Our Pillars

Narrator:

Everyone has a racial identity. It touches every part of our lives. It shapes our history, reality, and our wellbeing.

Wellness includes our physical, mental, and emotional health, such as how we feel cared for, when we feel safe, and if we feel affirmed.

Wellness is more than survival, and race impacts wellness in many ways.

Its disparities are rooted in the false belief that people of color are inferior to White people.

For example, throughout US history, medical professionals have forced Black, Latina, Asian, and Indigenous women to undergo sterilization.

These procedures target poor, immigrant, incarcerated, and disabled women of all races.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and protest against racial injustice reinforced the undeniable connections between race, racism, and wellness.

Data show that Indigenous, Black, and Pacific Islanders experience the highest death rates from COVID-19, while Asian communities have endured a sharp rise in violent hate crimes.

Racism causes trauma.

Asian and Black people especially have suffered a measured increase in depression and anxiety as a result of traumatic images and experiences of racial violence during this deadly pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention joined other government and health organizations in declaring racism a public health crisis in 2021.

Communities continue to challenge the systems that harm them.

To create inclusive spaces for healing and justice, all people deserve to live well, no matter their race.

Join the Smithsonian's Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past to better understand what was and create what can be.