Racism having an impact on our children is a no-brainer for most people in our community. We see racism as a real issue, and we know it affects our kids. Some of us we're those kids. We have been screaming these truths from the mountain top, yet our society and national institutions of influence have remained mainly deaf to the cries of People of Color. We've cried bloody murder for centuries while being ignored by a seemingly blind-to-injustice justice system. A justice system informed by an even blinder academic world, drenched in the privilege of indifference and liberalism. Recall Martin Luther King's words about the white moderate being the biggest roadblock to equality.
This month the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) has finally caught up to the urgency of their call to action in regards to protecting all children and addressing the impacts of racism and bigotry. Since their founding in 1930, the AAP has needed almost 90 years to conclude that "[r]acism is a social determinant of health," and has a"profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families." Indigenous and black mothers and fathers have known this since colonial times, but those in power, all too often have been willfully ignorant to injustices they can remedy.
The AAP goes on the explain, "the social environment in which children are raised shapes child and adolescent development, and pediatricians are poised to prevent and respond to environmental circumstances that undermine child health. Pediatrics as a field has yet to systematically address the influence of racism on child health outcomes and to prepare pediatricians to identify, manage, mitigate, or prevent risks and harms. Recognizing that racism has significant adverse effects on the individual who receives, commits, and observes racism,"[]"substantial investments in dismantling structural racism are required to facilitate the societal shifts necessary for optimal development of children in the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is committed to reducing the ongoing costs and burden of racism to children, the health care system, and society."