Is Whatcom County ready to answer call to declare racism a public health crisis?
The Whatcom County Public Health Advisory Board is considering sending a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis to the Whatcom County Health Board at its meeting Thursday, Sept. 3, according to Whatcom County Health Department Director Erika Lautenbach and the upcoming meeting agenda.
The Whatcom County Public Health Advisory Board is included as part of the county code and is a group of Whatcom County residents who each represent different sectors of the community and are appointed by the county executive.
If approved, the resolution from the public advisory board will be sent to the Whatcom County Council acting as the county health board. The health board has the ability to make policy county-wide, Lautenbach told The Bellingham Herald.
The discussion of the resolution comes as dozens of other cities and counties across the United States declare racism a public health issue. In Washington state, both King and Pierce counties have declared racism a public health crisis.
Declaring racism a public health crisis highlights racism as a health issue, starts a community dialogue about how racism impacts health and allows the health department and community providers to focus on the issue and move forward at the direction of policy makers, Lautenbach said.
“It’s not just criminal justice and education or an environmental issue. Racism is a health issue. So it daylights that as real and relevant,” Lautenbach said. “It alone doesn’t solve this problem. It’s easy for communities to say … we have this resolution, but the real work starts after the issue is daylighted, and that’s when we have an opportunity to do something and have an impact.”
The American Public Health Association has been discussing racism as a public health crisis for several years and has long recognized it as having a corrosive impact on communities, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, M.D., who serves as executive director for the association.
Benjamin, who is African American, said racism unfairly disadvantages and stigmatizes people. He said by having racism declared a public health crisis, it helps people connect the dots. It also helps highlight unequal situations, so that when people see them, they can start to address and fix them, he said.
“We can’t solve a problem until we figure out what it is, and until we name it and call it for what it is,” Benjamin told The Herald.
The resolution
At Thursday’s meeting, the advisory board will review the resolution before potentially passing it on to the county health board.
A draft of the resolution states that “racism is rooted in the foundation of America, beginning with slavery in 1619,” and that “systemic racism has resulted in race as a social determinant of health, with persistent racial disparities in housing, education, healthcare, employment, worker protections, criminal justice, climate, food access, and technology, and Center for Health Progress has reported that data shows race, income, and ZIP Code have a bigger impact on health than behavior or medical care.”
The resolution states that the health board will advocate for Whatcom County’s government to implement policies and practices that reflect a conscious effort to ensure racial equity, access equity and equal treatment of all people, regardless of race or ethnicity. It will declare racism a public health crisis in Whatcom County and condemn racism, brutality, hate speech, bigotry, violence and prejudice.
The draft resolution also states the health board will commit to dismantling racism in Whatcom County by:
▪ Implementing annual training on implicit bias, trauma-informed practices and reviews of health disparities for all elected officials, county staff and members of boards, commissions and committees.
▪ Assessing and revising county department policies, procedures and ordinances to ensure racial equity and transparency are core elements.
▪ Ensuring hiring practices provide greater opportunities for people of color to be employed to further diversify the workforce.
▪ Ensuring diversity of age, race and gender within county commissions.
▪ Supporting community efforts to amplify issues of racism and engage actively and authentically with communities of color where they live.
▪ Building and strengthening alliances with other organizations confronting racism, encouraging other agencies to recognize racism as a crisis, considering county membership to the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), and involving community representation and input on matters of historic and continued racial injustice.
In addition, the advisory board will send a letter to Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu encouraging him to have Whatcom County and all its departments join GARE, which is a nationwide organization that provides tools, training, peer support and guidance to local government agencies, cities and counties on how to work to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all.
Lautenbach said by joining GARE, it’s bigger than just the health department and would allow all of Whatcom County’s agencies to incorporate race and equity into their work.
Racism as a health factor
Lautenbach said in 2018, the Whatcom County Health Department stepped back from traditionally looking at health based only on health behaviors and access to healthcare. Instead it developed a community health assessment that looked at other factors as determinants of health as well, such as social and economic standing, housing security, community safety, income and poverty, social supports, transportation, air and water quality, and other things.
She said the assessment took a much broader look at what factors go into health and health outcomes for Whatcom County residents.
“Without mistake, there are clear disparities in health nationally, statewide and locally that can only be attributed to racism in our community,” Lautenbach said. “There are not biological differences between races that would indicate the stark disparities we see when we look at health outcomes.”
Lautenbach said there are more than 100 peer-reviewed, scientific articles that link racism to negative health outcomes. She said that nationally, maternal mortality rates for African American women are three to four times higher than for white women and infant mortality rates among Black children are two times higher than for white children — higher now than in the 1850s when African Americans were enslaved.
Locally, the life expectancy for Native Americans and Alaska Natives is 12 years less than for white county residents, Lautenbach said. Additionally, Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and African American residents of Whatcom County have higher rates of premature death than white, Hispanic or Asian Pacific Islander residents, she said. Premature death is calculated as potential years of life lost if the person dies before age 65.
As of Sept. 1, Hispanic people make up roughly 28.9% of COVD-19 cases in Whatcom County, while making up 9.8% of the county population, according to data from the county health department and the United State Census Bureau. Native American and Alaska Natives make up 4.7% of current county COVID-19 cases, while making up 2.5% of the county population, the data shows.
“More broadly and holistically, racism impacts the entire continuum of a life. It impacts people’s chronic stress, it impacts their ability to receive care and to have access to healthy foods, it impacts their ability to receive services when they’re needed, it impacts their rates of chronic disease, it impacts their life expectancy, their birth outcomes and children’s outcomes. It impacts the continuum of a life and all the things that go into their health,” Lautenbach said.
Lautenbach said “there’s so much traditional and historic discrimination and racism embedded in our culture that even second-generation African Americans experience and feel” that it can be seen in all systems and structures throughout government, healthcare, housing and other systems.
Starting the work
By acknowledging racism as a public health crisis on a governmental level, politicians now have to do something about it, said Kristina Michele, a local activist and one of the organizers of a march held Thursday, Aug. 27, in Whatcom County held in solidarity with the march on Washington D.C..
At the end of Thursday’s march, hosts presented a petition to declare racism a public health crisis to Bellingham and Whatcom County’s elected officials. As of 4:18 p.m. on Sept. 1, the petition has gathered more than 700 signatures.
Michele, who is Black, said racism is seen across the board throughout America. She said when people of color go to the hospital, they’re taken less seriously or told their pain isn’t as bad, and things shouldn’t be like that.
“Not only do we have to face it at a government level, but we have to face it on an individual level,” Michele said. “Having the government have our back will help people on the fence really look into themselves and start to see all the little things. … The baggage we (Black people) carry is not only so much more, but so much heavier. The entire system is devised to keep us down.”
Michele said the work has to start somewhere.
“If Bellingham can be this silly little town that started independent steps forward on a better future, I would love for the town to be a shining example for America of what we can do when we work together,” Michele said.
Lautenbach said the public health advisory board began discussing the resolution to declare racism as public health crisis at its Aug. 4 meeting.
Additionally, in February, the county’s health board adopted a child and family action plan that focuses on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, she said. Lautenbach said the plan is focused on equity and providing the right support for families that need them, not just equal support for everyone. She said this is one way the county is attempting to address inequities in health outcomes.
The county is also developing a community health improvement plan based on the countywide health assessment that was done in 2018, Lautenbach said.
The public health advisory board is from 7 to 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, and will be held remotely.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
