Changing the Face
By Julian Johnson • August 7, 2020
This is the second installment of the Summer Blog Series: Making the Case for Organic Public Health. To read the first installment, please click here. To read the second installment, please click here.
Public health is still in need of a publicist.
Publicists always have their eye on how their client is being perceived, whether positive or negative. We are already aware that, pre-COVID 19, the general public perception around agencies like the CDC, Department of Health & Human Services, and state/local health departments was negative.[1][2] Thus, I am calling for public health to be redefined and expanded; we must “change the face.”
Let me be clear in noting that changing “the face”, in this situation, doesn’t mean “in replacement of” but “in addition to.”
It requires us to incorporate grassroots organizations doing this work into “the face” of public health. Furthermore, it requires us to make structural changes within the practice of public health to better reflect this changing face.
We have seen non-U.S. governmental institutions and even some U.S. public health advocates & nonprofits embrace work surrounding social conditions as a root of health outcomes—a concept that has run parallel to traditional public health theory as early as the 19th century.[3] Nevertheless, U.S. public health has mistakenly remained hesitant to adopt tenets of organic public health.[4] Organic public health aims to address health inequity from non-traditional pathways of public health. This centers on grassroots & community level organization and activism advocating for reform and justice within various facets of the human condition related to health; this includes housing, economics, education, the environment, transportation, access to food, and much more.
We must look back in history and realize that incorporating organic public health work can be done on a wider, national scale—that it has been done. If this is not enough to convince you that organic public health is critical for traditional public health to engage in sustainable and effective work, we can take a closer look at organizations who have led the way in the United States:
The Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), established in 1966, serves as an example of organizations that centered community advocacy and organizing to address the struggles of Black-Americans. The BPP shared many similarities with social medicine theorists, including the belief that health is associated with factors beyond the biological framework. The founding principles of the BPP, known as the Ten Point Platform, advocated for issues that ranged across various factors of the human condition. From point 7’s proclamation to “end POLICE BRUTALITY and [the] MURDER of Black people” to point 10’s call for fundamental needs such as “Land, Bread, Housing; Clothing; Education, Justice, and Peace,” there was an intrinsic understanding that “extramedical factors” contributed to the disparate illness burden in the Black community.[5] These beliefs were expanded upon through the founding of the People’s Free Health Clinic [6] and their Free Breakfast for School Children Program.[7]
When examining the work of the Black Panther Party, it is apparent that the problem hasn’t been a lack of organizations doing organic public health but rather a lack of spotlight and recognition. Outside of the Black Panther Party, there are a plethora of other grassroots organizations Praxis has had the privilege of partnering with. These community-led efforts highlight the resiliency, innovation, and power of community.[8] Power, in this framework, is directly tied to agency. It is the ability for a community to control their own health, environmental conditions, etc. As our community partners have coined, “power means freedom, liberation, and control.”[9]
Organizations within Praxis’ network engage in work that spans across various social determinants, one of them being Got Green:
Got Green
Based in south Seattle Washington, Got Green is a grassroots organization aimed at ensuring the promises and benefits of the “Green Movement” reach low income communities and communities of color. Got Green organizes around issues related to green jobs, healthy foods, public transportation, and other environmental issues. For example, Got Green’s Fresh Buck’s program has helped Black and brown communities receive access to healthy, affordable foods. With Black, Indigenous people of color being diagnosed with diabetes at such high rates, it is imperative that we look at the underlying systems in place to understand the reasons for this disparity.[10] While many in traditional public health may point to individual health behavior, Got Green’s Food Access Organizer Tanika Thompson explains why this isn’t the case:
“I often hear people say that low-income people of color just don’t want to eat healthier foods, which is incorrect. I have heard many stories about how having the free fruits and vegetables dollars have made a huge difference in what’s on the table for dinner.”
