Structural Racism is a Public Health Crisis

08/06/20 • 26 min

We bring you a special episode on declaring structural racism as a public health crisis, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

Whether at the hands of police or because of pervasive inequities built into the fabric of our society, Black and brown people are dying at disproportionately high rates compared to white people. Systemic and structural racism in housing, health care, employment and healthy food access is resulting in Latinos and Blacks being three times as likely to be infected with COVID-19 as their white counterparts and twice as likely to die of the virus as white people.

We spoke with three community leaders on why naming structural racism as a public health crisis is crucial and what comes after the acknowledgement.

We bring you a special episode on declaring structural racism as a public health crisis, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

We spoke with three community leaders on why naming structural racism as a public health crisis is crucial and what comes after the acknowledgement.

Previous Episode

Growing Food, Growing Community in the Time of Covid 19

We bring you another special episode in our series on COVID-19 on growing food and community connections. There is a growing need for healthy foods in Minnesota, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Minnesota is home to sizeable food security disparities. The pandemic has not only exacerbated these gaps, but also shown how food insecurity can be correlated with stress, anxiety, and fear.

This episode focuses on some of our partners— farmers, gardeners and community leaders —who improve our local food system, build strong communities, and share their knowledge about growing food.

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Whose Streets? Social justice and joy in transportation

At the Center for Prevention we support active transportation — biking, walking, and rolling — because we know it leads to better health. Transportation also is what connects us to critical needs like education, jobs, housing, food, and medical care.

A good transportation system gives people the ability to go where they want easily and safely.

In the past weeks and months, we’ve seen the tragic reminders that it’s not just car traffic that make streets unsafe. To advance health equity in transportation we must acknowledge the violence and trauma that Black, Indigenous, and people of color are often exposed to in the streets, and how racism undermines safety.

Improving our transportation system for everyone is one aspect of tackling the racial, economic, and environmental inequities in Minnesota that continue to make the COVID-19 pandemic deadlier for low-income and nonwhite families.

For this episode of the State We’re In Jill Chamberlain, Center for Prevention senior program manager of community health and health equity, hosted a conversation with two advocates who are committed to making the transportation system in Minnesota better for all of us.