Elizabeth Warren HQ: She's Got A Plan!
- Thread starter King Kreole
- Start date
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
she single handedly renamed the bases
Come on she is so good at this...... she should have been the nominee
King Kreole
natural blondie like goku
King Kreole
natural blondie like goku
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
She should have been president, but people want Harris as VP cause of her skin color..... smh
I would pick her but in the current moment it seems highly unlikely.
This woman has been kicking so much ass
Biden. Do it for the country 
This was the best goddamn candidate of 2020.
i wish she ran in 2016
washingtonpost.com
Perspective | Biden needs a running mate committed to black lives. That’s Elizabeth Warren.
By Angela Peoples and Phillip Agnew
8-10 minutes
America is on fire, and Joe Biden faces a choice. The spark may have been the brutal killing of George Floyd, but the current awakening is about more than police violence. Black communities around the country are responding to decades of policies and practices that constrain and destroy black lives: wealth-stripping, redlining, school closures, poverty-wage jobs, voter suppression and gentrification. The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the ways in which racialized capitalism leaves black and brown Americans disproportionately exposed to dangers, from hazardous working conditions to crowded housing to underfunded and overburdened health-care facilities.
The former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee already has committed to picking a woman as his running mate. Against the backdrop of the growing movement for black liberation, he’s been encouraged to select a potential governing partner from a list of qualified black women that includes Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Rep. Val Demings (Fla.) — sitting members of Congress with backgrounds in law enforcement — and Susan E. Rice, a former national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
But if Biden is committed to choosing a running mate who consistently challenges the status quo on behalf of working people, particularly in the black community, who offers detailed policy prescriptions to remake our economy and strengthen our democracy, and who has clearly articulated the centrality of race, gender and class in the persistence of structural inequality, his choice doesn’t automatically have to be black. And the potential candidate who obviously meets that standard isn’t black. It’s Elizabeth Warren.
In September 2015 — nearly five years before Floyd was killed — Sen. Warren (Mass.) spoke passionately: “None of us can ignore what is happening in this country. Not when our black friends, family, neighbors literally fear dying in the streets,” she said. “This is the reality all of us must confront, as uncomfortable and ugly as that reality may be. It comes to us to once again affirm that black lives matter, that black citizens matter, that black families matter.”
Today, she marches with protesters. “Being anti-racist means fighting for anti-racist public policy,” she has continued to insist. “Being race neutral just won’t work.”
Before she was an elected official, Warren had established a track record of speaking inconvenient truths about racism and taking on the fights that matter. She identified the factors that keep working families in cycles of economic insecurity and the specific role that racism plays in trapping black and brown communities. In a 2004 law review article on the economics of race, she explained: “The economic security that comes with arrival in the middle class is divided by race, leaving Hispanic and black families at far more risk than their white counterparts.” In the popular book she authored with her daughter, “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke,” Warren laid out her view that “subprime lending, payday loans, and the host of predatory, high-interest loan products that target minority neighborhoods should be called by their true names: legally sanctioned corporate plans to steal from minorities.”
She had a lead role in founding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which in its relatively short tenure has pursued a series of enforcement actions against institutions that have discriminated against black and brown borrowers.
As a presidential candidate, Warren’s “Working Agenda for Black America” outlined a student loan debt cancellation plan with a goal of reducing the black-white racial wealth gap by 25 percent. She called for tackling the deplorable black maternal mortality rate by rewarding health systems that keep black mothers healthier. And she proposed the creation of a small-business equity fund with $7 billion to provide grants to entrepreneurs of color.
Along with several of her Senate and House colleagues, Warren introduced a bill calling for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to publish data on covid-19 testing, treatment and outcomes that is disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, primary language, socioeconomic status and other demographic characteristics. On Tuesday, Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar requesting HHS reporting on the administration’s efforts to address health disparities, including those affected by covid-19. The Trump administration’s lack of planning for the pandemic and its economic consequences has been catastrophic for black America.
