I write this with an aching heart. I know, however, that to be silent is to be complicit.  We are all witnesses to the raw manifestations of the grief, anger, frustration, and pain enfolding before us. Three simple words – “I can’t breathe” – foretold the impending death of George Floyd, a black man in America who died because of racism. The horror of watching him die before us was a reflection of 400 years of systemic oppression of people of color in our country and centuries of denying people their humanity. George Floyd’s name is one among a growing pantheon of those who have died under that oppression.

As the leader of an organization that stands for health equity and social justice and with a global pandemic that has further exposed inequities, I cannot be silent. We cannot be silent. Our outrage is real. What must we do to redress the wrongs of four centuries? I don’t fully understand the way forward but I believe that it begins with compassion and an open heart, and finding ways for us to affirm that we will be anti-racist in thought, word and deed. This is a difficult journey but one that we must travel with purpose and conviction. Please engage because #BlackLivesMatter.

Judith A. Salerno, MD, MS