Health Equity: Sharing our Struggles for a Fairer Future

In a booming economy, the gap between the haves and the have-nots can appear to be a slim – even bridgeable – barrier. Here in the US, where we’re brought up to believe that anyone can achieve anything, it’s a seductive notion.

In hard times, though, the stark divisions in our society become more prominent, reinforcing the vast gulf that separates those with the support, tools and resilience to bounce back from adversity and those whose less auspicious origins mean they simply don’t have the resources to make up lost ground.

I recently shared my thoughts on the challenges of advancing health equity in another article, where I reflected on the inequities that mean many people’s life opportunities rest so much – and so very unfairly – on where they’re from. 

At IWBI, we want to give people from all walks of life the opportunity to live the healthiest version of their lives. 

We know there are myriad obstacles to achieving our aims – not least that barriers to inclusion exist at the most fundamental level. That poverty and discrimination, together with unequal access to good jobs, quality education, safe housing and adequate health care, continue to shape what is possible for many.

We also know that to tackle these issues, we need to better understand how deprivation impacts communities across our country – especially those that may be unfamiliar to us. 

I’ve compiled a list of films and documentaries that I’ve found have provided useful insights into organizations and communities outside  my own experience – something that is harder and harder to do when internet algorithms are self-fulfilling and limit our exposure to views and voices that align with our own. 

If we can immerse ourselves in the stories and struggles of all communities, we might begin to see that accepting shared responsibility for the health and well-being of everyone is the first step towards the better, fairer and more equitable society we all deserve.

• Hillbilly offers a compelling account of communities living in Appalachia who seem to feel every bit as ignored, marginalized, forgotten and disadvantaged as do people of color in the Black Lives Matter movement. The film explores and deconstructs the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of a stereotype that has become a shorthand for American introspection.
• Sanjay Rawal’s stark documentary Gather examines the erosion of Native American cultural traditions, blending personal present-day food-security struggles with fascinating archival footage that demonstrates the hostility that indigenous communities have faced – and continue to encounter in modern America.
• We watched John Lewis: Good Trouble as an organization and it sparked some important conversations about advocacy. Told through a series of interviews and archival footage, the film chronicles Lewis’s life as a social activist for civil rights, voting rights, gun control and health-care reform.  
• Alison Klayman’s documentary about Steve Bannon, The Brink, follows Donald Trump’s former advisor as he embarks on a tour of Europe. It offers an insightful glimpse into an alt-right political perspective.
• Against a heteronormative, middle America backdrop, Transhood follows the lives of four trans youths over a five-year period, charting their individual journeys towards adulthood, while examining the broader themes of ostracization and exclusion.

Rachel Hodgdon is President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a public benefit corporation and the world’s leading organization focused on deploying people first places to advance a global culture of health.