June 24, 2020
Page 9
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O PINION
Fighting for Health and Justice
Racism called out
as public health
epidemic
s irius b onner
Planned Parenthood
Columbia Willamette
believes reproductive
freedom will never be
achieved until people
are able to make choic-
es, care for their children and families, and
pursue their life’s interests without fear of
violence or murder at the hands of police
and white supremacy.
We’re outraged by the senseless vio-
lence that took George Floyd, Ahmaud
Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many oth-
ers. As our nation faces a pandemic that is
disproportionately ravaging black commu-
nities, we must address the public health
crisis that racism presents.
To our black patients, staff and support-
ers and the black community whose lives,
health and safety are constantly under at-
tack: Planned Parenthood stands with you.
For more than 400 years, the systems
that built and uphold American society
have demonstrated a disregard for black
people’s humanity. Today, brutal police
forces across the country are strong-arm-
ing and killing black people before our
very eyes.
The over-policing of black bodies ex-
tends far beyond the actions of individual
police officers. It is in our workplaces, our
schools, our public institutions. It is in our
healthcare system.
It is this same policing of black bodies
that makes the promise of reproductive
freedom unattainable for black people in
this country. Many of the states where pol-
iticians enact abortion bans are states with
higher-than-average black populations.
They’re also states with voter suppression,
gerrymandering, “stand your ground” laws
and anti-immigration legislation.
In addition, because black people are
more likely to depend on Medicaid for
health care, they are often barred from us-
ing their own insurance to access abortion.
To make matters worse, later this month
by
the U.S. Supreme Court could dismantle
the protections of Roe v. Wade — which
means 3.5 million black people stand to
have their state ban access to abortion.
Public health by definition is built on
the principle of saving lives. For too long
this nation has underinvested and under-re-
sourced black and Latinx communities —
leading to less access to health care and
dramatic healthcare disparities. Maternal
mortality is three times higher for black
women than for white women. The death
rate due to breast cancer is 40 percent high-
er. Black women have twice as many unin-
tended pregnancies, and are four times as
likely to contract HIV.
As our nation confronts the COVID-19
pandemic, we see these disparities loud
and clear: Economic inequality, structur-
al racism and public health failures have
translated to exponentially higher infec-
tion and death rates in the black and Latinx
communities.
Letter to the Editor
Disarm PSU
Police
Dear PSU Board of Trustees,
I write you speaking only for myself
and hoping that many others will also
write you regarding the matter of campus
police carrying guns.
I testified three times to you when the
question of starting an armed police force
originally came to you six years ago. I op-
posed it then, noting that the literature in
our journals gave us many reasons to not
make that decision and that, as a research
university, we should be paying attention
to the scholarship.
Along with the majority of students
polled and the votes of the PSU Faculty
Senate, I urged you not to set up condi-
Discrimination creates a barrier to
health, both inside and outside the doctor’s
office. The stresses of anti-black racism,
microaggressions and discrimination take
a toll on the health black people.
White supremacy and systemic racism
permeate every structure in our society.
Now is not the time to simply call out ex-
treme violent racism. We must stand in
solidarity with those demanding change
through uprisings and protests. We must
look inward into how white supremacy
continues to show up in the institutions we
are part of, including Planned Parenthood.
Like most century-old organizations,
Planned Parenthood is steeped with our
own structural racism and white suprem-
acy. Planned Parenthood’s mission today
is to build a world in which every person
— regardless of their race, income, insur-
ance, gender identity, sexual orientation,
abilities or immigration status — can ac-
cess expert, compassionate sexual and
reproductive health care, information and
education without shame or judgment. We
are committed to addressing and correcting
implicit bias and structural racism within
our organization so that we can continue
to improve our delivery of health care and
education to the people and communities
we serve.
We also must call on governors and
city leaders everywhere to hold their po-
lice forces accountable. No police violence
should go without direct and swift conse-
quences.
As we continue to watch our country’s
two very different, racially divided, sys-
tems of justice unfold, we demand an end
to the inequity that continues to define ev-
ery moment of life for Black America.
Sirius Bonner serves as vice president
of equity and inclusion at Planned Parent-
hood Columbia Willamette. For more in-
formation visit ppcw.org.
tions that would statistically make people
of color less safe rather than more safe. In-
stead, you went against the stated opinions
of the majority of the PSU community. In
the silent seconds following your voice
vote I stood and said, “I can’t breathe,” and
walked out.
Last year, with a slightly different as-
semblage of PSU trustees, in a hearing that
took place in Lincoln Hall following the
murder of Jason Washington--exactly the
tragedy we forecasted and that trustees ig-
nored-- in my testimony, I noted that any of
the board members who voted in favor of
arming campus security should apologize
to the family of Jason Washington and to
the PSU community, and resign as a PSU
trustee.
Now, yet again, I am just one member of
the PSU community and I know many of
my feelings are shared by many others, and
I’m insisting that you reverse your poor de-
cision from those years ago and #DisarmP-
SU. Not after a long study. Now.
Yours for a nonviolent future,
Tom Hastings, assistant professor of
conflict resolution at Portland State Uni-
versity.