Shrinking It Down: Mental Health Made Simple

If you’re Black or Brown and growing up in America, it's noticeable from a very young age that something feels off. That’s because, no matter where you go, there is a layered, structural unfairness that plays out. The harmful impact of this unfairness begins to take its toll on even the youngest developing minds.

On today’s episode of Shrinking It Down, special guest O’Neil Britton, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president of Massachusetts General Hospital, joins Gene Beresin for a conversation about continued racial inequities in our society, social justice, and our duty to do better for future generations. They discuss how structural racism built in to education and healthcare systems affects kids and families, and think critically about steps we must take – individually and institutionally – to do more in moving towards an anti-racist Boston, and an anti-racist America.

Thank you for joining in this conversation. Have a question or comment about racism and families? Write to us!

Media List

Follow along with the conversation.

• O’Neil Britton, MD (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
• K-12 Commissioner Says Some Schools May Continue To Use Distance Learning In The Fall (WGBH, Boston Public Radio)
• Communities of color continue to be hit hardest in most populated cities (ABC News)
• COVID-19 in Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• 11 ways race isn’t real (Vox)
• More than Tuskegee: Understanding Mistrust about Research Participation (Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved)
• How we fail black patients in pain (American Academy of Medical Colleges)
• Metro Areas With Largest African American Population (Black Demographics)
• New York City Subway Map (Metropolitan Transit Authority)
• Rapid Transit/Key Bus Routes Map (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority)
• Color Line Persists, In Sickness as In Health (The Boston Globe)
• The Binary Code of Racism | Tracey Benson | TEDxUNCCharlotte (TEDx Talks – YouTube)
• A Sociologist Examines the “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans From Confronting Racism (The New Yorker)
• MGH Structural Equity 10-Point Plan (MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion)
• The legacy of trauma (American Psychological Association)
• Do Kids Have a Fundamental Sense of Fairness? (Scientific American)
• How We Talked About Racism With Our Very young Kids: A Child Psychiatrist Mom’s Conversation With Her 5- and 3-Year-Old Sons (MGH Clay Center)
• Teaching Black History Beyond Slavery and Black History Month (PBS)
• Teaching for the Test or Teaching for Real Life? (MGH Clay Center)
• Ibram X. Kendi – Books
• The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription (The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
• Five Parenting Rules for Coping With the Current Political Climate (MGH Clay Center)
• Remembering Civil Rights Icon John Lewis (WBUR, Here & Now)
• Coronavirus and Family Mental Health (MGH Clay Center)
• The racial wealth gap (Economic Policy Institute)
• Black Homeowners Pay More Than ‘Fair Share’ in Property Taxes (PEW)

Episode produced by Sara Rattigan

Music by Gene Beresin

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