Tell Legislators to Support the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act
The disparities that have existed for centuries in health outcomes for Black and Brown communities have been painfully highlighted amidst the pandemic. Black Americans are dying at nearly twice the rate as white Americans from COVID, with also a higher likelihood of contracting COVID and experiencing adverse health outcomes. This is due to inequities in housing, employment, health access and many other societal conditions. As the result of years of systemic racism, lack of health access and insurance and inequitable treatment in medicine, Black and Brown communities experience higher rates of chronic health conditions.
It is abundantly clear that racism is a public health emergency, and it is time for our governmental institutions to do more than simply acknowledge the impact of systemic racism on Black and Brown communities. The United Church of Christ has been a leading organization in pushing for a deeper understanding of environmental racism and its health impacts, including the Toxic Waste and Race report issued in the 1970s and followed with subsequent reports clearly showing that race and poverty are the top variables in accounting for the location of a toxic waste facility. Placing residents in those communities, predominantly Black and Brown Americans, at risk for a myriad of serious and deadly health complications.
Mere lip service is not enough, there needs to be an explicit statement of fact that systemic racism and all of its insidious structural barriers are a public health emergency. The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act would create a “Center on Anti-Racism in Health” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to deepen the federal government’s commitment to ensuring that policies are anti-racist and take systemic racism into account. The bill would also establish a “Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program” at the CDC. Introduced by Representatives Pressley and Lee and Senator Warren this bill is a crucial step toward addressing systemic racism and violence toward Black and Brown communities. Please join with us in urging Congress to move forward with swift consideration of this legislation.
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