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A MOTION declaring racism a public health crisis and endorsing the declarations of the King County executive, public health - Seattle & King County and the King County board of health.
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WHEREAS, racism has deep and harmful impacts that unfairly disadvantages Black, Indigenous and People of Color ("BIPOC") and unfairly advantages people who identify as white, and
WHEREAS, racism harms every person in our society and is a root cause of poverty and economic inequality, and
WHEREAS, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," as King County's namesake, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, and
WHEREAS, whether intended or not, racism becomes ingrained in institutional policies and practices, creating differential access to opportunities and resources, and causes disparate outcomes in all aspects of life affecting health and well-being, and
WHEREAS, by maintaining the status quo and existing systems of power and privilege based on our country's long history and continued persistence of white supremacy, institutional policies and practices do not need to be explicitly racist in order to have racist impacts on residents, and
WHEREAS, systemic racism is manifest in the culture that exists within and across institutions and systems and the racist effects of policies and practices of those institutions can persist even once they have been changed, and
WHEREAS, reversing the legacy of institutional racism calls for an intentional commitment to anti-racist policies and practices and an understanding of the intersectional nature of power and oppression that amplify adverse effects on people who experience more than one form of marginalization, such as race, gender, sexual orientation and disability, and
WHEREAS, a public health approach to ending racism calls for eliminating disparities, promoting health, and eliminating disease, taking into consideration data on social determinants of health including socioeconomic status, education,...

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