The UC San Diego-San Diego State University General Preventive Medicine Residency is in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and condemns the use of excessive force in law enforcement tactics. The residency believes the scientific evidence that systemic racism exists and that there is an urgent need to actively work toward institutional changes that reverse decades of discrimination. Data shows that a direct line can be drawn from racially discriminatory institutional policies against black men, women and children that cause poverty and inequitable access to education, clean water, and healthy food to the preventable differences in burdens of disease and death that we see among people of color as compared to white individuals. We must move beyond racial equity to racial justice, and we must move beyond race neutrality to actively embracing anti-racist policies. We therefore support the right of students, residents and faculty to protest these inequities and are in solidarity with the efforts of those across the nation and the world working toward institutional change. We recommend the resources below to those seeking to learn more about racial inequality and its manifestations in medicine and public health:

Websites on the role of racial inequality in medicine and public health:

• https://www.raceandmedicine.com/
• https://unnaturalcauses.org/

• For educators:
  • https://www.racialequitytools.org/
  • https://citizenshipandsocialjustice.com/2015/07/10/curriculum-for-white-americans-to-educate-themselves-on-race-and-racism/
• For medical trainees and physicians:
  • White Coats for Black Lives
  • How to be anti-racist, the work of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi