• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Center for Health Progress

  • Contact Us
  • Get Help
  • The People
    • Our Board
    • Our Staff
    • Our Members
    • Our Partners
  • The Campaigns
    • Immigrant Health
    • Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
    • Our Health | Nuestra Salud
  • The Work
    • Community Organizing
    • Community Partnerships
    • – EquityLab
    • Policy Advocacy
    • Professional Services
  • The Impact
    • How Change Happens
    • Evaluating Success
  • Learn More
    • Blog
    • Our Publications
    • – Graphic Novel
    • – Video
    • Our Events
    • – Annual Meeting
    • – HEALTHtalks Luncheon
    • Our Values
    • – Health Equity Commitment
    • Our History
  • Join
You are here: Home / Learn More / Blog / Acknowledging and Addressing Our Complicity

Acknowledging and Addressing Our Complicity

Author: Sarah McAfee
April 9, 2018 Filed Under: Communications, Leadership, Systems Change

Winter Trees - Complicity

As an anthropology major in college, I learned that race was biological because it was identifiable in skeletons—but that isn’t true, because race isn’t genetic or biological—it’s social. There also was a lot of emphasis in my degree on “cultural traditions” like genital mutilation and child brides, which were presented as examples of how different or primitive other cultures could be, rather than as the influence of patriarchy that connects all societies and of which the US has a long, and well-documented history. My education, on top of decades of growing up as a white person in a country built by and for white people, led me to have seriously misguided and harmful views about the structural oppression that exists in the US, and I have a lot of work to do to re-educate myself and atone for my complicity in perpetuating it.

Recently, some important publications have publicly acknowledged their own shortcomings, stating that their coverage over the years has perpetuated these oppressive ideologies. The New York Times admitted to sexism (and to a lesser degree, racism) in its obituaries, and National Geographic admitted to racism in its coverage of foreign people and countries in the developing world. For over 150 years, it has been a measure of status as to whether The New York Times published a person’s obituary, and historically, those deemed worthy have largely been white men. Now the news titan has launched a series of long-overdue obituaries of remarkable women. Similarly, for over a hundred years National Geographic has been a way for westerners to get glimpses into faraway lands and people, but there has been “a long tradition of racism in the magazine’s coverage: in its text, its choice of subjects, and in its famed photography.” This month’s issue is now devoted to race, and how it’s a social construct that defines 21st Century America. Neither of these actions on their own is enough to make up for the multi-generational damage that these publications perpetrated, but it’s a start.

At Center for Health Progress, we too, have been looking at our own complicity and doing our best to correct our failings, with guidance from expert consultants. Sometimes the feedback has been hard to hear: that we’re clinging to elements of white supremacy culture, that some of our internal policies are punitive and dictatorial, or that we’re prioritizing the wrong voices and opinions in decision making. For 20 years as the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, we took a paternalistic approach to helping (and labeling) those “in need,” determining what needed to change for them and then driving those changes. As we celebrate one year as Center for Health Progress, we need to acknowledge that while we achieved some big wins in the past, we did it while perpetuating many of the oppressive structures we ultimately seek to dismantle. So we’re taking a new approach now, and it doesn’t absolve us of past mistakes, but it’s a start.

Admitting your own complicity in doing harm to others is difficult—whether it was intentional or out of ignorance. It’s also a necessary part of personal growth, and something we should pursue with gratitude and humility. As we now seek the leadership and expertise of Coloradans desperate for the same opportunity for good health that many of us have always had access to, they’re helping us see even more ways to improve and support their empowerment. I hope you’ll join me in reflecting on your own complicity and missteps you may have made in the past, and help hold me, and all of us at Center for Health Progress, accountable for our words and actions.

Related posts:

Anti-racism sign at a protestNaming Racism Waiting for Health EquityWaiting for Health Equity in Action Three black women - anti-racism workAnti-racism Is Not an Intellectual Exercise mesasMoving Past the Plateau

Comments

  1. AvatarMary Reeves says

    April 10, 2018 at 9:24 am

    Congratulations! I have no doubt that you will also “achieve big wins” going forward. You will listen for those who do not feel the Health Progress and partner with them to make it happen. Institutional Revolution, what courage you all have! Onward…

Blog Authors

Joe SammenJoe Sammen

Executive Director

Sarah McAfeeSarah McAfee

Director of Communications

Dana KennedyDana Kennedy

Director of Community Partnerships

Jessica NguyenJessica Nguyen

Community Partnerships Specialist

Maggie GómezMaggie Gómez

Director of Community Organizing

Chris KleneChris Klene

Policy Specialist

Michelle MuñozMichelle Muñoz

Office Manager

Theresa TrujilloTheresa Trujillo

Lead Organizer

Carrie WilsonCarrie Wilson

Development Manager

Recent Posts

  • 2019: A Year in Review
  • What We’re Reading
  • How Organizers Build Power in Immigrant Communities
  • The Healing Powers of Pueblo Chile
  • Colorado is Home | Colorado es el hogar

Categories

  • Access to Care
  • Communications
  • Community Engagement
  • Community Partnerships
  • Coverage
  • Events
  • Health Equity
  • Healthy Living
  • Immigrant Health
  • Innovations
  • Leadership
  • Payment Reform & Costs
  • Policy & Advocacy
  • Providers & Workforce
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Systems Change

Blog Archives

Contact Us

Denver Office:
1245 E Colfax Ave. #202
Denver, Colorado 80218

Fort Morgan Office:
815 W Platte Ave.
Fort Morgan, Colorado 80701

Email:
weare@centerforhealthprogress.org

 

Mailing Address:
PO Box 18877
Denver, Colorado 80218

Telephone:
720.583.1760 (English)

Telephone:
970.579.1699 (Ingles o Español)

GET CONNECTED

 

Join Our Listserv →

© 2019 · Center for Health Progress | Terms of Use

Developed By Firefly Partners