We want to start by saying that black lives matter. The life of every black person matters.
This week is Dietitians Week, and we have been talking about the need for diversity in our profession. We want to thank our black members who have taken the time to remind us that we need to talk specifically about black lives at this time. We should have raised this sooner, and we apologise for that.
We condemn the racism, brutalisation and inequality faced by black people both here and in the USA. We stand with our black members, staff and black people everywhere, and we offer our solidarity with all those protesting anti-black racism.
We also strongly condemn President Trump's attempts to portray anti-racist and anti-fascist protest as terrorism.
Although the current protests have been sparked by the brutal murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and others by police in the USA, we know the UK is not innocent. There is an urgent need to address black deaths in custody in the UK, as well as the rising racism and inequality experienced by black people in healthcare, workplaces and communities across the UK.
We believe the dietetic profession can and should play our part in ending anti-black racism in health care and in our communities.
We know the work of ending racism has fallen too heavily on those targeted by it in the past, and we know that this takes its toll on our black members. We understand you’re tired and we want you to know that racism has no place within the BDA community and should not have a place anywhere else.
As your professional body, and Trade Union, we want to be with you, whenever you need us.
We must all take on this fight to end racism. We can root out conscious and unconscious bias in our practice, speak out when we see it in our workplaces, families or communities, and educate ourselves about the history, structure and impacts of anti-black racism in the UK.
To our black members, we recognise the importance you play within the healthcare profession, we stand with you and we support you, because black lives matter.
Various news outlets have begun the work of collating anti-racism resources to read and listen to as well as anti-racist actions to take, here are a couple of examples:
