Racial Representation & Liberate Pelvic Health

Anti-Racism is a driving value for Liberate Pelvic Health.  In the Spring of 2024, Liberate Pelvic Health hosted a collaborative capstone fellowship experience for two Occupational Therapy Doctorate candidates where a primary focus of the project was to explore anti-racism values and how to impact the need to decolonize the profession of occupational therapy.  Throughout this process, Liberate changed one of its core values from Diversity Equity and Inclusion to Anti-Racism/Anti-Discrimination to more accurately describe this guiding value.


What Is Anti-Racism & Why Does It Matter?

According to the CDC, black and minority groups within the US, when compared with the white population, experience much higher rates of mortality and morbidity for a multitude of health conditions and during perinatal care (2023). Racism, not race, is the factor that predisposes a person of color to poor health outcomes (DiAngelo & Dyson, 2018). Anti-racism is being aware of the prejudice, bias, and negative outcomes caused by racism, and utilizing self reflection and application to identify implicit biases that may be so deeply ingrained and unconscious to avoid causing more harm. Anti-racism is an active process and one that healthcare providers need to actively participate in order to address racial health equity issues in our systems. Identifying as “not being racist” is a red flag for lack of consciousness around how white supremist ideals are embedded into our psyche through our environmental conditioning. Instead we need to identify and embody being anti-racist. It takes ongoing curiosity and commitment to embody anti-racism.  Maya Angelou’s words can be a guiding light for this mission: “to do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better.” 


Racial Representation & Occupational Therapy

Racial representation matters for addressing racial health equity. However, currently within the field of OT, racial representation is declining when the need for improving racial health outcomes is becoming more apparent. At Liberate Pelvic Health, embodying anti-racism is currently being done in several ways including self-study, the AOTF STRIDE research grant, the BBMHCI grant through the State of Colorado, OTD spring 2024 capstone residency, as well as going thru the publication process to propose how the field of OT can start incorporating anti-racism into existing theoretical models that inform practice, which was rejected without specific feedback as to why.  

It is a well understood concept, that it is all of our individual responsibilities to learn about anti-racism and not expect this work to fall solely on the shoulders of people of color in our social networks to teach the rest of us. However, in day to day interactions, this concept is oftentimes not the reality. 


Anti-Racism Books For Healthcare Professionals

White Fragility, White Women, and My Grandmother’s Hands were required reading for the 2024 capstone project and hold many benefits for application to OT practice and other healthcare professionals (DiAngelo & Dyson, 2018; Jackson & Rao, 2022; Menakem, 2017). We highly recommend that anyone who is dedicated to doing better when it comes to racism and anti-racism starts here. These books address the widely thought notion that you cannot be a good person and participate in racism; only bad people are racist. However, for this to be true, racism would have to be reduced to simple, isolated, and extreme acts of prejudice; it would have to be intentional and based on conscious dislike or explicit bias due to race (DiAngelo & Dyson, 2018). Because of this common misconception that racism can only be overt and intentional, when one’s racism is pointed out, it leads to behavior of defending one's character instead of reflecting on the behavior, seeking to understand, having curiosity about the harm done, and having the bravery to do better. Oftentimes it is the development of unconscious bias based on negative stereotypes that is continuing to perpetuate institutional and interpersonal oppression. It is imperative to understand how the conditioning of whiteness creates a culture of low tolerance for and defensiveness around racism. It is the practitioner’s responsibility to understand how racism is interwoven into their conditioning, power dynamics, and effectiveness of the therapeutic relationship for it to empower healing instead of perpetuating further harm. Examining personal biases is a great step to participating more fully in anti-racist practice. It is uncomfortable, but it is possible to do so with compassionate curiosity.


Allyship, Is It helpful Or Harmful?

The concept of allyship from Jackson and Rao’s book, White Women (2022) was one that we kept on coming back to in discussion and theory during the spring 2024 capstone experience.  These authors proposed that white allies are well-intentioned white people who stand next to BIPOC against white supremacy and racism and who think they are doing the right thing. However nuanced, standing with racial equity movements in a performative way can actually do more harm than saying nothing. The point of the statement is that in the efforts to dismantle white supremacy, it is not enough to just help or support or be an ally. Standing with, allows one to be outside of the problem. White people need to truly be partners and collaborators, with “skin in the game” because what hurts one, hurts all. 


What Is Performative Allyship?

Performative allyship involves someone from a non marginalized group showing support in a way that is not helpful and actually perpetuates more harm. An example of this was the sharing of black squares on instagram for the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The burden of fighting against racial inequality cannot be left to Black people alone, white people need to step up but in a way that is actually helpful and not causing further harm. Instead of posting a black square and hashtag (passive approach), post educational resources and keep the conversations going (active). There is also more awareness of exploitation happening within the grant space where minority-owned organizations are “partnered with” to meet diversity requirements to win grants, however that money is not equitably shared or the minority voices are not equally valued to actually impact the problems at hand. This is performative allyship.

Thinking Deeper about Anti-Racism

We hope this blog has given some more insight, inspiration, and direction for how to start or continue doing better. Thanks for reading, and if you made it this far, for consuming some content to make you think deeper about racism and anti-racism. Have a look at the chart below for some more ideas of where to go from here.

References


DiAngelo, R., & Dyson, M. E. (2018). White fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism. Boston, Beacon Press.

Jackson, R., & Rao, S. (2022). White women: Everything you already know about your own racism and how to do better. Penguin Books. 

Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands:Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.

“Racism and Health.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 18 Sept. 2023, www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/racism-disparities/index.html. 

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