Council will vote next week on resolution declaring racism a public health crisis

Officials say they will continue promoting racial equity, social justice

June 10, 2020 2:33 a.m.

The Montgomery County Council will vote next week on a resolution declaring that racism is a public health crisis

The resolution, introduced at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, was spearheaded by Council Member Will Jawando.

Several actions are listed in the resolution, including asserting that “racism is a public health crisis in our entire County” and committing to “understanding how racism has impacted past work.” The council hopes to create new policies to lessen that impact.

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At the beginning of the meeting, the council stayed silent for eight minutes and 46 seconds — the length of time a Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck, causing him to become unconscious and die on May 25. In video footage of the incident, Floyd repeatedly told the officer that he couldn’t breathe.

Jawando said during the meeting that the resolution would build on the council’s work to promote racial equity, including the establishment of the Policing Advisory Commission. Applications for the commission are currently open.

“Scientists no longer believe there is a biological basis that distinguishes racial groups. Instead, they see race as a social, cultural and political construct, wherein, racial segregation and discrimination has real consequences on the health and quality of life of those impacted,” he said.

African Americans experience a higher mortality rate in child birth, aren’t believed by doctors, and experience environmental racism, such as higher asthma rates and pedestrian fatalities, because of lack of investment in infrastructure, Jawando said.

One in four deaths from the coronavirus in the county are African Americans, who make up 19% of the population, he said.

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“For over 400 years, since the first enslaved Africans arrived on our shores, racism has been at the heart of inequitable outcomes for African Americans and communities of color,” Jawando said.

Council Member Nancy Navarro said the county has had its share of police brutality. She named three African American men who died after being shot by Montgomery County police officers: Emmanuel Okutuga on February 19, 2011; Robert White on June 11, 2018; and Finan Berhe on May 8, 2020.

“This is not acceptable. As leaders, we owe our residents a warm and welcoming space in which they feel seen, respected and of course, above all, safe,” she said. “The current crisis has been a long time coming. We all knew that if this dysfunction was not adequately addressed, we would be facing an uprising — the kind of which we have not seen in half a century.”

Navarro noted the county’s action in 2018 to commit to instituting a racial equity and social justice law, which was unanimously adopted in November 2019.

Council Member Craig Rice said that when people enter a doctor’s office and can’t speak English, they’re immediately dismissed.

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The community should understand and acknowledge that the challenges of systemic racism still persist, he said, and that it affects public health.

“If we can’t acknowledge that, we won’t be able to actually address the issues of George Floyd and all of the other things,” he said. “I agree with Council Member Jawando wholeheartedly. This is the beginning. This is the first of many steps to acknowledge the wrongs that we continue to put on our communities of color.”

Council Member Hans Riemer said children give him hope about eradicating racism.

“But what makes me very fearful, at the same time, is that we have a president of the United States who is telling white people that it’s good to be racist again or it’s good to be forward about your racism,” he said. “It’s acceptable to no longer have self-doubt about your attitudes on race. That is a corrupting, corrosive, devastating reality we’re in.”

Council Member Gabe Albornoz, chair of the county’s Health and Human Services Committee, said that to combat racism as a public health issue, the county needs to address the causes, not the symptoms.

“We can’t expect people who are disproportionately impacted by this structural racism to continue to adjust to that structure,” he said. “We must rebuild, relook at and redo the systems that have led to the structural racism that so many have been experiencing for too long.”

No one program, policy, person or initiative will address systemic racism completely, he said.

“It will, unfortunately, take time.”

Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.

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