Deconstructing Whiteness: A Systemic Imperative for Addressing Health Disparities and Racism
Deconstructing Whiteness: A Systemic Imperative for Addressing
Health Disparities and Racism in the COVID Era
Speaker: Kenneth V. Hardy, PhD
Living life within the firm grip of a global pandemic while also having to confront the incessant and inescapable eruptions of racial injustice throughout our society has been a poignant reminder that People of Color and Whites often share the same soil and circumstances, yet live in two completely separate worlds. Whether it's dying on a cold gurney in a dismal, poorly lit hallway await ing COVID care or dying in a pool of warm blood on a cold street under the bright lights of Any City, USA, the common denominator is always the same, the lives of People of Color are marginalized while White life is idealized. For those of us who are entrusted to provide compassionate
care to all, regardless of race, there is a moral and ethical imperative to proactively address the racial inequities that malign the lives of People of Color. To do so, however, requires each of us to interrogate the ideology of Whiteness as an enabler of White supremacy and systemic racism. This Keynote address will provide a deconstruction of Whiteness, its relationship to racial oppression, and what our roles and responsibilities are as healers, helpers, and advocates of social just ice to dismantle it.
