Before the pandemic, I could not even spell the word. Maybe one of the good things that will come out of the pandemic will be the realization of Americans’ fears and our owning the long history of systematic oppression, hatred, and violence. The fear of what is perceived as different is very strong and our history of reaction even stronger. |
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There are too many recent horrific events, too many to list or count. Most recently the killing of eight people in Atlanta Georgia, six of these individuals were Asian Americans. Anti-Asian hate crimes have doubled between 2019 and 2020, but the history of racism towards Asians is long-standing, starting in the 1800’s. |
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1871 – 19 Chinese individuals were murdered in Los Angeles in Chinatown
1875 - The Page Exclusion act banned entry of Chinese women
1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese laborers
1926 – Stockton California, violent attacks on New Year’s on innocent Filipinos
1927 – Anti-Filipino riots in Yakina Valley Washington took the lives, houses, and jobs of many Filipinos
1930 – Jan 19-23 Watsonville, riots against Filipino farmworkers
1939 - During World War II, forced internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans, over 60% of these being citizens
1955 - Vietnam War – continued discrimination of Southeast Asians, including attacks by the Klu Klux Klan
1982 – The killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American beaten to death with a baseball bat in Detroit, during a recession blamed in part of the rise of the Japanese automobile industry.
1989 – One of the first school mass shootings, Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton California – 5 SE Asian Children gunned down on a playground 32 injured
2020 – Asians blamed for the pandemic
March 16, 2020 – The first tweet about the Chinese Virus
March 16, 2021 – Six Asian women murdered in Atlanta
Our country has a long history of xenophobia and acts of hatred against groups in the minority. Whether it is Asians. Pacific Islanders. Blacks. Muslims. Jews. Women. LGBTQIA. Latinx. Whomever. Anyone who is different. Xenophobia. The department of pediatrics stands strongly united against all forms of hatred and violence. We respect and applaud the diversity of our nation, state, and University – and the Department of Pediatrics. Our diversity makes us stronger. Particularly as Pediatricians we need to applaud and embrace our differences. We stand with, support, and encourage our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander friends during these difficult times. We condemn those with hatred and violence in their hearts.
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Are you outraged by the recent surge of anti-Asian hate crimes throughout the country? Here's what you can do to help.
As videos of horrific attacks targeting Asian American elders permeate the news and social media, it has brought much-needed attention to the rise in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hate, fed by the stigmatizing language like “China virus” and “kung flu” used repeatedly by U.S. government leaders since March 2020, has not subsided over time. Eighty-four-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee of San Francisco died of his injuries after being violently shoved to the ground on January 28. His attack is part of a disturbing pattern of crimes against Asian Americans, who have been assaulted, spat on, slashed, robbed, and more. Nearly 3,000 incidents were recorded in the United States between March and December 2020 by Stop AAPI Hate, a national reporting center that tracks these incidents of hate and discrimination. It’s clear that something more needs to be done…but what?
“One way we can help combat anti-Asian racism is educating our family, friends, neighbors, and community members to know that anti-Asian rhetoric is harmful,” says Linda Ng, national president of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates. “The way we talk about COVID-19, its origins, who can be susceptible to it, who’s fighting it on the front lines, and the vaccine need to be anti-xenophobic.”
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As a group, American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer the worst health in the nation. They have higher rates of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, than other groups and die much younger: 25 percent of Native deaths occur before age forty-five, compared with 15 percent of African American deaths and 7 percent of white deaths.
When they do get sick, Native patients often aren’t seen by Native doctors, who are underrepresented in the profession. While about 2 percent of the U.S. population identify at least in part as American Indian or Alaska Native, only about 0.56 percent of practicing doctors do so. So tribal health organizations recruit doctors from outside the reservation, sometimes young physicians who spend a few years caring for an underserved community while taking advantage of loan forgiveness programs. The downside, wrote Ronald Shaw, former president of the Association of American Indian Physicians, is that Native health facilities “rely on a workforce composed of too many physicians serving out a commitment rather than being committed to the people.”
Michael Tutt, M88, who grew up on the Navajo Nation reservation and has worked there as a physician for the last nineteen years, has been doing all he can to change that. As the chief medical officer for Tséhootsooí Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Arizona, he seeks out doctors who will wholeheartedly serve the center’s 30,000 user population. Piecing together a dedicated staff, along with a practice that encompasses both traditional and contemporary medicine, is the best way he knows to reduce the health disparities that have followed his people for centuries.
“One of my main jobs is to protect my community, my people, my family, my clans—protect them from harm,” Tutt said. “That is one of my main focuses in life. Medicine is just a small part of it.”
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Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America--but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
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Underrepresented in Medicine Community List
The purpose of the Underrepresented in Medicine Community List is to allow students, staff, residents, and faculty of underrepresented identities that are affiliated with the UNC School of Medicine to find community, mentorship, and representation. Such identities include those belonging to non-dominant religions, races or ethnicities, and sexualities or gender identities.
This community is open and accessible to anyone with a UNC Onyen and password, including current staff, faculty, students, residents, and fellows.
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April Dates to Note
Other important dates can be found on the
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Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. Good Friday is a widely instituted legal holiday around the world, including in most Western countries and 12 U.S. states. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday, or Easter Friday, though the last term properly refers to the Friday in Easter week. |
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April 2: World Autism Awareness Day |
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that manifests itself during the first three years of life. The rate of autism in all regions of the world is high and it has a tremendous impact on children, their families, communities, and societies.
