Racism is a public health issue 2

When news of a novel coronavirus arrived in the United States in early January, xenophobia was not far behind. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, reports of racist attacks against Asian Americans increased. As the number of confirmed cases exploded in America, racial disparities in health outcomes became starker. The hardest hit are often Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities—many of whom are essential workers. Before and throughout the pandemic, Black and Brown people across the nation have continued to be murdered at harrowing and unacceptable rates by the police.

Join For Freedoms, GYOPO, LACMA, and StopDiscriminAsian (SDA) for the second conversation in a series as we discuss the ways in which racism and discrimination create chronic physical and emotional health conditions. The trauma of racial violence reaches further than any single individual, especially when the news cycle about Black deaths is unavoidable. Panelists will discuss the way violent images of Black suffering have been mediated, circulated, and weaponized; the reinvention of one’s relationship to those images; the utilization of those images without re-traumatization; and the power of art to address anxiety and other harms of racism.

Panelists include Eraka P. Bath, MD, Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Department of Psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA; Ava DuVernay, Filmmaker and Founder, ARRAY; Darnell Hunt, Professor and Dean of Social Sciences, UCLA; and artist Rashid Johnson. Introduced by LACMA Curator of Contemporary Art and GYOPO co-founder Christine Y. Kim and moderated by LACMA Vice President of Education and Public Programs Naima J. Keith.