Last month, NMW.O Program Co-Director, Fatima van Hattum was honored to be a panelist for a Listening Session on Racial Justice, organized by the Governor’s Advisory Council on Racial Justice. The two-hour session with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham focused on racial injustice in law enforcement, health, and education. Fatima was invited to speak about NMW.O’s recent report about the pandemic and her PhD work at UNM. She joined panelists and speakers from the ACLU NM, NM Public Education Department, UNM Office of Community Health, NM Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, Ngage NM, and Native American Voters Alliance in a conversation moderated by Kahlil Ekulona, host of KUNM Your NM Government.
Speakers addressed racism in law enforcement and the need to reallocate funding away from biased and ineffective policing toward relevant social services that support public safety needs. The panel discussed racism in healthcare access and treatment, including ways in which COVID-19 has had harder impacts on communities of color, due to historical and present-day oppression. There was also discussion around the need to shift our curriculum and education to include honest and comprehensive accounts of colonization as part of the process of racial healing. There were over 400 questions submitted from the audience highlighting both the depth of public knowledge and profound desire to have real conversations that lead to tangible anti-racist policies.