“Her name is Health,
She is the Daughter of Exercise,
Who Begot Her On Temperance.”
– Kemetian Proverb
“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”
– W.E.B. Du Bois
“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” – W.E.B. Du Bois
Welcome to the Health Committee Web Log of the NAACP of Lane County Oregon. We reformed to respond to ongoing health disparities illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the endemic mental health crisis exacerbated by police violence, and to increase health literacy.
It has been said that one of the greatest civil rights issues of the 21st Century is health disparities. Outside of indigenous communities, the NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization in North America. At its founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was a multiracial organization formed to make alliances with People of Color, planetwide, and their allies and advocates.
Then, racism, and colonization activities by geographic nation states as principal actors, effectively extended slavery. Today, we see the despoiling of the environment, exploiting labor and lives, and spreading divisive memes.
As a civil rights organization, we work to empower our society by empowering communities of color in Lane County Oregon. Oregon, as a state, is a perfect living laboratory for studying systemic and institutional systems of discrimination, including racism. Whether you consider racism a mental illness, an addiction, a co-occurring disorder, a pandemic, or a public health problem, to take no effective action whatsoever is in effect, be an unvaccinated mask-less super-spreader.
During the pandemic, the branch has been a conduit for food aid, testing, vaccines, as well as offering education to try and reduce health disparities, and increase grassroots health literacy.
Health committee and its training sub-committee constitute a multiracial coalition of individuals and organizations committed to health promotion among those who are underserved. We’ve delivered a training series addressing issues of racism in the medical field, featuring Physicians Assistants, Physicians, and Mental Health workers of color. We’ve sponsored live online events addressing vaccine hesitancy in communities of color. Our next series in the spring of 2022 will be center patient voices, to increase health literacy as one of the Social Determinants of Health. We hope you will join us in reducing health disparities.