No politician is perfect; we haven’t always agreed with Warren’s positions or politics. (When Black Womxn For challenged the language she used to describe people serving life sentences, she responded by meeting with black women activists, apologizing and updating her policy plans.) But she has demonstrated what is possible when politicians commit to working with social movements to achieve our shared goals. One lesser-known example: Warren listened to black farmers and amended her agriculture policy to address their concerns.
Warren’s willingness and ability to listen and respond have earned her the respect of many black leaders and thinkers. After Ta-Nehisi Coates penned his acclaimed essay, “The Case for Reparations,” Warren reached out to Coates to discuss his work. In an interview last year, Coates expressed his view that of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Warren was the most serious about reparations. Throughout her campaign, she prioritized building relationships with black women leaders by incorporating their demands into her platform, earning the support of activists such as LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.
In the midst of this historic uprising that has many calling for a complete overhaul of the criminal legal system, it speaks volumes that Warren's political career isn’t tied to the Jim Crow system of mass incarceration, and her plan to reform it was one of the strongest in the Democratic primary. Her latest legislative victory — getting Senate Republicans to stand up to President Trump by approving her measure requiring the military to rid bases of Confederate names — is another example of her commitment to challenging racism and her ability to get things done.
We supported different candidates in the primary: Angela and her organization endorsed Warren, and Phillip was a national surrogate and later senior adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). But we are both part of the movement for black liberation that is shaping the consciousness of a generation, and we are convinced that only elected servants with a people-centered vision will compel our movement to fight at the polls the way we have in the streets.
Not only will Warren’s commitment to racial equity and challenging oppressive systems register with a rising generation of voters; her record shows that if she becomes vice president, she will remain committed to an agenda that lifts the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized.
Representation is important. When generations of white supremacy have kept black folks from proportional representation in the highest offices at all levels of government, undoubtedly it means something when one of us shatters the glass ceiling, clearing space for others to follow. However, the fires that burn in the streets of cities across the country will not be put out simply by putting a black name on the ticket. Without transformative policy, representation alone is insufficient.
If Democrats’ response to the reckoning against systemic racism is simply to nominate a black woman for vice president, no matter her politics, they will affirm the skepticism of young and progressive voters and rob this country of another opportunity to enact the sweeping changes needed for our communities to thrive. Voters want, and America needs, someone who has shown the courage to take on the corrupting forces of racism and greed. Warren has.
*****
This would be amazing with Warren as VP
This was the best goddamn candidate of 2020.
i wish she ran in 2016
washingtonpost.com
Perspective | Biden needs a running mate committed to black lives. That’s Elizabeth Warren.
By Angela Peoples and Phillip Agnew
8-10 minutes
America is on fire, and Joe Biden faces a choice. The spark may have been the brutal killing of George Floyd, but the current awakening is about more than police violence. Black communities around the country are responding to decades of policies and practices that constrain and destroy black lives: wealth-stripping, redlining, school closures, poverty-wage jobs, voter suppression and gentrification. The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the ways in which racialized capitalism leaves black and brown Americans disproportionately exposed to dangers, from hazardous working conditions to crowded housing to underfunded and overburdened health-care facilities.
The former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee already has committed to picking a woman as his running mate. Against the backdrop of the growing movement for black liberation, he’s been encouraged to select a potential governing partner from a list of qualified black women that includes Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Rep. Val Demings (Fla.) — sitting members of Congress with backgrounds in law enforcement — and Susan E. Rice, a former national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
But if Biden is committed to choosing a running mate who consistently challenges the status quo on behalf of working people, particularly in the black community, who offers detailed policy prescriptions to remake our economy and strengthen our democracy, and who has clearly articulated the centrality of race, gender and class in the persistence of structural inequality, his choice doesn’t automatically have to be black. And the potential candidate who obviously meets that standard isn’t black. It’s Elizabeth Warren.
In September 2015 — nearly five years before Floyd was killed — Sen. Warren (Mass.) spoke passionately: “None of us can ignore what is happening in this country. Not when our black friends, family, neighbors literally fear dying in the streets,” she said. “This is the reality all of us must confront, as uncomfortable and ugly as that reality may be. It comes to us to once again affirm that black lives matter, that black citizens matter, that black families matter.”
