Systematic Racism is a Public Health Emergency

Progressives, are you listening?

It is time we start treating structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease: investing in research into its symptoms and causes and finding ways to mitigate its effects,” Warren said, according to Blavity. “My bill with Representatives Lee and Pressley is a first step to create anti-racist federal health policy that studies and addresses disparities in health outcomes at their roots. (Major, 2020)

To combat systematic racism, Americans need to commit to the implementation of progressive legislation. Racism is America’s open wound. Colorblind ideology, white denial within the current administration, and white supremacist groups’ rise further exasperated the injury this year.

In the past, white Americans insisted that Black Americans should wait for reform, that it is not the right time to address systemic inequities. Morning show pundits often assert that addressing racism is a step too far for swing voters; their pandering denied justice to Black people time and time again. However, we know that justice delayed is justice denied. Black people refuse to accept the continuation of race-neutral policies, responsible for creating and maintaining a dangerous schism amongst Americans.

Usually, when Americans are under attack, state or federal administrations declare an emergency. Every year, Congress allocates millions of dollars in response to various crises. When they announce an emergency, the best minds available come together to formulate a plan. Unfortunately, all citizens are not equally valued, and as a result, the federal government has not addressed each emergency with the same vigor. Systematic racism is a national health emergency because it negatively impacts the health of millions of people.

Sometimes, people miss the forest for the trees. It is easy to focus on what Congress has not done on race since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, our Congressmen and women should be judged not just on the bills they pass, but also on the legislation, they champion that is blocked. Only then can American progressives put the fight into perspective. Those who are serious about fighting for equal rights and justice need to support legislation addressing these issues directly.

Historians will record that in the year 2020, there are more women in Congress than ever before. While America faces civil unrest due to systematic racism, the country needs bold, legislative action, and women are here to deliver.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif) have introduced legislation to declare racism a national public health crisis (Major, 2020).

These women, amidst a pandemic, support addressing racial disparities through legislation.

Why Americans Need this Bill

Black lives are lost every year due to systematic racism, whether this occurs through the negligence of the public health system, the hands of overzealous and racist police, or vigilante white supremacists. While enslaved Africans’ descendants became citizens, they never indeed became accepted, and the negligence in addressing systematic racism is proof of this fact. Indeed if white Americans felt under siege by the government, the government would not sit idly by. They would call it domestic terrorism.

While South Africans experienced apartheid, Black Americans shared the same treatment under Jim Crow policies. Years after Jim Crow policies ended, America’s communities and schools remain essentially segregated, and the quality and duration of life expectancies between the races demonstrate deep disparities. The federal government thus far failed to address slavery, lynching, or the impact of systematic racism. Between just the late 1800s to 1960s, white supremacists lynched 4,743 people. However, many Americans fail to realize that 1,297 of those people were white allies.

Such crimes can already be considered hate crimes under state and federal law. But the term lynching has deep historical significance, and the fact that it has never been formally outlawed has been an enduring symbol of Congress’s inability to fully reckon with the nation’s history of racial violence. The issue has taken on even greater significance in recent days (Fandos, 2020)

Rand Paul and the Republicans oppose the Emmett Till Anti Lynching Act. For them, these crimes are not heinous enough to outlaw. While it is ironic that the Democratic Party initially embraced the Klan while the Republicans were known as the Party of Lincoln, some people refuse to acknowledge that these parties have long switched allegiances.

Republicans and Southern Dixiecrats fought against the Civil Rights Act, and those same people oppose legislation to recognize and rectify the harms caused by systematic racism. In fighting against the Civil Rights Act, the Republicans gained the endorsement of the majority of white voters and white supremacist groups. The last time the Democrats won the majority of white voters was to support President Lyndon Johnson. While in office, he signed the Civil Rights Act into law, decimating the Jim Crow system, improving millions of Americans’ lives. After he signed that bill, the Democrats never had the full support of white voters or even the majority.

Let that fact marinate. Democrats failed to win the white vote since they passed the Civil Rights Act. Stating this is not full-throated support for the policies spearheaded by Democrats that further perpetuated systematic racism within the country. However, it is essential to distinguish between a party that is willing to be held accountable to Black citizens, flawed though it may be, and those who refuse to admit racism is real. The arc of the moral universe only bends when we bend it. You will not bend what you cannot see.

Notably, Republicans in Congress and white supremacists currently oppose H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This bill, if passed into law, would create systematic reform in policing. Black Lives Matter advocates are fighting for change, and this is the fruition of their efforts.

Police should not possess the authority to choke an unarmed man to death in broad daylight. This level of impunity attracts applicants who want unchecked power within our society. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would federally prohibit chokeholds, racial profiling, and no-knock warrants. It requires that officers maintain video recordings while on patrol. If passed, officers would be required to use body cams while engaging with the public, limit qualified immunity, implement independent investigation for officer-involved shoots, designating standards to issue police department compliance accreditation.

Given Republican opposition to H.R. 7120, it should come as no surprise that the same Republicans oppose a bill declaring systematic racism as a public health crisis. See, this is not about small government vs. big government as they often argued in the past. This battle is about stagnation vs. progress. If they admit that systematic racism is a crisis for Americans, then their inaction is a dereliction of duty. They will stop at nothing to deny and, thus, to maintain a stagnant, oppressive system.

