History Matters
The history of structural racism — the public policies, institutional practices, and social norms that together maintain racial hierarchies — and its impact across the country, and within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is often overlooked or unacknowledged, yet it is pervasive and unmistakably harmful to everyone. These historic and ongoing policies of racial segregation and disinvestment have led to vast health inequities, including in exposures to asthma risk factors such as poor housing quality, environmental tobacco smoke, poor air quality, and access to quality culturally and linguistically appropriate health care services.