SFCCC stands with the Black Lives Matter Movement
If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! - and listens to their testimony.
James A. Baldwin, 1972
SFCCC stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and condemns the ongoing suffering of Black Americans impacted by the murder of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others struck down or damaged forever by racist acts. In our own city there have been far too many egregious acts of racism leading to death. There are those who wish to pretend that racism is a thing of the past, but the impact of racism on the health of African Americans is a series of devastating facts.
African Americans have 2.3 times the infant mortality rate as non-Hispanic whites.
African American women are almost 18 times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS as non-Hispanic white women.
African Americans are 50 percent more likely to have a stroke as compared to their white adult counterparts.
According to APM Research Lab, the latest COVID-19 mortality rate for African Americans is 2.4 times as high as the rate for white Americans.
A study in the Lancet using mental health survey data and a database of police shootings found that when an unarmed African American life is ended at the hands of police, it significantly damages the mental health of African Americans living in the state. “The mental health of white people was not similarly affected.”
Community Health Centers were created to serve communities disproportionately impacted by a lack of health care, poverty, and other disparities. At SFCCC, we join many others in our commitment to work harder to dismantle systemic racism and inequality in all of its manifestations.