The work of the Fresh Bucks and Fresh Bucks expansion program have helped fulfill the needs of many low-income families in the Food Security Gap. Aside from grassroots programming, Got Green also advocated for all revenue collected from Seattle’s Sugary Beverage Tax passed in 2018 to go towards community programs, like Got Green’s Fresh Bucks, that create access to healthy food, education, and early learning programs.
Our grassroots partners are not only building community in order to tackle these important issues, but they are also organizing and engaging to stand up against injustice & inequity. Unfortunately, this type of public health practice is often left out of conversations surrounding “best practices” or interventions within public health scholarship, even though we see it has been beneficial in the communities our partners serve.
#NoDAPL
There are organizations outside of Praxis’ network that also center grassroots and community organizing as a means of public health work. An example of this can be seen through the organizing and solidarity work of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to combat the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which violated the Fort Laramie Treaty due to its proposed construction taking place on sovereign land. The pipeline’s threat of contaminating the water supply of nearby Indigenous communities and the destruction of ecosystems filled with diverse wildlife animals are to be expected if construction continues.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Oceti Sakowin Youth and Allies, along with Native and non-Native American allies, have organized marches, held encampments, and have tapped into community support and the power of celebrity to raise these injustices to the national scale. While recent rulings have come out allowing for construction on the pipeline to continue, the organizing work of #NoDAPL has made the inarguable case that the fight for environmental justice is not only tied to public health but deserves our attention and energy.
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It is possible, and imperative, for all of us to reimagine a field of public health that incorporates both traditional and organic public health into a unified standard of practice. Today, we look back in history and understand that the work of the Black Panther Party anticipated much of today’s contemporary research on racial inequality’s effect on health.[11] We should not make the same mistake in failing to see the value and need for grassroots organizations and activism. Much of the work the BPP did to “serve the people body and soul” and the work former members are currently doing within public health is overshadowed by narratives that focus solely on instances of self-defense and violence against the state.[12]
To truly achieve health justice and racial equity for all, organic & traditional public health need one another. Sustainable and impactful work can’t happen otherwise. It’s time to change the face.
In the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, we also find it imperative to uplift grassroots organizations doing work on police and prison abolition & reimagining community safety:
[1] Rollin, Pierre E., et al. “Why Is the CDC 'Sitting on the Sidelines' in the Covid-19 Fight?” STAT, 26 Mar. 2020, www.statnews.com/2020/03/26/cdc-veteran-asks-why-is-cdc-sitting-on-the-sidelines-covid-19-fight/.
[2] Staff, Landmark, and Ivan Foley. “Public Health Departments Struggle to Clear up Misinformation.” The Platte County Landmark Newspaper, 30 July 2020, plattecountylandmark.com/2020/07/30/platte-countypublic-health-departments-struggle-to-clear-up-misinformation/.
[3] Waitzkin, Howard, et al. “Social Medicine Then and Now: Lessons from Latin America.”American Journal of Public Health,vol. 91, no. 10, Oct. 2001.
[4] The Praxis Project: Centering Community in Public Health - Learning Circle Brief Series Organic Efforts Towards Health Equity-Driven Policy and Practice
[5] Nelson, Alondra. “The Longue Durée of Black Lives Matter.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Oct. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5024410/.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Jennings, Billy X. “'When We Needed It to Be, Food Was a Weapon'.” Eater, Eater, 17 June 2020, www.eater.com/21293327/black-panther-party-free-breakfast-program-history-oakland-california.
[8] “Communities Building Power for Health.” The Praxis Project, www.thepraxisproject.org/cbph-index.
[9] The Praxis Project: Centering Community in Public Health – Measuring the Impact of Building Community Power for Health Justice brief.
[10] Spanakis, Elias K, and Sherita Hill Golden. “Race/Ethnic Difference in Diabetes and Diabetic Complications.” Current Diabetes Reports, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dec. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3830901/.
[11] Nelson, Alondra. “The Longue Durée of Black Lives Matter.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Oct. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5024410/.
[12] Morabia, Alfredo. “Unveiling the Black Panther Party Legacy to Public Health.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Oct. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5024399/.