Two weeks ago, I presented at conference  sponsored by the CDC, which focused on public health issues surrounding hemoglobinopathies - and of note sickle cell disease. On the last day of the conference, we were honored to have renowned family physician Dr. Camara Jones as the lunchtime keynote speaker. Her talk focused on the interplay between SCD outcomes and race. At the end of her talk, she presented the Gardner's Tale, an analogy I heard before at another one of her talks years ago while working on my MPH degree. The analogy originally appeared in the American Journal of Public Health some years ago, and I would very much encouraged that anyone who deals with issues of racial inequalities (i.e. Americans) should either take a peek at the video below, or read the pdf file*. In summary, Dr. Jones explains how the three levels of racism - institutional, personally-mediated and internalised - came to be in American society by likening Caucasian and African Americans to roses developed in varying quality of soil.

A Gardener's tale from Luis Manriquez on Vimeo.

And yes, I, too, stand in solidarity with those who seek justice for Trayvon Martin.

*Levels of racism: a theoretic framework and a gardener's tale. C P Jones Am J Public Health. 2000 August; 90(8): 1212–1215.