HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It has been three months since this Center launched. I feel pleased and excited by the enthusiastic response. Thank you to everyone who has already become involved and to those looking to get connected. We all have a lot of work to do. We have a number of upcoming events and activities, including our monthly journal club, various speakers Sara Ahmed (hosted by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women), Douglas Massey, & Justin Dunnavant, and new sources of data on inequalities. So, stay connected! Sign up here (just scroll to the bottom & click on subscribe) and follow us on Twitter @RacialHealthEq.
This weekend concludes the first week of 2018. This time of year is often a reflective period during which I, like many others, set my intentions. This year, I have three wishes and three resolutions.
WISHES FOR 2018
- For everyone who has been engaged with social justice issues over the long haul (i.e., many years or decades), may you celebrate at least one major victory in 2018.
- For those of you laboring in hostile work environments, your presence there is more important than you realize. May you find new sources of support to sustain you through the entire year.
- For community members involved with campus community partnerships, may your academic collaborators treat you with the utmost respect and integrity. And, may the partnerships benefit the most vulnerable members of the communities you serve.
RESOLUTIONS
- I will come up with at least one creative way to protest, other than marching. Whatever the alternative strategy is, it should respond directly to the issue being protested.
- I will rest and care for my body. We are not immune to the health disparities we study. To honor the memory of health equity researchers and others who are no longer here, I resolve to prioritize my physical and mental well-being.
- I will publish more. Talking about racism and other social inequalities is important. But, writing is thinking, and being paid to conduct research and scholarship is a privilege. I believe those of us who are paid to do this work have a responsibility to make the ideas and empirical findings we generate available to people long after the verbal conversations have ended.
What are your wishes and resolutions on social justice and health equity? Share them using the comments section below or on Twitter via @RacialHealthEq.
