SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The Oakland City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to declare racism a public health crisis, as first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
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The proposal was authored by city attorney Barbara Parker, City Administrator Ed Reiskin, and the Director of the Department of Race and Equity, Darlene Flynn, and co-signed by Council Members Sheng Thao, Loren Taylor and Treva Reid.
The resolution serves as both a "re-affirmation of existing city policy on racial equity and a non-comprehensive roadmap of next steps that the city will take to advance racial equity and reduce alarming health disparities in Oakland," Parker, Reiskin and Flynnn wrote in their agenda report.
The ordinance sets aside $350,000 to create two new positions in the City of Oakland's Department of Race and Equity. The purpose of the jobs, a data analyst and consultant position, will be to help identify inequities in the city, and determine how to best address them. It's an effort to collect more city-wide data, which is "necessary to achieve more equitable outcomes for Oakland residents," the report stated.
In addition, as part of the resolution, the city will prioritize Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander and other communities of color in its budgeting and planning processes.
Oakland officials wrote that there's "a growing body or research" which shows the "many ways" structural racism impacts people’s health. A study cited in the report found that residents in a historically white neighborhood in the Oakland hills are expected to live, on average, 14 to 15 years longer than Black and Latinx residents living in the East Oakland flatlands.
Furthermore, the Chronicle reported that studies show racism is a major cause of stress, especially for Black people, and exposes those who are subject to it to a multitude of health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, cancer, inflammation, abnormal gene activity and a weakened immune system.
"We have a long way to go," Parker said at Tuesday's city council meeting, according to the paper. "We begin that long journey with that first step and we think this is an important one."
Oakland joins 34 other jurisdictions in California which have declared racism a public health crisis, including San Francisco and Sacramento.
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