Today, she marches with protesters. “Being anti-racist means fighting for anti-racist public policy,” she has continued to insist. “Being race neutral just won’t work.”
Before she was an elected official, Warren had established a track record of speaking inconvenient truths about racism and taking on the fights that matter. She identified the factors that keep working families in cycles of economic insecurity and the specific role that racism plays in trapping black and brown communities. In a 2004 law review article on the economics of race, she explained: “The economic security that comes with arrival in the middle class is divided by race, leaving Hispanic and black families at far more risk than their white counterparts.” In the popular book she authored with her daughter, “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke,” Warren laid out her view that “subprime lending, payday loans, and the host of predatory, high-interest loan products that target minority neighborhoods should be called by their true names: legally sanctioned corporate plans to steal from minorities.”
She had a lead role in founding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which in its relatively short tenure has pursued a series of enforcement actions against institutions that have discriminated against black and brown borrowers.
As a presidential candidate, Warren’s “Working Agenda for Black America” outlined a student loan debt cancellation plan with a goal of reducing the black-white racial wealth gap by 25 percent. She called for tackling the deplorable black maternal mortality rate by rewarding health systems that keep black mothers healthier. And she proposed the creation of a small-business equity fund with $7 billion to provide grants to entrepreneurs of color.
Along with several of her Senate and House colleagues, Warren introduced a bill calling for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to publish data on covid-19 testing, treatment and outcomes that is disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, primary language, socioeconomic status and other demographic characteristics. On Tuesday, Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar requesting HHS reporting on the administration’s efforts to address health disparities, including those affected by covid-19. The Trump administration’s lack of planning for the pandemic and its economic consequences has been catastrophic for black America.
No politician is perfect; we haven’t always agreed with Warren’s positions or politics. (When Black Womxn For challenged the language she used to describe people serving life sentences, she responded by meeting with black women activists, apologizing and updating her policy plans.) But she has demonstrated what is possible when politicians commit to working with social movements to achieve our shared goals. One lesser-known example: Warren listened to black farmers and amended her agriculture policy to address their concerns.
Warren’s willingness and ability to listen and respond have earned her the respect of many black leaders and thinkers. After Ta-Nehisi Coates penned his acclaimed essay, “The Case for Reparations,” Warren reached out to Coates to discuss his work. In an interview last year, Coates expressed his view that of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Warren was the most serious about reparations. Throughout her campaign, she prioritized building relationships with black women leaders by incorporating their demands into her platform, earning the support of activists such as LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.
In the midst of this historic uprising that has many calling for a complete overhaul of the criminal legal system, it speaks volumes that Warren's political career isn’t tied to the Jim Crow system of mass incarceration, and her plan to reform it was one of the strongest in the Democratic primary. Her latest legislative victory — getting Senate Republicans to stand up to President Trump by approving her measure requiring the military to rid bases of Confederate names — is another example of her commitment to challenging racism and her ability to get things done.
We supported different candidates in the primary: Angela and her organization endorsed Warren, and Phillip was a national surrogate and later senior adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). But we are both part of the movement for black liberation that is shaping the consciousness of a generation, and we are convinced that only elected servants with a people-centered vision will compel our movement to fight at the polls the way we have in the streets.
Not only will Warren’s commitment to racial equity and challenging oppressive systems register with a rising generation of voters; her record shows that if she becomes vice president, she will remain committed to an agenda that lifts the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized.
Representation is important. When generations of white supremacy have kept black folks from proportional representation in the highest offices at all levels of government, undoubtedly it means something when one of us shatters the glass ceiling, clearing space for others to follow. However, the fires that burn in the streets of cities across the country will not be put out simply by putting a black name on the ticket. Without transformative policy, representation alone is insufficient.
If Democrats’ response to the reckoning against systemic racism is simply to nominate a black woman for vice president, no matter her politics, they will affirm the skepticism of young and progressive voters and rob this country of another opportunity to enact the sweeping changes needed for our communities to thrive. Voters want, and America needs, someone who has shown the courage to take on the corrupting forces of racism and greed. Warren has.
