I recently attended a zoom lecture hosted by Dr. Victoria Gardner who is a professor at the University of Washington who addresses health disparities with the patients in mind by using an anti racist framework. In this lecture, she covered the issue of racism in public health. Dr. Gardner is.The main topic that Dr. Gardner spent time discussing was the implementation of redlining. Redlining in particular was rooted in racism and the effects of it still persist to this day. Redlining was a federal legislation that kept minority groups from owning property in certain areas. On a map, this was designated by using a color coding system. This caused many problems such as excluding minority groups putting them at an increased risk. Furthermore, it created a whole new system for land ownership and its correlation to wealth, which is a concept originally developed by natives.
Next, Dr. Gardner showed two pictures side by side of different neighborhood streets. The main difference in these pictures was that in one of them, the street was full of trees, and in the other there weren’t as many trees. The picture with more trees indicated that the neighborhood it was in was more valuable and likely a more expensive neighborhood. We then learned that the picture with less trees was taken in a neighborhood in a district that was redlined. What this showed was the generational impacts that redlining has on neighborhoods today.
As a public health student, this lecture was really interesting because many times, the health condition that an individual faces can be attributed to any determinants of health that they may face. It is important that these issues be addressed so that achieving good health is equitable for everyone.
