It is time to do what is right and what is needed. By confronting racism directly, we can be a part of the healing and change this nation desperately needs. We must step up, and we must do more.
George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. The past several weeks and months have been filled with anguish, compounded by the immense trauma of the pandemic and of racism’s long shadow of injustice in our society.
Black Lives Matter.
COVID-19 is already an inflection point. Racism perpetuates the cycle of greater morbidity and mortality in Black communities. But it is not only about COVID-19. It is also about maternal mortality, asthma, diabetes.
If we, as a society, do not act now with intention and purpose, we will be unable to address the roots of our public health crisis – both the pandemic and the crisis that already existed.
PCDC was founded three decades ago to redress one aspect of inequities in health care, grounded in a long history of racism: access to primary care in low-income communities of color.
PCDC is committed to working towards the rebuilding of the health care system to be governed by health equity and justice. Health care organizations, financial institutions, and government – along with many others — must support and invest in Black communities, which have historically faced disinvestment and underinvestment because of racist policies such as redlining. We can fight to change the way primary care is resourced, located, and provides care. We can collaborate to ensure investment in jobs, schools, housing, childcare, environmental justice, food, and transportation.
PCDC is committed to fighting racism and to building equity. Our leadership team is committed to creating and sharing PCDC’s action plan to track our progress, to hold ourselves accountable, and to do more.
I invite you to share your ideas, strategies, and activities, and to foster collaborative action to end disinvestment and racism, to create health and equity.
Keep in touch. Take care.
Louise Cohen and the PCDC Leadership Team