Visions Journal

A reminder that this article from our magazine Visions was published more than 1 year ago. It is here for reference only. Some information in it may no longer be current. It also represents the point of the view of the author only. See the author box at the bottom of the article for more about the contributor.

Systemic Racism

PDF | EPUB | Vol. 16, No. 3 (2021)

Systemic racism is all of the biases and barriers that are built into institutions, communities, and ways of thinking about and understanding others. In health systems, systemic racism both ignores the impact of trauma, discrimination, colonization, and silencing on mental and physical health while it prevents BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) community members from accessing good, safe health care. Woven into health injustices and inequities is policing. Black and Indigenous people are more likely to be killed during encounters with police. While police are often called for “wellness checks” when someone is in crisis, those checks can become fatal for BIPOC. In this issue of Visions, contributors share paths toward health and justice. There are actions we must take on our own, such as examining our own implicit biases and educating ourselves to all of the ways in which racism and white supremacy exclude and cause harm, and actions that must happen in our communities, such as moving health systems beyond Eurocentric ways of thinking.