It was clear that in our historically maintained structures of systemic racism and colonialism, the comprehensive Behemoth of Health Inequity was and is an anchoring component of a system of injustice.

Kevin Robinson

It started back on September 8^th, 2022. A nation struggled to pull itself out of the drooling grips of a seemingly all-encompassing pandemic. At this fulcrum of history, America encountered a crossroads that could lead us in one of two directions. One could lead us right into the warm embrace of the deceitful arms of denial. Forsaking what we all saw and experienced into a folktale or something forgettable. Some even censored and manipulated statistical analysis to give legs to a fanciful rationalization while at the same time taking an editing pen to real history. The other was a pathway of truth and preventative assessment that would accurately measure where we were at that point in time. The overwhelming conclusion revealed deep historical health inequities, which left certain populations hyper-exposed to the Hurricane, COVID-19. As the pandemic winds subsided in the Eye of the Storm.

The proverbial cat was out of the bag. The first Health and Wellness Edition was appropriately called “The Eye Of The Storm,” in description of how the circumference of the walls had been breached as massive loss of life multiplied upon itself for thousands of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. How could this virus regardless of how novel it was, draw such clear lines among divisions within the social construct of race. It was clear that in our historically maintained structures of systemic racism and colonialism, the comprehensive Behemoth of Health Inequity was and is an anchoring component of a system of injustice.

As a witness to the devastation of these underlying health conditions and how they crystallized into a sadly redundant dirge of mortality suffered among friends and family members alike, with health challenges of my own, I wanted to take on this subject with the September 8th, 2022 introduction of Three-Fifths Magazine’s Health and Wellness section. It was essential to dedicate an annual Issue to specifically attacking this pillar in the systemic racism foundation.

By exposing hidden truths of intentional and cultural norms that have been adopted into the status quo for a society wildly in denial of its wrongdoing and/or engaged in the coverup of fractures in the circle of health equity, Three-Fifths Magazine launched into the deep of this world of subcutaneous, clandestine, and hypercritical norms of American society. Author Isabel Wilkerson says it this way.

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.”

― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

In this Sharing Circle of Health Equity Month, we continue this tradition similarly to last year by honoring Indigenous Americans. Three-Fifths Magazine is convening sharing circles of Health Equity to provide a platform for discussing ideas, causes, and convictions and weaving them into a tapestry of dialogue for closing the circle. We sincerely appreciate our knowledgeable health and wellness contributor, Dr. Shawna Barnette. In the coming months, we endeavor to empower her voice by adding more health and wellness contributors.

In a March 25^th Article entitled, How racism is a structural and social determinant of health

“Correcting disparities caused by the social determinants of health, including racism, has no simple solution. It requires each of us to seek to personally understand our own racist beliefs and implicit biases and do the hard work of changing. It requires fundamental changes in policy at the local, state and federal level, while also requiring public and private institutions to change many of their operating procedures.

This work requires resources and steadfast advocacy in order to fundamentally change systems that have been in place for centuries to create the racial injustice that we see today. How racism is a structural and social determinant of health.”

Author: Mark Rastetter, MD The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center”

Closing the Health Equity Circle is not easy by any means. However, if we persist in speaking truth to power and standing as that voice of clarity, we will see the long-awaited results. Those answers won’t come from one source but will be comprehensive and include the government, the private sector community, such as the Meharry School of Global Health’s innovative work led by its Founding Dean, Daniel Dawes. Daniel composed a powerful article featured in this month’s Special Edition, Too Close to Fail: Why Meharry School of Global Health is Focused on the Political Determinants of Health. These along with grassroots organizations will fortify our Health Circles. Some day we will get into another national health emergency, which again will, through immense pressure, expose any fragility in our health equity circles. Our perseverance now, will position us to pass the test later.

By Kevin Robinson Founder, Editor/Publisher