More than 20 cities and counties and at least three states — Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — have declared racism a public health crisis, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a public policy research group. Even Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown introduced a national resolution to do the same on June 3.
But while the declarations are meant to ignite changes on all levels of government to address threats to the Black community, they rarely ever entail specific policy or funding changes. Does that mean they’re mostly symbolic? Not entirely.
The declarations ideally serve as a starting point so that a city, county, or state can start calling on its different sectors — social services, transportation, healthcare, education, housing, criminal justice, budgets and taxes to name a few — to recognize racial inequalities and consider the best ways to resolve them.
As Pew points out, “Higher rates of poverty, unemployment, poor housing and toxic environmental exposure, as well as less access to quality medical care also contribute to poor overall health in Black communities.” The stress of everyday racism also has negative effects on Black health, contributing to chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes which ultimately shorten their lifespans.
By declaring racism as a public health emergency, states and local governments can encourage other community organizations — such as school boards, hospitals, businesses, and others — to make pledges to research and develop policies for improving the lives of black and brown residents
In order to be truly effective though, the resolutions require city and state administrations to appoint officials who will apply pressure, follow-up, and measure concrete changes rather than just issue supportive statements. Even better, future resolutions should create committees that will develop policy and funding changes to substantively address the issue.
Among the cities that have made such declarations are Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cleveland, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Madison, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and at least eight counties across the United States.