Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition

I am beyond eager to see what this summer has to offer both me and ARCC. My hope for this summer is this crew of interns and passionate staff makes this organization something bigger than any of us could imagine.

It is vitally important for us, as a society, to encourage Black people, and more specifically Black women, to pursue careers in healthcare. Dr. Tamika Lasege discusses her experiences as a Black female doctor and how Black people are treated in healthcare during the podcast episode.

As a teenager in 1960s Hollister, CA with colloquial Spanish as her only language, my grandma was abruptly thrown into an English-only secondary school. It was there she learned to tamp down her first language, and smooth it over like it never existed.

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, the son of an educator, I have seen firsthand a system ravaged by underfunding, prejudice, and racism. But ARCC gives me hope. This kind of movement can change the future, not just locally, but across the nation, and the world.

As an Emory student, healthcare has been at the forefront of my mind regardless of how seemingly removed my endeavors are from the field. So when I first came across ARCC’s blog post on medical racism, it immediately piqued my interest.

“According to the Black and Missing Foundation, 9 out of ten children of color are reported as runaways, that means only one out of all 10 are reported and people are alerted about.”

“Don’t let anybody, anybody convince you this is the way the world is and therefore must be. It must be the way it ought to be.” These simple yet impactful words by Toni Morrison from, The Source of Self Regard perfectly, yet plainly depict the convictions of those on the mission of committing to anti-racist advocacy.

“Do you think a Black person can be racist to a white person?”. This is a question that fascinated me during my freshman year of college.

While significant progress has been made, many hurdles clearly remain to be overcome. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., yet their political representation does not reflect this growth.

Because of ARCC’s course, I have learned so much from the course material and I have had the opportunity to hear from so many people with different backgrounds about their own personal experiences and stories.