A prominent group of healthcare professionals formed The Healing ARC to shape interventions that eliminate structural racism in hospitals, healthcare systems and care facilities that contribute to racial and ethnic inequities in patient care. The primary mission for our campaign is to raise awareness of The Healing ARC framework and other race-conscious work that can transform patient care for people of color. Our campaign begins in Massachusetts. We want hospitals and care facilities in Massachusetts to treat ALL patients with dignity, respect, and fairness. Massachusetts residents, like those nationwide, are entitled to patient-centered and people-centered healthcare, which requires addressing the institutional racism that prevents some, particularly those in communities of color, from receiving equal care.

We truly believe that racism is the root cause of disparities in health outcomes for people of color. It is a product of historic and contemporary beliefs in a hierarchy of human value, a perception long embedded in American society that race, ethnicity, physical characteristics or place of origin elevate one demographic or suppress another, establishing an illusion of white superiority in the minds of too many. At times, race-conscious strategies will be the best practices available to expand equity and fairness in our communities, while eliminating structural racism. A racial/ethnic lens can be critical to identifying and eradicating harmful inequities that lower the quality of life for people of color. Furthermore, successful race-conscious approaches counter the notion that race-blind solutions alone can effectively fix systems, institutions, and sectors with legacies of being broken because of racism.