WASHINGTON, June 2, 2020 – The Alliance for Aging Research’s (Alliance) President and CEO Susan Peschin, MHS, has released the following statement condemning ongoing racism and violence targeting black communities across the U.S.:

All of us at Alliance for Aging Research believe that everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, should be able to experience healthy aging. The horror and grief we are feeling as an organization over the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, the racial profiling of Christian Cooper, and the long list of senseless deaths and assaults on human dignity before them, compel us to speak out, condemn these acts of racism and violence, and commit ourselves to advocating for social justice harder than ever before.

Healthy aging is about creating the environments and opportunities that enable people to be and do what they value throughout their lives, what the World Health Organization refers to as “functional ability.” A large proportion—about 75 percent—of the range in capacity and circumstance observed in older age is the result of the cumulative impact of advantage and disadvantage across people’s lives. Our experiences with aging are shaped by factors such as the family we were born into, our sex, our race and ethnicity, and our level of education and financial resources.

We cannot do impactful work in aging and health without recognizing and addressing the disparities that exist within it. Systemic racism and violence are major barriers to health and aging equity. We will intensify our work to fight against discriminatory health policies and measures that promote disparities in access to care.

We must overcome the challenges we currently face as a culture and get to a place where we recognize each other’s infinite dignity and value. We believe that, at the deep of ourselves is an inexplicable care for one another. We must put our collective energy into making that shift a permanent reality.