The United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared 2 April as World Autism Awareness Day (A/RES/62/139) to highlight the need to help improve the lives of children and adults who suffer from the disorder so they can lead full and meaningful lives.
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This holy day celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified and died in Jerusalem. It is Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, often referred to as the "passion," followed by his resurrection that is central to Christian faith. Easter culminates the penitential period that starts with Ash Wednesday. Palm Sunday, which marks the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, occurs one week before Easter. Easter is a joyous holiday, since it marks for Christians the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. |
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April 7: Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust Victims |
This eight-day-long observance runs from the Sunday on or before through the Sunday after Yom Hashoah, the Jewish observance of Holocaust Memorial Day. This is a time of civic commemorations to remember the Holocaust victims and educational programs to teach the lessons of the Holocaust. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., designates a theme for each year's programs. |
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April 7: Remembrance of the Rwandan Genocide Victims |
This day commemorates the deaths of nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were murdered by Hutu extremists in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. When ethnic tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes heightened in late 1993, the United Nations established the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and sent peacekeeping forces to Rwanda to help implement the Arusha Peace Agreement ending the Rwandan Civil War. With the April 6, 1994 assassination of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira, the unstable peace turned into a genocide. The success of UNAMIR was hindered largely due to the limited scope of its mandate and the lack of international cooperation. In 1999 the United Nations acknowledged that the international community had failed to prevent the genocide in Rwanda. |
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Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as Buddha, or "enlightened one," was an Indian prince who left his family at the age of 29 to seek the truth of life. After years of wandering, meditation, and self-denial, he attained the enlightenment he sought at a place now called Buddha Gaya or Bodh Gaya. The religion he founded spread throughout central and Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Korea, and has also attracted followers in the West. It is celebrated on this day in the Mahãyãna Buddhist tradition based on the Japanese Buddhist calendar.
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This begins the first day of the Islamic month of Ramadan, a month of fasting and the holiest month of the Muslim year. During this month, no water or food may be taken from sunrise to sunset. Worshippers eat a light meal, called suhoor, early in the morning prior to daybreak. After sunset, Muslims break the fast with the evening meal called the iftar. |
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The Tamil New Year follows the spring equinox and generally falls on 14 April of the Gregorian year. The day celebrates on the first day of the traditional Tamil calendar and is a public holiday in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The same date is observed as the traditional new year in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, as well as in Nepal and Bangladesh. |
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April 18 - 24: National Pediatric Transplant Week |
National Pediatric Transplant Week takes place the last full week of National Donate Life Month in April. It focuses on the powerful message of ending the pediatric transplant waiting list. Throughout Pediatric Transplant Week, clinical partners share patient stories (candidates and recipients) and innovative care; donor families whose children have saved and healed lives through organ, eye and tissue donation are honored; and recipient families share their thanks and milestone celebrations. |
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April 21: Festival of Ridvan |
On the first, ninth, and twelfth day of the Baha'i month of Ridvan (April 21, 29, and May 2), Baha'is commemorate the declaration of Baha'u'llah in 1863 of his mission as the last messenger of God to the world. Although Baha'is observe all twelve days, these three days are ones on which they refrain from work. The word "Ridvan" means paradise and refers to the garden in Baghdad where Baha'u'llah proclaimed his mission as the prophet of God. |
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First celebrated in 1970 in the United States as a day to honor the Earth and call attention to environmental concerns, Earth Day is now celebrated internationally in more than 192 countries.For more information, visit Earthday. |
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April 22 - 24: Gathering of Nations Powwow |
This three-day event, held annually at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, is the largest powwow in North America. More than five hundred tribes from Canada and the United States come every year to participate in this celebration of American Indian culture, which features drum groups and ceremonial singing, chanting, and dancing in traditional dress. There are exhibitions of American Indian artifacts and authentic Indian crafts for sale. The Gathering of Nations organization seeks to promote the traditions and culture of the American Indian people in the most positive manner possible and to dispel stereotypes created about the Indian people. The powwow provides educators with an opportunity to develop instructional materials on Indian history and culture for elementary and secondary schools. |
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April 25: Mahavir Jayanti |
This festival, also known as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, celebrates the birth of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and last of the Tirthankaras, or enlightened ones. It is the most important holiday in Jainism and is celebrated with prayer and visits to shrines. Jainism is a religious system practiced by over 5 million people worldwide, primarily in India. It arose in the 6th century B.C.E. as a protest against some aspects of Hinduism |
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April 29: Remembrance Day for Chemical Warfare Victims |
This day of remembrance was established in 2005 to pay tribute to the victims of chemical warfare and to "reaffirm the commitment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to the elimination of the threat of chemical weapons, thereby promoting the goals of peace, security, and multilateralism." The commemoration is held on the day on which the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997. |
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Also known as Great Friday, this is the day Coptic Orthodox Christians and Eastern Orthodox Christians commemorate Jesus' crucifixion. |
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Dates to Note is a compilation intended to include, but is not all-inclusive, notable information from the internet, Diversity Best Practices, 2021 Diversity Holiday Calendar, and other sources). |
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Alessandra Angelino, MD
Anjnea Green
Benny Joyner, MD
Christian Lawrence, MD
Denita Moore
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Hadley Kifner, MDiv, BCC
Jennifer Gutierrez-Wu, MD
Jennifer McElroy
Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD
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Martha Perry, MD
Nina Jain, MD
Robin Howard
Zachary Pettigrew, MD
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