“Individual health and disease do not exist and cannot be understood apart from social conditions - particularly injustice, inequality, and the pervasive influence of traumatic stress” (liberationacupuncture.org)
America views itself thru a filter of individualism. The circumstances of our lives are determined by our own abilities. If our situations involve poverty or illness, it’s up to each of us to “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” to achieve a better life. To perpetuate this American mythology, there are assumptions that are necessary. We have to pretend all of us start with the same resources and have equal opportunity to change the circumstances we’re born into.
There are social determinants of health. Clean water and adequate food are things one requires to live. How accessible they are depends largely on where one lives and in America, where one lives is greatly determined by the color of one’s skin. Besides food and water, your everyday experience in your environment affects your health. This could be fear for your safety, whether walking down the street or in your own home. It includes having daily racist experiences.
Does the location you live in have adequate health care available? Even if it exists, are you confident in the care and attention you receive there or do you feel racial bias from medical professionals? These oppressive structures lead to huge health disparities for BIPOC – life expectantcies are lower, maternal and infant mortality rates are higher. BIPOC have more chronic medical conditions and will suffer worse outcomes from acute medical illnesses like myocardial infarction and sepsis. BIPOC are kept from accessing their basic needs and this can result in psychological distress and PTSD.
Inherited trauma is also not acknowledged in the “Bootstraps” narrative. BIPOC have faced slavery, Jim Crow, genocide, incarceration and police brutality since the beginning of Colonialism. Never in history to the present has there been a moment to heal. Violence, psychological stress, and PTSD is passed down generation after generation, adding to the obstacles that BIPOC have to navigate to try and change the cycle of poverty an American system does not want them to break.
Acupuncture is a medicine that treats physically, emotionally and spiritually. It can be used preventativly or to treat both chronic and acute conditions. By receiving treatment in a group, keeping costs low and without the interference of insurance companies or government, acupuncture becomes a source of social justice. Community acupuncture is about accessibility to healing and addressing America’s condition of white supremacy.