*****
This would be amazing with Warren as VP
Last edited:
This woman is the TRUTH
yall just don't know
@wire28 @Th3G3ntleman @ezrathegreat @King Kreole @humble forever @Dameon Farrow @Piff Perkins @BigMoneyGrip @Pressure @Armchair Militant @88m3 @Tres Leches @ADevilYouKhow @dtownreppin214 @A.R.$
yall just don't know
@wire28 @Th3G3ntleman @ezrathegreat @King Kreole @humble forever @Dameon Farrow @Piff Perkins @BigMoneyGrip @Pressure @Armchair Militant @88m3 @Tres Leches @ADevilYouKhow @dtownreppin214 @A.R.$
With nothing to lose, she puts it all on the line
Madam president
Exclusive: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee Unveil Historic Legislation Confronting Public Health Impact of Structural Racism
Anne Branigin
Photo: Michael M. Santiago (AP)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday a new plan that would declare racism a public health issue. Dubbed “the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020,” the legislation is the first of its kind and would harness the power of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research health disparities and propose antiracist policies to eradicate racial divides in health outcomes.
The bill also builds upon a growing movement among state and local governments that have declared racism a public health crisis in order to shore up funding, increase accountability, and push through bold new proposals to dismantle the deep inequalities laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic and violent policing.
“It is time we start treating structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease: investing in research into its symptoms and causes and finding ways to mitigate its effects,” said Sen. Warren. “My bill with Representatives Lee and Pressley is a first step to create anti-racist federal health policy that studies and addresses disparities in health outcomes at their roots.”
Congresswoman Pressley echoed the sentiments, telling The Root, “For far too long, our federal government has failed to recognize and address the structural racism that has devastated Black and brown communities and denied access to quality health care.”
“We must have a coordinated public health response to structural racism, and this bill would do just that.”
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)
The bicameral legislation comes at the tail-end of a summer that has been defined by three major crises: the coronavirus pandemic, which has thus far killed more than 180,000 Americans; state and vigilante violence targeting Black Americans, sparking insurrections across the United States; and the worst job losses the country has ever experienced. In each instance, race has been a defining feature.
Data from around the country have shown disproportionately high rates of infection and death from COVID-19 among Latinx and Black communities. In May, the Navajo Nation had the highest infection and death rate per capita than any of the 50 states. Among public health experts and epidemiologists, there has been widespread agreement that the causes of these disparities are rooted in structural problems, not personal choices. Government policies like redlining and racial covenants, for instance, have helped perpetuate decades of divestment, ensuring predominantly Black, Latinx and Native communities are more likely to be polluted, have less access to adequate health care and fewer educational resources and job opportunities. Even before data on COVID-19’s racial disparities were known, public health experts and environmental justice advocates warned that the disease was likely to have a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
But despite nationwide shelter-in-place directives, the rate of police killings has been on par with years prior. An onslaught of high profile cases of police brutality and vigilante violence targeting Black people, including the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the recent shooting of Jacob Blake, have spurred the largest racial justice movement in the country’s history.
In the background, an economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has created massive job losses and triggered evictions; those too, have devastated Black and Latinx households at higher rates. And with no end in sight to this current recession, it’s still unclear what long-term effects this economic downturn may have on these communities.
“COVID-19 has exposed the injustices in health outcomes for Black and Brown people, and it’s no coincidence,” said Rep. Barbara Lee. “In addition to addressing the lasting impacts of systemic racism in criminal justice, economic inequality and the like, we must also commit resources to understanding racially unjust health outcomes.”
The bill put forward by Warren, Lee and Pressley calls for the CDC to establish a National Center on Antiracism and Health that would formally declare racism a public health crisis; conduct research and collect data on the public health impacts of systemic racism, as well educate the public on its findings; and evaluate effective policies and practices that improve health outcomes for communities of color. The legislation also aims at improving cooperation between the federal government and Native communities, requiring increased communication and coordination between the CDC and Tribal communities and councils.
