Racial Equity Book Club

Join us to take part in OAFP’s Racial Equity Book Club!

Registration is free and open to anyone interested in participating. The club will meet as follows via Zoom with a physician volunteer facilitating the discussion by using guided questions to help readers share their personal reflections of the book being reviewed.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021 @ 7:30 p.m. | Discussion Registration | Discussion Questions | Moderator: Wayne Forde, MD, FAAFP

In this book, Daniel E. Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers—including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options—that affect all other dynamics of health. By understanding these determinants, their origins, and their impact on the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, we will be better equipped to develop and implement actionable solutions to close the health gap. Mr. Dawes draws on his firsthand experience helping to shape major federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act, to describe the history of efforts to address the political determinants that have resulted in health inequities. Taking us further upstream to the underlying source of the causes of inequities, he examines the political decisions that lead to our social conditions, makes the social determinants of health more accessible, and provides a playbook for how we can address them effectively. A thought-provoking and evocative account that considers both the policies we think of as “health policy” and those that we don’t, this book provides a novel, multidisciplinary framework for addressing the systemic barriers preventing the United States from becoming the healthiest nation in the world.

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• Each book club will be conducted using the Zoom video conferencing system
• Participants will need to register in advance in order to receive their unique Zoom login
• A physician moderator will guide each session through a list of preset questions for group reflection
• Depending on the size of the group, smaller breakouts may be warranted
• Each book club session will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. and last approximately one hour
• There is no fee to participate in the Racial Equity Book Club.

Book Club Participation Guidelines

• The purpose of this book club is to discuss literature on topics of social justice and health equity in a safe and respectful virtual space
• Please respect the authority of the moderator
• Inappropriate behavior and/or language will not be tolerated
• Disagreements among participants is permitted so long as it is handled respectfully
• Keep on topic, but feel free to introduce information that is relevant to the discussion (historical facts, bio details, book background, related authors, or topics)
• When you speak, please state your name
• Have fun and remember that this is an opportunity to build comradery with peers across the healthcare continuum.

• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• Dying of Whiteness by Jonathan Metzl
• Fatal Invention How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts
• Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington
• Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race by Derald Wing Sue
• Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth by Dána-Ain Davis
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• Syllabus: A History of Anti-Black Racism in Medicine by Antoine S. Johnson, Elise A. Mitchell, and Ayah Nuriddin
• Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson

Questions

For more information, please contact Deputy Executive Vice President Kate Mahler, CAE, or call 800.742.7327.