A liberatory approach to health journalism

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, a state that frequently ranks number one or near the top on a list for health disparities. Though I did not have language for it as a child, but I would learn that my immediate family, my classmates' families, members of our church, all experienced an ironic equalizing of through widespread health inequities. Hearing that yet another family member or relative had passed from a cancer, understanding that buying gallons of water is a fixed expense for many households in my home country, not all, because the light brown drinking water that flows from the tap had —and has —an odd taste, and somehow innately knowing that we, Black Mississippians, have unsettling encounters with the healthcare system.

There was the time my maternal grandfather suffered third degree burns over a substantial part of his body. During the ambulance ride, one of the EMTs said to the driver, "This n-word ain't gonna make it. You can turn the sirens off." The story goes that my grandfather, though barely conscious, had enough will to say, "I am not dead. Get me to the hospital!"

My grandfather survived and so did the story of how the white paramedics felt comfortable casually taking a Black man's fate into their hands.

Mississippi, everything about it, certainly fueled my burden to expose injustices, to use words to sound an alarm.

When I left journalism, I knew I would return to it, but I did not know in what capacity. However, my focus on storytelling remained laser sharp, and my interest in the myriad factors that affect individual and population health became grew deeper. My focus and desire organically led me into health and healthcare justice, policy, advocacy work, and everything clicked at once. I began to see everything through a health equity lens. When I studied the systems and the social determinants that inform and affect health, I gained clarity about how I wanted to return to journalism.

This revelation is how Undertones Media came to be.

Undertones is a source for trusted health journalism that knits together health equity intersections and how they influence health in the lives of marginalized people living in the Washington, D.C. region. Our reporting relies on a liberatory storytelling approach so that their societal reality and living experience and exposure are centered and they have the information they need to participate in advancing health equity in their communities and nationally.

Our vision is that our reporting, storytelling events, and primary research will shift and change harmful health narratives about marginalized populations, and be a catalyst for individual and community participation to help advance health equity.