Salt Lake City has declared racism a public health crisis.
In a joint resolution, Mayor Erin Mendenhall and the city council on Tuesday announced that Salt Lake City is taking steps to "confront the systems that have resulted in generational injustice and health inequities."
Citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the resolution stated that "racism is proven to have harmful impacts to mental and physical health and creates inequities in access to a range of social and economic benefits."
The effects of COVID-19 were a major instigator in the recent declaration, with city officials citing the pandemic as an example of how pre-existing structural inequities foster disease, death and social consequences for communities of color in Utah.
To combat the effects of racism, the city has proposed an "equity plan" which will deconstruct the city practices and policies which contribute to inequality.
"We are publicly acknowledging the existence of a grave inequity many in our community have long experienced, and are committing ourselves to creating policies and ordinances that are anti-racist," Mayor Mendenhall affirmed in a Twitter statement.
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