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Tulsa Health Department aiming to raise awareness about how racism, other biases affect health

A banner is seen in Baltimore in 2020.
Elvert Barnes
/
Wikimedia Commons
A banner is seen in Baltimore in 2020.

The Tulsa Health Department is trying to educate the city on how racism and other biases affect health.

A conference will be held at OSU Tulsa next month. Reggie Ivey, Associate Executive Director of THD, says the idea is to raise awareness and dispel myths for everyone from city officials to those who work in healthcare.

“It’s concerning when medical students are saying that a black person’s brain is smaller than a white person’s brain. And they believe that,” said Ivey.

The second annual Blood at the Roots conference will be held April 11 and 12. The title, Blood at the Roots, is taken from the poem Strange Fruit made famous by Billie Holliday and Nina Simone.

You can learn more about the conference here.

Before joining Public Radio Tulsa, Elizabeth Caldwell was a freelance reporter and a teacher. She holds a master's from Hollins University. Her audio work has appeared at KCRW, CBC's The World This Weekend, and The Missouri Review. She is a south Florida native.