Understanding How We Got Here

January 23, 2025
=

Jaymie R. Zapata is a Senior Planner - Public Health with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.


"Though the challenges of achieving racial equity may seem daunting, the past has a lot to teach us about how the systems that define our daily lives came to be. The first step to dismantling systems is to understand them. As a systems-level public health planner, I think it is vital to always be reading and educating myself about the decisions my predecessors made in public health for good or ill, so I can center what is just and challenge what is not.


A book that was essential to my understanding of race and Black health in the United States was The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, without which I do not think I would have been able to understand the continuation of Jim Crow laws into the present day nor their deep impact. At my agency we have established a racial equity reading library in our break room, stocked with many books from the Race and Health Equity Resource Guide. We hope people will take a minute over coffee to unplug, pick up a book, and gain some new insights while they are at it. There’s never a bad moment to learn something new!"

share this

Related Articles

June 27, 2025
Access webinar materials from the June 25, 2025 webinar, Fighting for Air: Updates on the proposed biomass plant in Springfield : Recording Slides This webinar featured: State Senator Adam Gomez Attorney Michael Fenton, Springfield City Council President Rusty Polsgrove, Associate Director, Arise for Social Justice Dr. Matthew Sadof, pediatrician, Baystate Health Sarita Hudson, Senior Director of Strategy and Development, Public Health Institute of Western MA Learn more about the bills discussed in the webinar: An Act to remove woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants An Act limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an alternative energy supply Written testimony can be submitted via email to Benjamin Minerva at Ben.Minerva@masenate.gov and Caleb Oakes at Caleb.Oakes@mahouse.gov . When submitting written testimony, please send it as an attachment and use the following document title format: Bill# - Your Organization’s Name – Support/Oppose. View some of the media coverage of the event: Webinar held to address possible Springfield biomass plant, Western Mass News, 6/25/25 Battle over proposed Springfield biomass plant rages on, New England Public Media, 6/26/25 Foes, officials won’t shrink from fight to keep ‘Frankenstein’ plant out of city, The Republican, 6/26/25
June 18, 2025
Putting Resources Into Practice
June 6, 2025
Fighting For Air: Updates on the proposed biomass plan in Springfield