As editors of Medical Anthropology Quarterly, we stand in solidarity with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities fighting against racial injustice, police brutality and the indiscriminate profiling and murder of Black people, and in support of the civil rights of protest. We also recognize that current events, including the COVID pandemic, are only the most recent examples of how long-standing structural inequalities harm the health of BIPOC communities. We, as a journal, have not done enough to undo the structures of white supremacy and (settler) colonialism on which our field–including its systems of publication, citation and circulation–is patterned. We commit ourselves to doing better over the long term, and we are exploring concrete steps for the future. In this moment, we recognize that continuing to work as normal is not an adequate response, but we also feel committed to providing space for our community of medical anthropologists to think together on these issues, and find new ways to address them alongside our long-term research interests. With that commitment in mind, we will continue to invite and publish blog posts on this topic for our various medical anthropology response platforms including: the COVID-19 Responses and the MAQ blogs, Critical Care and Second Spear, and in our peer reviewed articles. Across these forums, we urge white scholars to attend to the work of antiracist and anticolonial praxis and particularly hope to amplify the voices and perspectives of BIPOC scholars who wish to contribute to and publish in MAQ.
For more information on the work of anti-black racism in anthropology, see this statement by the Association of Black Anthropologists.
Your Editorial Team,
Vincanne Adams, Editor
Alex Nading, Onboarding Editor
Melina Salvador, Editorial Assistant
Amber Benezra, Digital Media Editor
Daisy Deomampo, Book Reviews Editor
Zoe Wool, Reading the Archive Editor
(and editorial support from the MAQ Editorial Board)