“I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood,” says NICHQ Project Specialist, Avery Desrosiers, MPH. “As a result, I didn’t feel the color of my skin until I was almost 20 years old. I didn’t understand what my whiteness meant.”
Desrosiers spent several months in Cape Town, South Africa where she studied the strategies used during Apartheid to oppress Black South Africans systematically, and the lasting impact that had on communities. She recalls the stark contrast of mansions overlooking rundown housing projects while travelling along a highway that was constructed with the purpose of segregating communities.
“What I saw was disturbing but it felt removed from my own experiences,” says Desrosiers. “It wasn’t my country, my reality. So, in those moments, I was able to shrug off my racial responsibility.”
[For more on this story by Avery Desrosiers, MPH, and Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA, go to https://www.nichq.org/insight/...ems-improvement-work]
Comments (0)