The STAR Project is about health students and staff Standing Together Against Racism in health care. The STAR Project supports Australia’s new Anti-Racism Strategy –
Racism: It Stops With Me, by taking on racism inside health.
STAR was begun by students and staff at the School of Medicine and Dentistry at James Cook University, Queensland. They had come across many fellow students and colleagues who wanted to show their opposition to racism. So they initiated the STAR Project as a way that students and staff could show that they Stand Together Against Racism.
Racism in health care affects our most vulnerable people. It remains common in Australian health studies and health care.
Many health students and staff have reported that they would like to respond more positively to racism.
The STAR Project does not ask much of the participant – but many people feel they can make a quiet and dignified statement.
You can be a little, twinkly STAR by wearing a badge or putting up a sticker and getting others to join you.
STAR can also help you to become a big, bright STAR by doing something active about racism when you come across it.
People who are targets of racism are usually those who most need health care. When people experience racism in health they are less likely to:
- trust staff
- become true partners in their own health decision making
- to access health care in future
- get equitable health care
The euphemism racism makes you sick is actually true. This is not just in the sense that most of us find racism disgusting.
It is because there is now a significant body of evidence that describes patho-physiological pathway between racism and disease. A short video clip describing Patho-physiology of racism can be viewed here.
For more information, please visit the Star Project website.
Email us @ TheSTARProject: info@starproject.me
