Thread by @wheezylikesund1

So we had a hospital grand round @AlderHey today :

“I’M NOT RACIST BUT...”:
THE OVERT AND COVERT EFFECTS OF #RACISM ON CHILDREN

And here’s the highlights 1/7

Overt and dramatic acts of racism lead to outrage - and also lead to meaningless celebrity and corporate platitudes ... in answer to your question @MarcusRashford , this is what virtue signalling is. Black Lives Matter(ed) for about three weeks 2/7

When it’s about microaggressions, people tend to stay quiet. I was always told, well-meaningly, “ you are one of the good ones”

These happen more commonly, and often reflect hidden biases or in sensitivities that we may have.

I am probably a big culprit here. 3/7

Children spot differences between people even before infancy! The problem is we don’t actively teach kids that these differences are good - we just don’t talk about it. Many young kids exhibit that they’ve learned differences are bad : eg ‘black vs white’. 4/7

There are inequalities in child health and educational outcomes linked to race and ethnicity - asthma, infant mortality, obesity, in-hospital adverse events... and these inequalities start before birth, in the womb. They aren’t explained by socioeconomic differences @CDCgov 5/7

Racism towards children can have a huge lifelong impact on self esteem. It really affects mental health. We want kids to live their best life - being told that they are second best holds them back. In some cases it even leads to suicide.
6/7

@AlderHey we have written a strategy tackling racism against kids - in summary:

It’s not enough for children’s hospitals to “not be racist”... we must be anti-racist

We must look at what we do and then do it better. That’s what world leading hospitals do 7/7

Thanks!