ARTI Holds Policy Discussions on Racism as a Public Health Crisis

The heavy impact of COVID-19 on communities of color has revealed racism as a public health crisis, and this spring and summer the Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI) has embarked on a series of workshops and policy discussions on racism and the social determinants of health.

ARTI is a project of United South Broadway Corporation. The series is funded in part by the Con Alma Health Foundation.

The series convenes community advocates and policymakers in housing, health care and education, and is designed to aid community rebuilding in the wake of COVID-19. Through learning from history, dialogue and reflection, participants gain insights into how racism has been created and maintained; and how to strengthen accountability to the communities they serve, rather than simply administering programs.

ARTI Executive Director Diana Dorn-Jones notes that the importance of anti-racism work has grown with the nationwide surge in racist violence.

“The increase in violent racism in our country, most recently revealed in the May 14 mass murder of Black Americans in Buffalo, is a national tragedy,” she says.

“Racist violence feeds on our refusal to admit its role in our national history. It flames up when we legislate racial truths out of the classroom, and spreads when we suppress honest and open discussion of this national evil. We can’t continue to deny racism's reality. We must understand how and why human beings created racism in order to undo it, for racism not only kills its victims, it dehumanizes us all.”