America’s schism is due to a four-hundred-year-old fight about racial inequality that springs from two opposing ideologies. Do you want to know which side you stand on? Examine your political affiliations.

It is entirely untenable so long as Republicans refuse to criticize Trump in any meaningful way, despite his attempts to bestow respectability to neo-Nazis (“very fine people on both sides”), his early adherence to birtherism and his message of returning to a mythical past when women and nonwhites were without legal protections (Rubin, 2020)

While traditional feminism failed to address issues that impacted Black women adequately, intersectional feminism changes the game. Working together, a white congresswoman and two Black congresswomen introduced The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act. This bill aims to create an Anti-Racism department within the Center for Disease Control (CDC). It would empower the federal government with the tools necessary to address systematic racism’s negative health impact.

As a white woman, Elizabeth Warren stepped up to stand up for Black people and not in a performative way, but in a genuine way. She showed a willingness to put her name behind her resolve.

This bill would not only address the role of systematic racism in the public health setting. It also moves the ball forward on policing reform. Americans need this bill because the current system does not live up to the values we share.

“A Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program would also be created within the CDC to combat police brutality and institutional racism with law enforcement agencies. It would work to eliminate “deaths, injury, trauma, and negative mental health effects from police presence and interactions.”

Looking Forward

For far too long, our federal government has failed to recognize and address the structural racism that has devastated Black and brown communities and denied access to quality health care, said Congresswoman Pressley. (Elizabeth Warren Press Release 2020).

If you disagree with declaring systematic racism, a public health crisis, then, by all means, continue to sit on the sidelines, condemn the Democrats for their imperfections, vote Republican, or third party. Each person gets to make that choice. However, it will not make you exempt from the eye of history. After all, those who turn a blind eye to the suffering caused by systematic racism only maintain white supremacy.

If you want to progress, then support the women in Congress working towards the justice Black people deserve.

If Black Lives Matter to you, support legislation that embodies the principle that all men were created equal. Congresswoman Pressley, a member of the squad, spoke in favor of the protesters and their cause’s righteousness. She is living proof that not all representation is ineffective. Americans need to support people who embody progressive values.

She lauded protesters and community organizers as “builders, not destroyers,” and said the public pressure of the demonstrations is important to enacting change.

It holds us accountable,” Pressley said. “The reason why we have often acted with conviction as lawmakers is because of the courage of everyday people. The civil rights movement we’re in, it’s not over (Elkind, 2020)

Consider that congressmen and women are people. They are imperfect and need us to hold them to account. Their power derives from the consent we give, and we cannot create a perfect union if we refuse to advocate for that vision. Voting is the first step of holding officials accountable, but it does not stop there. Constituents should continue to fight for proper representation, significantly when those issues impact the quality of life.

Instead of getting discouraged by failed attempts to make a change, Americans must find inspiration in the cause’s righteousness and continue to fight. Even if the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 and The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020 fail under a Trump administration, stop thinking its because no one is working to implement change. With enough support, these women can win the moment and change the country.

If the bill becomes law, which is highly unlikely under the Trump administration, it would declare racism a public health concern while leading research on the issue. A priority of the national centers created through the bill would be educating the public on the “health impacts of structural racism and anti-racist public health interventions. (Major, 2020)

Articles Curated in Race, Equality, Film, Beauty, & Women:

Organizations that Support the Bill

Center for Policing Equity; Center for Popular Democracy; Center for Reproductive Rights; Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health at UCLA; Hispanic Federation; The Justice Collaborative; Justice in Aging; The Lawyer’s Committee; The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; National Medical Association; National Partnership for Women & Families; NAACP; National Urban League; Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP); PolicyLink; Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC); Public Citizen; Social Security Works; UCLA’s COVID-19 Task Force on Racism and Equity; UnidosUS; Union for Reform Judaism; We Must Count Coalition. (Elizabeth Warren Press Release 2020).

References

Elkind, E. (2020, June 03). Rep. Ayanna Pressley on new resolution to combat racism, reaction to President Trump’s handling of protests. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-george-floyd-protests-ayanna-pressley-racism/

Elizabeth Warren Press Release (Ed.). (2020, September 03). Warren, Pressley, Lee Introduce Legislation to Confront the Public Health Impacts of Structural Racism: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-pressley-lee-introduce-legislation-to-confront-the-public-health-impacts-of-structural-racism

Fandos, N. (2020, June 05). Frustration and Fury as Rand Paul Holds Up Anti-Lynching Bill in Senate. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/politics/rand-paul-anti-lynching-bill-senate.html

Gowen, A. (2020, June 07). Anger in Texas as Republican leaders post racist memes about George Floyd’s death. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/george-floyd-death-us-texas-republican-party-leaders-racist-memes-a9552941.html

Major, D. (2020, September 08). Democrats Introduce Bill Declaring Racism A Public Health Crisis. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.blackenterprise.com/democrats-introduce-bill-declaring-racism-a-public-health-crisis/

Rubin, J. (2020, June 11). Opinion | Republicans have no response to tackle racism. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/11/republicans-pathetic-lack-empathy/