Reflections on the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Decision to Honor the MLK Federal Holiday
By Andrew Williams
Today, for the first time in its history, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a paid federal holiday. This policy decision reflects a deeper transformation that is taking place within our organization as we move through a humbling but necessary journey to become a more diverse, equity-minded, and inclusive organization. This change includes an increasing awareness of the intersections between historical and contemporary movements for social justice and our mission to be a force of healing for all those affected by substance use and mental health conditions.
On March 25, 1966, in Chicago at a press conference before his speech at the second convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“We are concerned about the constant use of federal funds to support this most notorious expression of segregation. Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death.”
Dr. King’s radical compassion resonates in Ross Gay’s new collection of essays entitled Inciting Joy, when he writes:
“To be without health care, and so often to be without health, is violence, it is abnormal (even if it is the norm) . . .”
As we know, health inequity is just one manifestation of the structural violence of racialized injustice that Dr. King found morally objectionable and challenged our society to address through a revolution of values and a radical restructuring of the American political economy.
Every day, as professionals in the field of addiction treatment, we bear witness to the unsettling consequences of racial injustice among the patients and communities we serve — from the disproportionate incarceration of BIPOC with the disease of addiction, to treatment barriers for many BIPOC, to rising overdose deaths and ongoing discrimination within the healthcare system. Racism disproportionately shapes the environment and lived experiences of BIPOC communities, negatively influencing both their risk of developing addiction and their access to evidence-based addiction treatment services. From this perspective, the broader addiction crisis, including the devastating opioid overdose crisis, is better understood as not simply an affliction, but an infliction. The 21st century legacy of King’s courage, sacrifice, and work is that we have a social responsibility to “raise the conscience of the nation” so as to end this shocking and inhuman injustice.
So, as we appropriately celebrate our decision to honor the MLK federal holiday, we also recognize the limits of such symbolic gestures. We know that staying in right relationship with BIPOC communities and addressing our nation’s pathologies of power will require real struggle, debate, disagreement, discomfort, and hard work. On this day, honoring Dr. King, we therefore denounce and commit to challenging racial injustice by working toward solutions to the addiction crisis that recognize the role of systemic racism in creating and reinforcing health inequities. We also commit to examining our own motivations, biases, and practices related to BIPOC to deliver equitable, compassionate, and culturally attentive care to all patients.
On the other side of our DEI journey is a generative home for our visions of recovery equity and changing how the world thinks about addiction.
Andrew Williams is the director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
