Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
–Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
2/1/2021
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the website for Health Justice, my equity consulting practice, on this day, the first day of Black History Month 2021.
I created Health Justice to support health care, public health and other organizations in centering anti-racism and equity in their work with the vision of creating a world in which every human being and every community has the resources needed to achieve optimal health and well-being.
A desire to move our world towards one that is equitable and just was instilled in me by my parents. I vividly remember my mother and father taking my twin sister, Uché, and I to anti-apartheid and anti-racism demonstrations during our childhood and accompanying my mother, Dr. Dale Blackstock (also known as “the original Dr. Blackstock”) to community health fairs where she provided educational outreach. The latter experiences showed me how physicians can marry their clinical work with advocacy and service to advance equity.
My clinical, research and public health work in the HIV space has provided a lens through which to understand how systemic racism and other intersecting systems of oppression contribute to health and social inequities and has provided me with the opportunity to develop and implement programs and initiatives that work towards dismantling these systems which “sap the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources”.
The current COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s social uprisings in support of Black Lives Matter have brought increased attention to the deleterious impact of systemic racism on health and has amplified existing inequities. If there were any moment to commit to transformational change, it is now. I’m excited for Health Justice to contribute to this moment and to creating a world in which everyone has the resources needed to thrive.
Please reach out if you want to learn more about Health Justice and its services.
Onwards and upwards.
–Oni
