Raising our Voice for Racial Justice and Health Equity

Throughout my career, the impacts of systemic racism have been visible every day. My hope is that the image of Officer Dererk Chauvin pressing his knee into George Floyd for nearly 10 minutes makes systemic racism visible to everyone. This is the time for all good people to demand justice, truth, and dignity for all.

We already have been pointing to the dramatically disparate impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had. More than 40 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States are among African Americans and other minorities. Many of these people work or worked in health care, transportation, emergency, or other essential services, yet our society fails to treat them with the dignity that every American not only deserves but is also entitled to under the U.S. Constitution.

Disparities in health status among Americans clearly based on race are nothing new to us. Solving for these problems is at the heart of what we do at CommonSpirit Health. We provide health care to all who are in need. That’s our starting point, but racial inequity is far more than a health issue.

Health problems begin with and are exacerbated by so many other factors, from housing to hunger, education to employment. Access to health care is a critical factor that we and other health care systems work so hard on, but we need an entire nation committed to addressing all of the reasons why health equity is so elusive -- just as we must commit to equal justice for all.