Unwinding of Past Harm + Investment in Systems of Equity = Modern Vectors of Economic Liberation
"When communities come together to collectively own and manage assets, they can leverage their joint economic power to collectively assert their rights and exercise cultural and political power in a more impactful way than they would on their own. And, when neighbors build community wealth together they create safe and sovereign spaces that foster self-determination and build shared prosperity."
Nwamaka Agbo
Learn about each modern vector of economic liberation below
Envisioning an Equitable Future: a Spoken Word Series by K. Melchor Q. Hall
Summary of Efforts Toward Equity:
A program of reparations could end health disparities in the Black community. Meanwhile, movements like White Coats for Black Lives and #shutdownSTEM have promoted creative ideas like colorblind lotteries to address racial disparities in biomedical research funding. Researcher Alondra Nelson even advocates for the use of genetic technology to increase research in health concerns specific to Black people and push for reparations. Innovative Black entrepreneurs like Kimberly Wilson, creators of the platform Hued and Unity Stoakes, president and co-founder of StartUp Health are also turning to technology to decrease racial disparities in healthcare. Health Equity activists like BLKHLTH are combating implicit bias in healthcare settings with trainings. The Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center is the last of the Blacks Panther Parties Peoples’ Free Medical Clinics and a model of Black centered healthcare. Healing Justice Activists like Cara Page and Tamika Middleton at the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective are working to address widespread generational trauma from systemic violence and oppression by reviving ancestral healing practices outside of mainstream healthcare. Black Herbalists like Karen Rose are at the forefront of connecting Black folks to traditional Black medicine ways. Black women and birth workers have a long history of tending to each other outside of formal institutions like hospitals which pose numerous threats to the wellbeing of Black birthers and babies. The movement for Black doulas and midwives like those supported at the Sacred Seeds Black Doula Collective are putting Black parents and Black babies front and center. Organizations like the Satya Yoga Cooperative, the first BIPOC owned and operated yoga cooperative in the US is training a new crop of Black health workers to use movement to improve the wellbeing of BIPOC bodies. Mental Healthcare professionals like Dr. Gail Parker are lifting up yoga as a method for addressing the impact of race-based trauma.
Quotes
"Cash restitution would save lives," said Harvard University FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary Bassett, who recently argued for reparations as a strategy to decrease health disparities in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"There is a strong positive correlation between socioeconomic status or income and health outcomes, including mortality," Bassett said.
"We already know that if you feel secure, you're more likely to exercise more, to have less stress, to gain less weight, not develop sleep apnea -- you name it," said Dr. Chyke A. Doubeni, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Equity and Community Engagement Research. Some experts propose reparations as solution for decades of racial health inequities - ABC News (go.com)
“This is a moment where genetic technology is being used for an endeavor that many African-Americans had tried to accomplish for decades and generations: reparations. And they’re using genetic technology which has not always historically been a friend to Black communities if we think about the legacy of eugenics for example. And they’re using this to try to get freedom and restitution for Black people.” -Alondra Nelson More African Americans Are Learning Their Roots With Genetic Testing : NPR
Metrics
“Nearly a third of women who gave birth in hospitals said they were mistreated, compared with just one in 20 who gave birth at home. - The Giving Voice to Mothers study: inequity and mistreatment during pregnancy and childbirth in the United States | Reproductive Health | Full Text
“Women who had doulas had significantly less epidural use (54.4% versus 66.1%, P < .05) than women in the usual-care group. They also were significantly (P < .05) more likely to rate the birth experience as good (82.5% versus 67.4%), to feel they coped very well with labor (46.8% versus 28.3%), and to feel labor had a very positive effect on their feelings as women (58.0% versus 43.7%) and perception of their bodies’ strength and performance (58.0% versus 41.0%).”- Effects of providing hospital-based doulas in health maintenance organization hospitals - ScienceDirect
Methods of Liberation
Heath and Medicine Reparations
Frontiers | The Case for Health Reparations | Public Health (frontiersin.org)
Healthcare Needs to Make Reparations to People of Color | HealthCity (bmc.org)
An Antiracist Agenda for Medicine - Boston Review
The Case for Health Reparations - PMC (nih.gov)
Healthcare for All
Public Options Will Improve Health Equity Across the Country - Center for American Progress
Funding for Research and Development of Treatment Modalities for African Americans
Fixing Medical Devices That Are Biased against Race or Gender - Scientific American
Development for African American Mental Health Protocols and Treatment
How to Heal Black Generational Trauma, According to Experts - Word In Black
Home Birth, Midwives and Doula Assisted Birth at Home and Inside Hospitals
Midwifery and Antenatal Care for Black Women: A Narrative Review
Increased Training Recruitment and Retention of Black Doctors
Patient Experience Better When Patients Visit Docs of Same Race
Example: Swedish, Meharry Medical College team up to diversify health care in Puget Sound region
Implicit (and explicit) Bias trainings, tools and reforms in hospital settings
Implicit Bias Training in Healthcare Eliminates Disparities
Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Project - SB464 Resources (diversityscience.org)
You searched for blood bank - Lown Institute
Community Based Integrated Healthcare Centers
PATHWAYS TO INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE- STRATEGIES for AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES and ORGANIZATIONS
Community-Based Models to Improve Maternal Health Outcomes and Promote Health Equity
Traditional Medicine Training & Apprenticeships for Preventative Self & Community Care
People’s Medicine School — Rootwork Herbals
Celebration of African American Medical Researchers
Celebrating 10 African-American medical pioneers | AAMC
Fund for Reduction of Personal Medical Debt
Timelines of Equity
Timeline - Achievements in Minority Health - Health Equity - CDC
Celebrating 10 African-American medical pioneers | AAMC
The History of Black Midwives in America and their impact on today’s birth culture
1921 Sheppard–Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act which provided federal aid for programs related to mothers and newborn babies, as well as midwife training programs. It was the first social welfare program in the country.
