To fulfill our mission, the Redstone Global Center is committed to becoming an anti-racist organization. In 2020, the center developed an action agenda as a starting point to guide our work. Racism and white supremacy and the trauma they induce are public health issues. We cannot ensure the health and wellbeing of all until white supremacy and the racist structures that support it are dismantled, and equity is achieved for all people and across all sectors, including health, criminal justice, economic opportunity, and education.
The recent uprisings reflect the same anger, anguish, and frustration that accompanied the spontaneous uprisings in American cities over 50 years ago. Most of the core elements have not changed — denigration of the lives of people of color, with increased rates of unemployment and poverty, substandard housing, poor schools, a biased criminal justice system — all products of the systemic racism and white supremacy that has been part of our history since the arrival of the first white men. The important word here is white — the conditions and poor health of people of color are not a consequence of their inadequacies, but are a product of exclusion and dehumanization exercised by white supremacy and racism. To ensure liberty and justice for all, we must start with anti-racist actions within ourselves, and with our families, institutions, and communities.
To begin these efforts internally, the Redstone Global Center has adopted an anti-racist action agenda and is undertaking an implementation plan that will be reviewed and shared annually. Read our action agenda here.