On Monday, the New York City Board of Health declared racism a public health crisis, passing regulation to “identify and recommend new provisions to dismantle systemic and structural racism and bias of the NYC Health Code.” In an attempt to improve the health impacts of racism, the NYC Board of Health plans to expand their launch of “Race to Justice” by committing to “uproot white supremacy and its impact on health and wellbeing while shifting resources and power to the communities that bear the greatest burden of marginalization, racism, and health inequities.”
The NYC Board of Health has declared “the work of undoing racism is grounded in love, as well as science and civic duty.” They believe “This love is not sentimental, rather it is what James Baldwin called ‘the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.'”
New York City’s Board of Health is not the only entity that has declared racism to be a public health crisis–former Harvard medical school professor and current director of the Centers for Disease Control Rochelle Walensky made a public announcement in April saying, “What we know is this: racism is a serious public health threat that directly affects the wellbeing of millions of Americans.”
In June, students at the University of Connecticut demanded the same designation from their school’s leadership. After making the declaration, the school’s interim President “touted the school’s various diversity committees, task forces, and anti-racism classes, which includes an Anti-Black Racism class that has a module on health inequities,” according to Campus Reform.
With more and more companies, corporations, and schools across the country competing to be the “wokest entity,” we must focus on the real crises to take care of in this country: supply chain, border patrol, homelessness, just to name a few. Virtue signaling in the name of social justice is just not a top concern in a country that has had a two-term Black President. Let’s get our priorities straight, America.
