We are committed to addressing these harms and advancing health and racial equity through public health policies, practices, programs, and the workforce.
In 2025, efforts to promote racial equity face renewed challenges. We are witnessing growing attacks on health equity, civil rights, and the very tools used to identify and confront systemic racism. Despite these challenges, APHA remains unwavering in our commitment to advancing racial equity.
We uses the definition developed by Past APHA President Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, PhD, MPH:
Racism is a system that structures opportunity and assigns value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (what we call "race"). This system:
Racial equity is what would exist when our society no longer assigns advantages or disadvantages based on a person’s skin color. It requires change within our institutions, policies, practices, and cultural beliefs so that everyone has a fair chance to thrive.
Racial equity goes beyond addressing the visible results of inequities. It focuses on understanding and changing the root causes that create them, including the restructuring of institutional policies, practices, and cultural beliefs that perpetuate inequity. Because racism influences the conditions that shape health, achieving racial equity is essential to achieving health equity and building the healthiest nation.
To reach racial equity, we must confront and repair the injustices caused by racism and take action at every level to ensure equal opportunity for all people.
One way we do this is through racial healing, a process that allows us to heal from the wounds of the past and build mutually respectful relationships across racial and ethnic lines. That means using a healing and heart-centered approach to get rid of the false belief that any person is superior to others based on their skin color.
As attacks on equity efforts continue to rise, APHA remains firmly committed to advancing racial equity as a core part of our mission.
This factsheet explains how racism affects people’s health and why racial equity is necessary to ensure everyone has a fair chance to be healthy. It also outlines key steps communities and governments can take to reduce health gaps and create more equitable conditions.
Healing Through Policy offers local leaders a suite of policies and practices that are being implemented across the country to promote racial healing and address social inequities.
Healing Through PolicyAdvancing Racial Equity Webinar Series Recordings (Free Access with No CE)
Making Spaces Inclusive & Accessible: A Conversation on Intellectual Disabilities & Equity
Structured Racism & Privilege as a Root Cause of Health Disparities
Interview with Camara Jones, APHA President-Elect at APHA 2015
Why is racism a public health issue? Episode 7 of "That's Public Health"
