Racism is a public health crisis. California leaders must recognize this and make change

What do the American Medical Association, Ventura County and Sacramento County have in common? All three recently voted to declare racism a public health crisis. They join a growing list of states, counties, cities and organizations that recognize the pervasive and systemic threat racism poses to the health, safety and well-being of our communities.

In July, we joined with nearly 200 organizations to ask Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare racism a public health crisis. He has yet to do so, but our broad and diverse coalition is continuing this urgent campaign. You need look no further than the news to see the disproportionate impact COVID-19 is having on our Black communities, Indigenous communities and communities of color.

“Latinos make up 40% of the Golden State’s population, but 60% of its COVID-19 cases and 48.5% of its deaths. Only 6% of Californians are Black, but 7.4% of COVID-19 deaths,” according to The Sacramento Bee.

Despite data gaps, Native Americans have the highest hospitalization rate of any racial or ethnic group. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are also overrepresented in the death toll, but their exact inequities are obscured by the lack of disaggregated data.

The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on these communities is rooted in the policies that shape their experience. These are the same communities harmed by redlining and housing policies; school segregation and underfunding; predatory experimentation and biased health care delivery; concentrated poverty; immigration bias; over-policing and high incarceration; job discrimination and the long-term economic consequences of lower income and inconsistent health care social service and retirement benefits.

These same communities were most likely to be uninsured before the ACA and still face barriers to culturally and linguistically competent care. It’s no surprise that, as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, only 29% of Black and 54% of Latinos in California trust a COVID vaccine. Racism, not race, is the root of these unacceptable inequities and disproportionate life outcomes.

There is no lack of data and research in this area. What we lack is the political will to turn the research into practice. Critics say they cannot address these deadly issues because of funding. Inaction, however, is more costly.

Our recent report based on publicly available county spending data found that elected officials repeatedly chose to increase or prioritize law enforcement funding to the detriment of public health and community programs. In August, it was reported that Sacramento had used most of its CARES Act funding from the federal government on the sheriff’s department. This is the same sheriff who has said he will not enforce any curfews, emergency health orders, mask mandates or share COVID-19 case data from the jail against the urging of public health officers and the CDC.

Critics ask where we’ll find funding for community programs and public health when we spend an exorbitant amount of local, state and federal funds on law enforcement and, nationally, the military. When it comes to health care and public health, investing upfront in prevention will actually save us money down the line by avoiding emergency room visits and more costly care due to untreated medical issues.

Investing in supports for housing, wage loss and education support, in addition to robust contact tracing, culturally and linguistically competent materials, outreach to build community trust and paying essential workers who feel ill to stay home are some of the best tools at our disposal to safely lead us out of this pandemic.

Sacramento deserves leaders who follow and uphold basic public safety recommendations. We deserve leaders who know not to use racial slurs. We deserve leaders who are allies and can look beyond their privilege to recognize that racism is real.

All Californians deserve representation that listens to the needs of our communities and then follows up with action and accountability. We call on cities and counties to enact resolutions that create meaningful and impactful change, that impact every department, budget and policy area and that make good on the promise of an equitable and just California.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.