But perhaps most notable is the creation of a new program within the CDC that would specifically look at the public health impact of police brutality and violence. The “Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program” would study the impact police brutality has on various communities, collect comprehensive data on state violence and its effects, and work on developing public health interventions to eliminate the “deaths, injury, trauma, and negative mental health effects from police presence and interactions.”
“Racial and ethnic inequity in public health is a result of systematic, personally mediated, and internalized racism and racist public and private policies and practices, and dismantling structural racism is integral to addressing public health,” the bill states.
US Representative Barbara Lee attends a press conference on the reintroduction of the “Women’s Health Protection Act at the House Triangle of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 23, 2019.
Photo: MANDEL NGAN (Getty Images)
Rep. Pressley added that the legislation would require the federal government to proactively develop anti-racist policies.
“It is time we recognize and treat structural racism and police brutality as the public health crises that they are,” she said.
The idea of addressing structural racism as a public health issue has gained a lot of ground in recent months. Milwaukee County—just 32 miles away from Kenosha County—was among the first to declare racism a public health crisis in 2019, citing deep racial divides in employment, education and incarceration rates. Since then, roughly 60 state and local governments have followed suit. As Sharrelle Barber, a Drexel University assistant professor of epidemiology, explained to the Smithsonian this summer, this approach shifts the way institutions and medical professionals confront health problems like obesity, maternal mortality, and diabetes (all of which have a disproportionate effect on African Americans). Rather than addressing these issues as the product of personal choices or biology, the causes of these disparities are tackled at their roots. And with research showing “a deadly barrage” of new pandemics to come, the urgency to eradicate systemic inequality as a matter of public health has arguably never been more urgent.
“If we had a structural racism lens going into this pandemic, perhaps we would have done things differently. For example, get testing to communities that we know are going to be more susceptible to the virus,” Barber told the Smithsonian. “We would have done that early on as opposed to waiting, or we would have said, ‘Well, folks need to have personal protective equipment and paid sick leave and hazard pay.’ We would have made that a priority.”
Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) are all cosponsors of the Senate bill. The legislation has also been endorsed by the NAACP, the National Medical Association, the National Urban League, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Justice Collaborative, among others.
Dr. Joia Crear Perry, founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, is among those supporting the historic bill.
“Right now, health and life outcomes are largely dictated by the color of one’s skin,” said Perry. “Absent sweeping change, Black people’s lives will continue to be disregarded.”
Exclusive: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee Unveil Historic Legislation Confronting Public Health Impact of Structural Racism
Anne Branigin
Photo: Michael M. Santiago (AP)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday a new plan that would declare racism a public health issue. Dubbed “the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020,” the legislation is the first of its kind and would harness the power of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research health disparities and propose antiracist policies to eradicate racial divides in health outcomes.
The bill also builds upon a growing movement among state and local governments that have declared racism a public health crisis in order to shore up funding, increase accountability, and push through bold new proposals to dismantle the deep inequalities laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic and violent policing.
“It is time we start treating structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease: investing in research into its symptoms and causes and finding ways to mitigate its effects,” said Sen. Warren. “My bill with Representatives Lee and Pressley is a first step to create anti-racist federal health policy that studies and addresses disparities in health outcomes at their roots.”
Congresswoman Pressley echoed the sentiments, telling The Root, “For far too long, our federal government has failed to recognize and address the structural racism that has devastated Black and brown communities and denied access to quality health care.”
“We must have a coordinated public health response to structural racism, and this bill would do just that.”
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)
The bicameral legislation comes at the tail-end of a summer that has been defined by three major crises: the coronavirus pandemic, which has thus far killed more than 180,000 Americans; state and vigilante violence targeting Black Americans, sparking insurrections across the United States; and the worst job losses the country has ever experienced. In each instance, race has been a defining feature.
