JUSTICE, ANTI-RACISM, AND HEALTH

Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR) stands with health professionals who believe that systemic racism is a public health issue. We call on WPSR members, who are devoted to fighting climate change, economic inequity, and the threat posed by nuclear weapons, to be every bit as active in dismantling discrimination and institutional racism in their communities. Unless we confront racism, no just solution to the climate crisis, economic injustice, or the nuclear threat will be possible. 

The United States was built on a foundation of wealth inequity, rooted in slavery, that has influenced every major event in our history. We recognize our cultural, historical, and ongoing responsibility for much of the violence, environmental degradation, and inequality in the world, as well as our capacity to change how we live together on a planet with finite resources. 

As health professionals committed to global health, we must broaden our involvement with impacted communities. If we are to succeed in making the world a safer place, we need to recognize the communities that are already unsafe due to racism and disenfranchisement, and damaged by white supremacist policies that build nuclear arsenals, pollute the planet for profit, and foster an economic system that promotes and perpetuates inequality.

WPSR also acknowledges its need to address the impacts - past and present - of its legacy as a white-led organization, and its role in movements that have neglected to include and embrace the voices of communities most affected by the issues we work on. WPSR is invested in, and firmly committed to working towards equity and social justice both internally as an organization, and externally through our programs and community partnerships. 

As an organization working for climate justice, economic justice, and nuclear justice, we are obligated to speak out against systemic racism and to work with our coalition and community partners, and other PSR chapters, to help dismantle systems of white supremacy that perpetuate violence and to organize against all forms of discrimination, injustice, and harm against people of color. We do this work because health professionals have a unique understanding of the present and potential implications these issues have for human health, and because we are compelled to use our privilege and power as health professionals with a trusted voice to prevent what we cannot cure for the good of humanity. 

We recognize that climate justice, economic justice, and nuclear justice cannot be achieved without racial justice. We also recognize that statements are not enough to effectuate the change needed, and that - as with the major challenges to health that we work to address on a daily basis - action is required at every level of our unjust society. As such, WPSR is committed to go beyond these words, and to take concrete actions - as an organization and in the communities where we work - that will help dismantle the inherently inequitable systems that stand in the way of a peaceful, healthy, and just society.

If you are able, we urge you to support organizations working on-the-ground right now to fight racial injustice. Our movements are inextricably linked, and our mission to build a healthy, sustainable, just, and peaceful world is only possible if we continue to fight for the health, safety, opportunity, and basic human rights of all people.