Unrest: Injustice Under the Law and in Health
Unrest: Injustice Under the Law and in Health
A Message from our CEO, David S. Williams III
-George Floyd (and others)
Yesterday was a rough day. I spent the morning delivering groceries to a family with special needs children. They are unable to go to the store because of COVID-19. The family lives in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles and the protests were just getting started at 10am. By the early evening, the protesters were clashing with police within steps of where this extremely vulnerable family lives.
In these extraordinary, and now turbulent times, we must understand the context of unrest and uprising. In a recent Treat Us Right podcast episode, I reviewed how COVID-19 exploded the impact of health disparities--the statistically proven reality that people of color, the poor, disabled, and seniors receive inadequate healthcare in the United States.
"It seems that Black folks are dying at a rate DOUBLE our population representation in each community across the country. This begs the question of why? The conclusion: Health disparities are caused by racial inequities."
The death of George Floyd and the footage of the white police officer kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck has caused an eruption. Black people were already sensitive based on the disproportionate deaths due to COVID-19 in our community. Mr. Floyd's death ripped open an already bleeding wound. With protests raging across the country, the reason for this unrest is injustice. This is all about fairness.
None of this is new. In 2016, I published a post entitled Leading Toward Justice in Healthcare highlighting the health and racial inequities of the day.
Focusing on the present, this past Friday, Javier Alberto Soto, President of The Denver Foundation (and a very good friend), published this piece as a way to give context to our current state of events:
Moving Towards Justice Requires All of Us, by Javier Alberto Soto
I encourage you to read the entire post, but here's a poignant excerpt:
It’s clear, for example, that the way you experience the pandemic depends a lot on who you are. If you are poor, black, brown, undocumented, disabled, older, or a worker on the front lines of a hospital or grocery store, you are at greater risk from the health and/or economic impacts of this public health crisis. It is also certain that if you contract the virus and belong to one or more of these categories, your outcome is likely to be much worse than someone who does not.
Here’s what else is certain: The people who bear the brunt of this terrible moment are the same people who suffer under the inequitable and unjust systems that span American life, from criminal justice and public health to education and even our democracy. Pick an indicator: In almost every case, the outcomes nearly always leave people of color and other marginalized groups at a deficit. The coronavirus has made this more obvious, but it’s been certain for a long time.
Again, we are in extraordinary and turbulent times. Care3 was founded to address the reality that the most vulnerable members of our society including seniors, people of color, and the disabled do not have equal access to healthcare and receive woefully inadequate quality of care in their homes and communities. Mr. Floyd's death once again underscores the lack of equality under the law that black people experience each and every day. At Care3, it is our mission to achieve equality.
We believe healthcare equality is possible. We believe racial equality is possible.
Please take care of yourself, your family, and everyone you love. There is hope. Let's work together to create a world where we achieve equality in health, care, and justice.
Take care,
David S. Williams III, MBA
Founder & CEO, Care3, Inc.
www.care3.co/about
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