Racism is a Public Health Crisis

What if we responded to it like we have to COVID-19?

Racism is a public health crisis. Every year, Black babies die at more than 2X the rate of other babies in America, regardless of their parents’ socio-economic status or health behaviors. Their moms, too, are far more likely to die as a result of their pregnancy. Life expectancy in predominantly White neighborhoods can be decades longer than in predominantly Black ones. If this all weren’t so heartbreakingly normal, we might have an easier time seeing it for what it is – an enormous threat to our public health.

So, how should we respond to such a threat? In our collective response to COVID-19, another public health crisis, we are seeing what is possible when we all take serious action in the name of public health. What if we responded to racism in the same way?

We should listen to – and believe – experts.

In our society’s response to coronavirus, we focused our attention on epidemiologists and infectious disease experts. Even when those experts had challenging things to say, the vast majority of us leaned in to their deep knowledge. We resisted thinking that 10 minutes spent on Google could replace their decades of experience. 

We have the same opportunity with racism. We can listen to the experts – including professionals who have spent their entire careers studying racism and people of color with lifetimes of lived experience with racism. When they have challenging things to say, we can lean in to their deep knowledge. We can trust their decades of experience. As with coronavirus, everyone has a role to play and must own their own responsibility to keep others safe. But we must let those who have historically been marginalized lead the way - they simply understand the issues better. Black men can lead the conversation about what it means to adequately respond to our society’s fear of them. Newly arrived immigrants can lead the conversation about what immigration reform looks like when it prioritizes their safety and health. Black women can lead the conversation about what it means to provide truly equitable care in pregnancy. The rest of us should listen more closely.

We should stop everything and rewrite all of the rules.

Life looks so different today than it did just a few months ago. Millions of people across the country are practicing social distancing, working from home and wearing masks to keep each other safe. Globally, we’ve restructured enormous parts of daily life because some of us were at great risk from the very real threat of COVID-19. With a threat this size, rethinking nearly everything is appropriate.

The same is true for racism. If we want to see real change, then a bold rethinking of many of the ways we operate is necessary. When our society’s experts on racism challenge us to think big – we now know just how possible that is. Could we restructure work places? Quickly pass sweeping policy change? Scale individual actions? All of this has proved to be doable when responding to a public health crisis.

We should invest in this crisis as though both lives and the economy depend on it. Because they do. 

Thankfully, the country has poured enormous investments into combating the impact of the coronavirus. These investments include new research, public health infrastructure, and support for impacted businesses with a recognition that the health of the economy is directly linked to the health of the public.

Racism, as a public health crisis, deserves this same response. We need more research on what works to combat inequities. We need more public health infrastructure to close long standing health disparities. And, we need economic support that fosters business growth in minority communities and incentivizes diverse hiring. COVID-19 demanded enormous public investment because the challenges were so complex and the stakes were so high. The same is true in the fight against racism. 

These two crises are, of course, not happening in isolation from each other. Even though we are still early in the pandemic it is already clear that Black and Hispanic families are bearing a disproportionate burden from it. This should not surprise us. But it should re-break our hearts. Imagine a world where the health impacts of racism came upon us all at once like the coronavirus did.  We’d get quiet when the experts spoke, we’d rewrite all of the old rules, and we’d invest everything we had in solving that crisis. This has been considered normal for far too long. It’s time to see racism for the public health crisis that it is.