From the Director…
Monday, October 10, 2022 marks the five-year anniversary of the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health (Center), which was launched on the inaugural Indigenous People’s Day in Los Angeles, October 9, 2017. I am deeply grateful for the warriors for health justice who have been leading our antiracism work through rigorous research, innovative teaching, community engagement, outreach and education as well as generous levels of service at UCLA, in the field of public health, in our local communities and beyond.
The founding core staff on graduation day, year 1. From left: Rebekah Israel Cross, Natalie J. Bradford, Chandra L. Ford, Porchia Toussaint
The level of impact on the field has exceeded my expectations. It was a privilege to publish Racism, Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional, and for it to be named a 2020 academic title by the American Library Association. I am particularly proud of the first large cohort of core doctoral students—Rebekah Israel Cross, Natalie J. Bradford, Anna Hing, Anna-Michelle McSorley, Millicent Robinson and Adrian Bacong—to graduate with their doctorates in June of this year. Each is conducting groundbreaking work rooted in very extensive work in racism, anti-racism, Public Health Critical Race Praxis, Critical Race Theory, anticolonialism, and health equity. They are already beginning to shape the national landscape of antiracism research, teaching and service in public health.
Book signing for Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional. American Public Health Association (APHA) Press Booth, APHA annual meeting 2019. From left to right: Derek Griffith, Keon Gilbert, Georges Benjamin (APHA Executive Director), Chandra Ford, Natalie Bradford, Marino Bruce.
One should not conflate having a center and with the effort entailed in building a center. For more than five years, we have been building a center. We have been fostering an institutional home for an expanding movement toward health justice. Many people have contributed to this work. I extend my deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed in any way to its growth. THANK YOU. Your bold and innovative contributions as well as your practical ones have been helping to institutionalize anti-racism in the field of public health even before the field or the nation fully recognized the need for this work.
Graduation 2022 newly conferred PhDs: Rebekah Israel Cross, Adrian Bacong, Anna-Michelle McSorley, Anna Hing, Millicent Robinson. Not shown: Natalie J. Bradford
To agitate for justice within one’s own institution, profession or community can be isolating. To speak truth to power requires courage. So, I am particularly indebted to the core team of mostly BIPOC people with whom I have worked most closely over the last five years to forge an institutional home rooted in Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP). The particularly significant efforts of Rebekah Israel Cross, Natalie Bradford, Bita Amani, E. Minelle David, Ale Cabral, Consuela Abotsi-Kowu, Mienah Z. Sharif, James T. Huỳnh, Ezinne Nwankwo, Taylor Rogers, Kia Skrine Jeffers and Porchia Toussaint are immeasurable. I am extremely blessed to be able to draw on the wisdom of the Center’s Executive Board: Collins Airhihenbuwa, Keith Norris, Margaret Prescod, Barbara Krimgold, Camara Phyllis Jones, Gilbert Gee and Robin DG Kelley, Thank you for the opportunities and wisdom you have been sharing with me since before the Center was established. Finally, in addition to an extremely close relationship with the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, we are fortunate to have extraordinary community-based organizations with whom to partner. They include (but are not limited to) the Association of Black Women Physicians, Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and Healthy African American Families. If you like the work of the Center, please support the work of our partners.
The Center is located in beautiful southern California on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles. The United States secured California as its 30th state in 1850, two years after the Mexican American war ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; however, the original inhabitants and caretakers of this land were the Gabrieliño Tongva peoples. Though recognized as a nation more recently, the expansion of Los Angeles displaced this nation and helped facilitate the establishment of UCLA. However justice-oriented our work may be, the Center inherently benefits from the spoils of settler colonialism. We at the Center remain humbled and motivated by this knowledge. I am grateful to Rey Soto for steadfastly reminding us and our invited guests to remain attentive to this truth.
Equity has been defined in a variety of ways. Former president of the American Public Health Association, Camara Phyllis Jones, defines it as “assurance of the conditions for optimal health for all people.”1 She further explains that health equity can only be achieved if we
value all individuals and populations equally,
recognize and rectifying historical injustices, and
provide resources according to need.
This definition underscores that equity can only be achieved through the decolonization of public health. We will mark the 2022 Indigenous People’s Day in support of the UCLA Department of American Indian Studies and the American Indian Studies Center. We encourage everyone form learning circles to study your own indigenous communities.
This is a critical moment in the history of our nation, our communities and our world. And, there is much to do. I invite you to join us in whatever ways you can as we continue the struggle toward our dreams of a more just world in which there is optimal health for all. We are eager to lean into the next phase of our movement building work as we continue to:
lead the nation in conducting, rigorous community-engaged research to identify, investigate and explain how racism and other social inequalities influence the health of diverse local, national and global populations.
I extend my deepest gratitude to Center friends. Thank you. The past five years have been both rewarding and challenging.
Today we celebrate all that we have been able to achieve. Tomorrow, we return to the struggle.
For more information or to get involved, click here.
In struggle and with deepest gratitude,
Chandra
The Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health at UCLA acknowledges the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and are grateful to have the opportunity to work for the taraaxatom (indigenous peoples) in this place. As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors), 'Ahiihirom (Elders), and 'eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
References
Jones CP. Systems of Power, Axes of Inequity: Parallels, intersections, braiding the strands. Med Care. 2014;52:S71-S75.
Tuck E, Yang KW. Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. 2012;1(1):1-40.
