Thread by @innodim

Super excited to witness the celebration of @drtlaleng’s report on Racism @UN special rapporteur on the Right to Health, to United States General Assembly & the @TheLancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health, along with the co-leadership of @udnore✊🏾

https://twitter.com/rsdghcommission/status/1583125896894062592

Watch:
“I think of my 8 yr old self living in Apartheid South Africa… none of this is normal, yet a so much of it is normalized.”
“I bring a true anti racist, anti-colonial, intersectional lens to my analysis.”
“Racism is a key determinant of health.”

“We want 2 use targeted research & collaboration to foster cross-sectoral policy conversations…we need 2 address the power shifts that need to happen.”
“I’m intentionally not using the term “decolonization” becos true decolonization requires a humility that is not yet present.”

“We want to inspire new questions & new solutions about racism in health that is currently not being brought up.”

“It is critical for us to identify where power shifts need to happen within the global health infrastructure.”

Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng is crushing right & left!!!

Her special report:
#DIGNITY

ohchr.org/en/documents/t…

@D_R_Williams1 Why we need to act NOW:
1️⃣This is a global issue that requires a global solution
2️⃣What we say we’re doing isn’t working - people talk about progress but there’s been little change over time
3️⃣Racism is SPUNSIVE💰. We lose 200 Black folks daily to Racial inequity

@globalgamechngr breaking down that we can’t keep dancing around the role of racism in producing health inequities & emphasizing the government policy standpoint.

I love how the Black women in this space are intentional about stating their positionality & intersectioanlity💕💕

@rasanathan now lifting up how critical it is to ✅adopt a structural lens & transcend the interpersonal & unpack how structural discrimination (aka violence) underpins larger issues of economics & government beyond institutional & organizational levels

✅examine structural discrimination (violence) within global health itself
✅embody bold and unflinching solutions to the problem

@richardhorton1 @lancet editor now speaking about the erasure of history in the United Kingdom (& world) & how critical the transatlantic slave trade was to the development of UK (& the world) & the complicity & participation of many Institutions in the legacy of the …

…transAtlantic slave trade. He also lifts up the heavy need to reconcile to true history & for ✨reparations✨ to be paid.

Chyyyyyle, he went to the there.

Now begins the panel, moderated by
@DrDMGriffith co-founder of Racial Justice Institute & center of Men’s Health Equity

rji.georgetown.edu/about/founding… @Georgetown

Watch here:

“It is a matter of dignity. And is the people most affected by structural oppression that get to define what that means for them. Dignity & self-determination.”

“Rights require resources & resources require rights”

“Why have you not adopted a human rights approach to your fiscal mechanisms?”

“Re entering & decentering power structures.”

“Intersectional feminist decolonial human rights advocacy indigenous perceptives are needed to be centered in commission.”

I love the historian’s perspective baby!
She brings up the role of Anglo-Saxon religious theology in convincing people of the dignity of struggle & that destiny is related to the individual choices & divine judgment with reward designated for the after life.

She says:
✅Be impatient. “Patients” are not gonna be patient any longer. *Look up the history of the word “patient”*

✅accept the difficulty of people to accept the multilayered complicated roots of their lived realities

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient

✅seek examples & models of communities who have succeeded in addressing their own challenges without requiring “power sharing”

This Part.
This is where I live.

Becos without divesting from whiteness & white supremacism, power will never be shared by those racialized as white

We have to interrogate the systems we inherited.

PeriodT. @drtlaleng

Medical training curriculum needs 2 radically change. We’re still producing Doctors & Nurses who r unable to improve our healthcare landscape becos they r unable 2 interrogate the practice they were taught.

@drtlaleng reminding us that civil society is POWERFUL and can demand for the agenda they want from all actors & stakeholders including the philanthropic sector.

“We need to understand that those in dominant categories are not as powerful as they think they are.”

But WE are✊🏾

“What do we need to unlearn?”

Global philanthropic Funders are still holding on to outdated philosophies and ideologies that make their mechanisms unsustainable & incompatible with communities’ priorities.

Hello!

The closing speaker is now reminding us about the difference between being a “non-racist” & “anti-racist” based on his personal journey on traveling that continuum.

✅the starting point for this commission is that “It’s bad. It hasn’t gotten better but worse.”

✅these systems are intentional & by design. & it’s gonna take a. Lot.
✅it’s all connected
✅the current response is inadequate esp with the lack of introspection
✅Global health manifests the impact of racism & structural discrimination as the bellwether & platform of power

He calls the Commission to hold the global health community accountable, propose bold solutions, & issue specific calls to action 2 specific actors.

We’re talking - WHO, USAID, UN, Bill & Melinda and dem.

GREAT JOB @udnore @drtlaleng & team!!! Outstanding event. I’m honored, excited, & grateful 2 be a commissioner on this initiative led by 2 phenomenal African women.

Let’s GEAUX!!!!

~End~