David R. Williams, professor of public health and African American studies and sociology at Harvard University, discussed with students, faculty and staff the issue of health and inequality found in the United States.
His presentation took place on Jan. 17 and was called “The House that Racism Builds and Its Consequences for Health.” Williams discussed how systematic racism is making people sick and explored the issue from a community, public health and church perspective.
“One of the reasons why we wanted Dr. Williams to come is because his topic takes an approach that we don’t often talk about and that is systematic racism and the health system,” said Kristie Wilder, dean of the social work department. “It’s a holistic view, and as Seventh-day Adventists, that’s what we teach in our church and our schools. We are training a lot of future professionals, all who are going to be confronted with this issue and who will actually have opportunities to be a part of the solution.”
At the beginning of his career, Williams worked at Battle Creek Adventist Hospital, the first Adventist hospital in the world.
“As you try to meet the needs of the community you realize that there are some groups that have bigger needs than others,” Williams said. “As Christians, our own mission is to meet those needs. [We] need take the love of Jesus in concrete and practical ways to the world.”
Williams has been researching the topic of inequality in the health system for 32 years. He has also researched other topics such as stress, social relationships, socioeconomic status and religious involvement.
Studying Our Attitudes Racially (SOAR) planned this convocation. After receiving a $50,000 grant at the beginning of the school year, SOAR has organized various programs, including Against the Wall, to bring awareness about diversity on campus.
“One of the challenges that we had for this particular speaker was getting it embedded and approved on campus for a calendar that had already been [made],” Wilder said. “We had a very short window of time to search for a speaker because we were awarded the money early June and academic calendars are usually made a year in advanced.”
Various students said they were impacted by the presentation. Some were able to relate to what Williams said while others learned things they had previously been unaware of.
“As a student, and part of the minority, I was able to relate to much of the information that was presented,” said theology sophomore Sergio Vasquez. “I agree that if government were to take action into improving neighborhoods for minorities, then we would have stronger opportunities to be successful and actually contribute to the country’s growth.”
“I didn’t realize such a large margin of opportunity still existed between different racial cultures,” Abigail Martin, a nursing freshman, said. “As a college student, I believe we should learn from the past and use these statistics presented by Dr. Williams to change things for the future.”
Image credit: Annette Heck