BY DR. KANIKA TOMALIN | President and CEO of The Foundation For a Healthy St. Petersburg
In our awesome nation, great state, and beloved community, we are all created equal, yet we all do not enjoy an equal walk through this life for which we’ve been created. This is not my impassioned opinion. It is our undeniable truth.
When we look at who in our city suffers from chronic disease, is prone to injury and violence, and is more likely to experience complications during childbirth, we see disturbing racial disparities. Black residents in St. Pete suffer more and die earlier than their white neighbors. These disparities are not an inevitable result of biology but the result of systemic racism. As renowned author Linda Villarosa shares, Black people, are not made to “live sicker and die quicker.”
Rather, the factors and conditions that contribute to these inequitable outcomes are complex and compound, rooted in social conditions and systems that have been shaped by unjust histories over the course of generations. These unequal and unjust outcomes can and must be changed.
On the evening of October 9th, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg is hosting Villarosa, the acclaimed author and New York Times Magazine writer, to discuss how health disparities are created – and what we can do to change them. I hope everyone reading this can join us for this special event.
In 2018, Villarosa published a groundbreaking piece of reporting In New York Times Magazine on glaring and pervasive racial disparities in maternal fetal health outcomes, highlighting the reality that Black women are three times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Black newborns as more than twice as likely as White newborns to die during their first year.
These differences cannot be explained away by mitigating factors such as educational attainment or socioeconomic status. In fact, Black women with a college degree are more likely to die in childbirth than White women who haven’t earned a high school diploma. Villarosa’s critical reporting on maternal-fetal health disparities drew national attention to the impact of systemic racism and implicit bias in health outcomes for Black women and sparked a conversation and greater movement to create change.
Villarosa expanded on that work with her 2022 book Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. Under the Skin, which tackles topics like environmental racism and maternal mortality, was named a best book of 2022 by six publications, including The Washington Post and NPR. It was also a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction.
When she joins us at the Foundation’s Center for Health Equity on October 9, Villarosa will share details from her book, delving into the work and research that informed it. After her talk, community members will have a chance to ask questions so that we may learn together with the goal of creating change.
We host events like these to create opportunities for learning and catalysts for change. We can’t change what we don’t recognize as a problem – and we won’t change what we don’t understand.
Our efforts don’t end with education alone, however. Our funded partner Healthy Start of Pinellas County, with financial support from the Foundation and Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, is working to train culturally responsive birthing doulas and make them accessible to Black families in South St. Petersburg. Numerous other groups are hard at work ensuring culturally responsive mental health services, improving access to healthy foods, raising awareness of conditions such as Sickle Cell, creating opportunities for economic growth, and more.
All of us have a role to play. Together, we are members of an ecosystem that can work to improve health and equity in our community so that all Pinellas County residents can thrive.
Thank you for all you do to remain engaged, care, and contribute to our shared work. We hope to see you October 9.
Dr. Kanika Tomalin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. In this role, she leads, directs, and integrates all aspects of the Foundation’s internal and external activities and initiatives. Working closely with the Foundation team, Dr. Tomalin creates and executes the Foundation’s strategic plan—overseeing grantmaking, strategic initiatives, and the Center for Health Equity. She guides the organization as a steward of the community’s resources, consistently reporting back to the community and ensuring decisions and plans of action are mission-aligned and based in equity.
