SWRO for Black Lives Matter

To Our SWRO Members and Radiation Oncology Community:

These past few days, weeks and months have been extremely challenging in many ways. We stand with Black communities during this difficult time. As healthcare providers, we have faced many challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and seen the unequal burden of disease experienced by Black communities, uncovering deeply seated health inequities. We have witnessed the deaths of unarmed Black Americans like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade, who have died at the hands of unjust police brutality, serving as a reminder of the systemic and structural racism pervasive in all aspects of society. We can no longer keep quiet when we, as physicians, see the public health outcomes that are a result of the deeply entrenched problems in America and we must serve as the voices of progress and change.

SWRO is dedicated to improving diversity, equity and inclusion and we stand together with our Black colleagues, patients and communities. We speak against the racial injustices and amplify the voices of those who have for so long felt silent and oppressed. We will use our platform to not only stand against injustices today, but will amplify, support and promote women and men of color to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within our field and beyond our profession to address the outcomes of historic racial inequities.

We see you. We support you. We stand with you now and in the future. We stand with all who seek justice and equity in all we do. Acknowledgement of this does not undo injustice. We vow that our words will be transitioned into action as we engage in the largest public health care crisis of our time: racism.

We will not allow ourselves to forget the pain and suffering we see today and will use this to continue to fuel the passion and commitment that we make to ourselves and to our communities to be the exemplar for actionable change.

Sincerely,

SWRO Executive Committee & SWRO Senior Advisory Committee