People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. -James Baldwin1
In August 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a critically important policy statement2 on the effects of racism on child and adolescent health. This statement (referred to here as the AAP policy statement) powerfully underscores the work undertaken by scholars and scientists regarding racial inequities in health care, and it comes at a critical sociohistorical moment in which public discourse on racism is squarely at the forefront. The AAP policy statement proposes an integrated approach to combating racism by addressing “implicit and explicit biases, institutional structures, and interpersonal relationships,”2(p1) and advocates “untangling the thread of racism sewn through the fabric of society and affecting the health of pediatric populations.”2(p7)