Bellingham City Council takes this step as its ‘duty to repair’ racial injustice
Bellingham affirmed that racism is a public health crisis, with the City Council approving a measure unanimously during an online meeting Monday night, Sept. 27.
Councilman Dan Hammill said the effort to draft a resolution addressing the issue took nearly a year because a committee of Bellingham residents who drafted the resolution included historical events and documented the current effects of systemic racism on people of color.
“This is not opinion or hyperbole. These are facts,” Hammill said as the measure was introduced during a committee meeting Monday afternoon.
“Violence, oppression, exclusion and expulsion are part of this community’s history from day one. Some of the events happened decades ago. Some are happening today,” he said.
“I’m asking your help to dismantle a system that is unfair and build one that is equitable,” Hammill said.
The resolution cites specific acts of racism from Whatcom County’s recent history, including:
▪ Removing Coast Salish people from their homeland, violating their treaty rights, forced assimilation of their children and the resulting “cultural genocide.”
▪ Expulsion of Chinese people in 1885.
▪ Expulsion of South Asian people in 1907, following white mob violence.
▪ Housing covenants that prevented Black people from owning homes in some areas, along with a practice called “sundowning” that kept Black people out of white neighborhoods after dark.
▪ Imprisonment of Americans with Japanese ancestry in 1942.
And the resolution also describes chronic social and health concerns that many in the medical community agree are the result of centuries of systemic racism in American society.
“The city of Bellingham is committed to becoming an anti-racist city that is welcoming, inclusive, and safe for everyone,” the resolution said, “While we promote free thought and speech, we condemn racism and brutality, hate speech, bigotry, violence and prejudice in any form.”
Action on the measure came almost a year after the Whatcom County Council, acting as the Health Board, approved a similar resolution in November 2020.
Both King and Pierce counties have made such declarations, as have dozens of other communities and public agencies across the nation, including the American Public Health Association, National Association of County and City Health Officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Heather Flaherty, executive director of the Chuckanut Health Foundation, said the measure aims to reduce poverty, improve school readiness and address health concerns among people of color in Bellingham — which is 83% white, according to 2019 census data.
“My sincere hope is that this resolution opens doors to real change,” said Flaherty, whose organization is also working with Bellingham and Whatcom County to define how a proposed countywide Racial Equity Commission would operate.
Shu-Ling Zhao of Bellingham, one of the committee members who drafted the resolution, said “we can’t erase the past” by adopting a written document.
“It’s meaningless without action. But it is so important to really come to terms with our history here,” she told the council.
“We have a duty of repair for our community. And that’s what this resolution means,” Zhao said.
