. We highlight the current economic immiseration in the US and its causes - “racial capitalism, the profitability of inequality, and the deadly [depravity] of the current administration.”
6. This is perhaps the most important (and my favorite) lines in the piece where we clearly outline the dangerous diversions this administration has concocted to obscure their failures and abuses. “These types of diversions are how Indigenous dispossession becomes ‘Columbus Day’”
7. We highlight the inequality upon which our nation’s “founding fathers” built their attempt at democracy.
8. We end by acknowledging that another world is possible. But to move towards it, we must affirm the self-evident truth:
9/end. Drs. Nancy Krieger and @CamaraJones are true GOATs. They are giants whose scholarship and work has shaped the way I see and experience the world. It was one of the honors of my life to think and write alongside these brilliant, sharp, steady, and truth-telling women. 💛
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Did everyone see this paper by @ProfDesmondAng called The Effects of Police Violence on Inner-City Students??
It documents how living in proximity to policing killings increases student absenteeism, decreases their GPA and their likelihood to graduate! Thread (with pdf link)
I want to list some of the findings because they are significant and alarming.
The study looks at 700,000 high school students in Los Angeles from 2002-2016 and their proximity to a local police killing (based on their home address).
It finds that in the days following a police killing absenteeism spikes among nearby students (defined as those who live within a 0.5mi radius of the killing).
Nearby students also experience a decrease in their GPA (up to 0.08 standard deviations) for at least FOUR semesters.
Public schools are a critical terrain of struggle for equality in the US. They are spaces where kids AND communities access the resources vital to health, mobility, and longer life spans.
The US is a deeply unequal country. That inequality is growing and it impacts everyone, including kids. In the face of chasms between the richest and the poorest, schools have served as both a remedy to and a reflection of unchecked inequality.
2. Schools have become depots for basic needs like food, healthcare, and internet because we lack the political will to invest in the safeguards that insulate families and communities from impoverishment and its related poor health effects.
Schools are critical sites for children's learning, development, social and emotional well-being.
@AmerAcadPeds wants to ensure our kids have access to the vital resources schools provide.
This administration does not.
As a pediatrician, I want to talk about schools opening.
Decades of work has placed critical supports inside of schools.
Let's review some examples.
1. Food - Schools feed 35 million kids a day. These meals make up more than 2/3rds of their nutritional needs. School closures threaten that vital food source. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
2. Special Education - Schools are mandated to meet the educational needs of all learners and must evaluate and provide (for free!) any therapy or accommodations learners need to thrive. www2.ed.gov/parents/needs/…
We open this paper with Strange Fruit, a poem by Abel Meeropol, popularized by Billie Holiday, one of our greatest voices.
We do so because "racism remains a bloodying force, structuring every facet of [American] life."
To examine racial health inequities, we must begin here.
We cite recent articles that made troubling errors in analyzing racial health inequities.
The point is to confront the racist analytical frames that pass right under our noses. That readers see but don't catch. Or catch, but don't challenge.
White Fragility caters to readers who want controlled self-flagellation for their complicity and participation in systems that deeply harm folks of color and Black folks in particular.
Overall, the poorer census tract, the higher the rate of police killing.
This is true for every racial group studied but especially profound for Black folks.
If you look close, every Black census tract, regardless of income, had the highest rates of police violence.
This chart is so telling!
Of the Black folks studied, the largest proportion lived in the poorest census tract. Latinx populations followed a similar pattern, though not as extreme.
BUT the opposite was true for white folks, who predominantly lived in the richest census tracts.