1965- Medicaid was signed into law
(1969-1975) Black Panther Party’s Free Medical Clinics
2010- President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act into law.
2019- President Trump signs The Federal Employee Paid Leave Act into law
Changemakers
African American Wellness Project
Sacred Seeds Black Doula Collective • Soul 2 Soul Sisters
Midwife of Color Initiatives to Eliminate Birth Outcome Disparities
Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective
Karen Rose — Sacred Vibes Apothecary
Black Yogi 101 - Yoga Green Book
The Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center
Institute for Healing & Justice in Medicine
Articles
Frontiers | The Case for Health Reparations | Public Health (frontiersin.org)
This Is Where Black Americans Live Longest - Word In Black
Beyond Berets: The Black Panthers as Health Activists
Fixing Medical Devices That Are Biased against Race or Gender - Scientific American
Alternative grant models might perpetuate Black–White funding gaps - The Lancet
Fund Black scientists - ScienceDirect
Black tech founders work to improve health care for people of color : Shots - Health News : NPR
Embracing Genetic Diversity to Improve Black Health | NEJM
AN ASSESSMENT OF HOME REMEDY USE BY AFRICAN AMERICANS
African American Herbalism: North American Black Herbalism
Many Are Turning to Black Herbalists for Restorative Care
Black distrust for modern medicine drives movement to holistic health | The Spokesman
‘Alternative’ Health Care and African-Americans : NPR
Black Yoga Collectives Aim to Make Space for Healing - The New York Times
Blacks and Yoga, a Growing Phenomenon - DefenderNetwork.com
How midwives and doulas could reduce Black maternal mortality - City & State New York
These Black Midwives Opened A South LA Facility With The Goal Of ‘Empowered’ Births | LAist
Home birthing helps Black women reconnect with African roots - TheGrio
‘Black people should have their babies where they live’ - Chicago Reader
For People of Color, Could Home Births Be Safer Than Hospitals? - Collective Colorado
Books
The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome by Alondra Nelson
Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth by Dána-Ain Davis
Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma by Gail Parker
Black Women’s Yoga History by Stephanie Y. Evans
Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Matthew
Podcasts
Black Yoga Experience on Apple Podcasts
Sisters in Loss Podcast: Miscarriage, Pregnancy Loss, & Infertility Stories on Apple Podcasts
13 Blackness & Belonging — Prentis Hemphill — irresistible
Black Body Health Podcast – The Center for Black Health & Equity
Film/Video
A Healing ARC for Hospital Inequities: From Institutional Racism to Reparative Justice
Yoga in the Black Community – Scholar Spotlight
“Traditional Herbal Remedies in the African American Community”
Learning How to Heal Yourself with Plants: Herbalism Gallery Talk with Karen Rose
All My Babies | Negro Midwives in Albany, GA (1953)
Natural Birth Seemed Impossible | Romper’s Doula Diaries
America’s Healthcare System Failed Black People. So What Does the Future Hold for Us?
Alondra Nelson: The Black Panther Party and health care equality
Questions for Research and Reflection:
How might self-organized wellness initiatives decrease overall healthcare costs in the country?
Is research and development of separate modalities of healthcare for African Americans needed? Why or why not?
How might the expansion of home birth and doula-assisted birth impact Black families?
What factors have led to an increase in use of traditional herbal medicine in the Black community?
How can digital strategies be leveraged to improve health outcomes for Black people?
How can genetic technology aid and assist Black people in the cause of reparations?
Action:
Consider your family's heritage, the areas your ancestors once lived, and whether there is historic harm to unwind in the area of healthcare. Consider how you might invest your time, resources and agency in Black communities in health-related areas, e.g.:
- Contribute to a fund that covers co-pays for African Americans seeking mental health services
- Contribute to a scholarship to send an African American student to medical school
- Contribute legal or other professional skills by volunteering with a Black-led health non-profit
- Work with your faith community to launch an RIP Medical Debt campaign to benefit residents of a Black community