By The Breast Cancer Action Team
Breast Cancer Action stands in solidarity with and alongside Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and BIPOC individuals, organizers, and community leaders. We refuse to be silent about the rise in white supremacist and sexualized violence, discrimination, and xenophobia that hinders our health, safety, and freedom. Breast Cancer Action feels both heartache and anger from the recent racist and misogynistic attacks that took place in Atlanta.
We stand in opposition to racism and white supremacy in all its forms, and condemn all forms of racialized violence. Put simply, racism is a public health issue. We will not achieve health justice and see our communities healthy and free until we address and end all forms of racism and white supremacy.
The recent mass killing of 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian women, is a direct example of how racial justice, gender justice, and health justice are inherently intertwined. The racism that AAPI communities have identified as long-standing and systemic has been exacerbated by the increase in anti-Asian rhetoric and undue blame in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An anti-racist analysis, of both the COVID-19 pandemic and larger healthcare disparities, means shifting the blame from people residing deep within the margins to the systems that are rooted in white supremacy and that perpetuate inequities and devastating health disparities.
At BCAction, we are committed to addressing and ending breast cancer through a health justice lens, and this includes the work it takes to be actively anti-racist, demanding the systemic change necessary for a more just and healthier world, and working to dismantle all systems rooted in white supremacy.
The same social determinants that increase an individual’s likelihood of experiencing racialized violence are the same social determinants likely to contribute to the development or mortality of breast cancer. As breast cancer activists, we work to change this, and to create a world where our lives and our communities are not threatened by breast cancer and gendered and racialized violence. We will continue to fight systemic oppression and center communities most impacted.
We invite you to join us in this work.