Dozens of City Governments Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis
More than 50 city declarations put racism’s health impacts on par with disease and addiction. Health organizations and school districts are adopting them too.
A participant holds a placard that says “racism is a public health crisis” in Foley Square during the Queer Liberation March in lower Manhattan on June 28. Cities, school districts, and health agencies are making this statement official policy by passing declarations.
Photographer: SOPA Images/LightRocketOn July 7, Memphis passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, following the examples of dozens of cities across the U.S. The city council vote was unanimous. The language of the resolution draws a through-line from the 1866 Memphis Massacre, when white terrorists killed and raped dozens of Black people, to the current Covid-19 pandemic, where the coronavirus has disproportionately infected and killed Black residents, in making the case for a plague of systemic racism.
Among the causes for the declaration, as stated in the resolution: “A failure by any of our citizens to acknowledge the prevalence of racism in our community and to join in the fight to eradicate its effects on the majority of our residents is an unwelcomed option.”