As nurses, it is our duty and our calling to protect and serve the health and well-being of the entire community. That duty extends particularly to people of color who are especially vulnerable in this healthcare system. The murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of the Minneapolis police is the latest on a list which is too long to publish of People of Color who have unjustly died as a result of police and vigilante violence. To not speak up in critical moments like this one, as the American Nurses Association noted, would be against our code of ethics. Silence translates into violence for our black and brown siblings, and as nurses we are called to speak for justice. Racism in this country is a public health crisis.

Long-standing systemic racism impacts the lives of men, women and children of color as they interact with all our institutions, from schools to the criminal (so-called) justice system. But we don’t have to look far beyond our own workplaces to see it. Racism also occurs in our hospitals and in the medical profession, including barriers to becoming a nurse. While specific incidents are not revealed to the public through body cameras, we acknowledge that they occur regularly. Barriers to healthcare and the disparate health outcomes that result is directly correlated with the race of the patients we see. While we can call out police brutality as the direct cause of death for George Floyd, the challenge within the nursing profession may be less easily defined. Nevertheless, we must take up that fight to stop racism from determining who lives and who dies in the provision of medical care.

There is also significant work to be done within the labor movement to challenge racism and exclusion. We join others in calling on police unions to reject their role in protecting systemic police violence and to engage in robust and explicit anti-racism work within their organizations and profession. It is a fundamental betrayal of any true commitment to public health and racial justice to devote public tax dollars to the militarization of local police forces while homelessness, lack of access to healthcare, poorly served low-income schools, and other social safety net priorities are starved for resources. Anti-racism is a true union and nursing value which we hold up during the long march towards true justice for all.

In Solidarity,

Lynda Pond, President & Sarah Laslett, Executive Director
Oregon Nurses Association