A need for change

The LBBC team joins the community in grieving the murder of George Floyd and demanding change. The challenges of systemic and individual racism are deep-seated, and real.  We see the impacts in breast cancer, where black women are 40% more likely to die of their disease than white women, and yet again today with the uneven distribution of disease burden in COVID-19.

Among the actions LBBC is taking: elevating and empowering our community to advocate for health equity; providing tools through educational programs, such as our planned fall workshop series on disparities in breast cancer for African-Americans, including identifying and addressing implicit and explicit bias; sharing the stories and voices of black women, as people with breast cancer and as professionals; and working harder and smarter to diversify LBBC at every level of our organization.

As an organization we recognize we have work to do, and we are in the process of examining our own privilege and role in the problem and in finding solutions. We are working with other organizations to address health disparities and are seeking more opportunities to do so. As one step, our team signed this pledge launched by our colleagues at Tigerlily. We invite you to join us. 

Resources about racial disparities in breast cancer care:

• For the Breast of Us accomplice guide
• Sisters Network
• Breastcancer.org: Racial disparities in breast cancer stage at diagnosis linked to lack of insurance
• Color of Change