Some social determinants of health that have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life include Racism, discrimination, and violence.
Media is a tool that educates and informs masses of people via news, radio, social media, and television. These powerful tools have been used by others to tell the world who and how Black people are, and too many times, these tools have been used to tell, and amplify, our worst stories. The result being the world believing us to be a dangerous, criminal and oversexualized people. The worst of it is the impact of this narrative on us, Black people. Too many of us have taken in these overexaggerated, harmful messages about ourselves, and in “Life imitates Art imitates Life imitates Art…” fashion, attempt to live that life, not considering the impact such decisions have on all of us, and the next generation.
The campaign will be coordinated to create impact over time. It’s important we not execute this campaign as a response to trauma or tragedy, but as a natural way of living and addressing an issue just like any other disease. Think about it like Ad Council public service messages. The awareness and efforts for it doesn’t just happen when there is tragedy; the effort is ongoing.
Our campaign will helps us see ourselves and how we treat ourselves accurately and understand how we can improve. Our campaign will show us how to create and maintain equity in our communities.
This information will come from a lens that understands the conditions of our community and how we got to this place, along with the compassion, respect, and consideration to fix the issues.
Helping our community understand the impact of systemic racism on us in a way that is not divisive or creates hate or resentment toward any other group of people is crucial to the well-being of black people.