Data from around the country have shown disproportionately high rates of infection and death from COVID-19 among Latinx and Black communities. In May, the Navajo Nation had the highest infection and death rate per capita than any of the 50 states. Among public health experts and epidemiologists, there has been widespread agreement that the causes of these disparities are rooted in structural problems, not personal choices. Government policies like redlining and racial covenants, for instance, have helped perpetuate decades of divestment, ensuring predominantly Black, Latinx and Native communities are more likely to be polluted, have less access to adequate health care and fewer educational resources and job opportunities. Even before data on COVID-19’s racial disparities were known, public health experts and environmental justice advocates warned that the disease was likely to have a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
But despite nationwide shelter-in-place directives, the rate of police killings has been on par with years prior. An onslaught of high profile cases of police brutality and vigilante violence targeting Black people, including the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the recent shooting of Jacob Blake, have spurred the largest racial justice movement in the country’s history.
In the background, an economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has created massive job losses and triggered evictions; those too, have devastated Black and Latinx households at higher rates. And with no end in sight to this current recession, it’s still unclear what long-term effects this economic downturn may have on these communities.
“COVID-19 has exposed the injustices in health outcomes for Black and Brown people, and it’s no coincidence,” said Rep. Barbara Lee. “In addition to addressing the lasting impacts of systemic racism in criminal justice, economic inequality and the like, we must also commit resources to understanding racially unjust health outcomes.”
The bill put forward by Warren, Lee and Pressley calls for the CDC to establish a National Center on Antiracism and Health that would formally declare racism a public health crisis; conduct research and collect data on the public health impacts of systemic racism, as well educate the public on its findings; and evaluate effective policies and practices that improve health outcomes for communities of color. The legislation also aims at improving cooperation between the federal government and Native communities, requiring increased communication and coordination between the CDC and Tribal communities and councils.
But perhaps most notable is the creation of a new program within the CDC that would specifically look at the public health impact of police brutality and violence. The “Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program” would study the impact police brutality has on various communities, collect comprehensive data on state violence and its effects, and work on developing public health interventions to eliminate the “deaths, injury, trauma, and negative mental health effects from police presence and interactions.”
“Racial and ethnic inequity in public health is a result of systematic, personally mediated, and internalized racism and racist public and private policies and practices, and dismantling structural racism is integral to addressing public health,” the bill states.
US Representative Barbara Lee attends a press conference on the reintroduction of the “Women’s Health Protection Act at the House Triangle of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 23, 2019.
Photo: MANDEL NGAN (Getty Images)
Rep. Pressley added that the legislation would require the federal government to proactively develop anti-racist policies.
“It is time we recognize and treat structural racism and police brutality as the public health crises that they are,” she said.
The idea of addressing structural racism as a public health issue has gained a lot of ground in recent months. Milwaukee County—just 32 miles away from Kenosha County—was among the first to declare racism a public health crisis in 2019, citing deep racial divides in employment, education and incarceration rates. Since then, roughly 60 state and local governments have followed suit. As Sharrelle Barber, a Drexel University assistant professor of epidemiology, explained to the Smithsonian this summer, this approach shifts the way institutions and medical professionals confront health problems like obesity, maternal mortality, and diabetes (all of which have a disproportionate effect on African Americans). Rather than addressing these issues as the product of personal choices or biology, the causes of these disparities are tackled at their roots. And with research showing “a deadly barrage” of new pandemics to come, the urgency to eradicate systemic inequality as a matter of public health has arguably never been more urgent.
“If we had a structural racism lens going into this pandemic, perhaps we would have done things differently. For example, get testing to communities that we know are going to be more susceptible to the virus,” Barber told the Smithsonian. “We would have done that early on as opposed to waiting, or we would have said, ‘Well, folks need to have personal protective equipment and paid sick leave and hazard pay.’ We would have made that a priority.”
Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) are all cosponsors of the Senate bill. The legislation has also been endorsed by the NAACP, the National Medical Association, the National Urban League, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Justice Collaborative, among others.
Dr. Joia Crear Perry, founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, is among those supporting the historic bill.
“Right now, health and life outcomes are largely dictated by the color of one’s skin,” said Perry. “Absent sweeping change, Black people’s lives will continue to be disregarded.”