A Message from the MAR-AMTA Cultural Humility, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee

  • Post category:News

Message from CHADI

Dear members and friends of the MAR-AMTA,

As we collectively struggle with these uncertain and challenging times, the MAR-AMTA Cultural Humility, Accessibility Diversity, and Inclusion (CHADI) Committee acknowledges the ways in which people of color, and particularly Black people, continue to be endangered in ways that white people are not. Amidst a pandemic which has exacerbated healthcare inequities for people of racial minorities, several recent incidents of violence against Black people, most of them fatal, have been brought into the media spotlight.

The MAR-AMTA CHADI committee strongly condemns all of the rhetoric and actions steeped in anti-black racism, as well as the white supremacist culture that permeates this country and is the root cause of them. We acknowledge the emotional toll of the widespread witnessing of these hateful acts on our Black colleagues and Black clients alike. We acknowledge our obligation as music therapists to work in ways that are emphatic of that experience, and actively resist the systems that perpetuate oppression and hate.

The MAR-AMTA CHADI committee also calls on white people to engage in allyship based in action. The more white people become aware of racial injustice and of white privilege, the more white people can take action to dismantle it – beginning within them/ourselves. The CHADI committee has created a Google Drive with resources, which will be continually expanded upon and available for contributions from members:

MAR CHADI Open Resources Folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YlLVjLKbio-gR3wwmYBMzOsvLqYHEUGt

Sincerely,
MAR-AMTA CHADI Committee

Jasmine Edwards, MA, LCAT, MT-BC
Co-chair CHADI Committee, MAR-AMTA

Jenny Hoi Yan Fu, MA, LCAT, MT-BC
Co-chair CHADI Committee, MAR-AMTA

Beth Deyermond, MA, MT-BC
President, MAR-AMTA

Carol Ann Blank, Ph.D., LCAT, LPC, MT-BC
Vice President for Membership, MAR-AMTA