NIEHS, let’s be anti-racist

Yesterday, I joined a meeting of the NIEHS Centers with NIEHS leadership to discuss “Antiracism: Motivating Action with Accountability”. It was a brief, but useful conversation on ways in which NIEHS and its affiliated centers across the country are working towards recognition of systemetic racism, identifying the spheres of influence they have to break down or disrupt these systems, and becoming more accountable to BIPOC and BIPOC issues.

There were some interesting questions explored:

  • Can we dream of an alterative reality that is anti-racist?
  • What actions are we taking within our own sphere of influence?
  • What does it mean to be accountable, and how can we be more accountable?
  • What are the ways in which we prioritize BIPOC environmental health issues?
  • What is being done to improve the pipeline for BIPOC researchers in our field?

Here are a couple resources that were shared:

https://bcrw.barnard.edu/building-accountable-communities/

https://www.racialequitytools.org/resources/plan/change-process/accountability