In early October, FLOURISH Cabinet members and staff from Generate Health, FLOURISH’s backbone organization, participated in two-and-a-half days of training to better understand how racial inequities impact infant mortality in St. Louis.
The training, presented by Crossroads Antiracism Organizing & Training, explored the historical development of institutional racism in the U.S. and how it impacts society and institutions today, culturally shaping our attitudes, behaviors and assumptions.
“Going through this training together was a powerful reminder that the infant mortality rates black families face in St. Louis are not just a health issue,” said Nancy Mueller, FLOURISH St. Louis cabinet member. “They stem from centuries of policies and practices that control how institutions create, manage and distribute resources. Often, these policies and practices work to help certain people stay in power and to keep others, particularly people of color, from getting the resources they need. And even today, those years of systemic racism take a toll on communities of color.”
In St. Louis, black babies are three times as likely to die as white babies. In the U.S., even black women with advanced degrees – doctors, lawyers, MBAs – were more likely to lose infants than white women who hadn’t graduated from high school, according to a study cited in The Nation.
“Throughout our conversations, it became clear that there are times when systems and institutions misuse their power, whether knowingly or unknowingly, in ways that put people of color at a disadvantage,” said Mueller. “Now that we have the shared language to recognize and verbalize this, we can better find ways to address it.”
“We have an opportunity to strategically intervene and interrupt the ways institutions and society are structured so that black babies and black families experience equity in access to quality care and resources necessary to live a healthy life,” said Mueller. “Our goal is to end racial disparities in infant mortality.”
More than 550 people in St. Louis have completed the “Understanding and Analyzing Systemic Racism” training. Efforts like this, as well as many other initiatives from Forward through Ferguson, are designed to help us better understand and address racism in St. Louis.
To learn more and to access more resources, read our recent blog post about racial equity and its impacts on infant mortality.