Racism is a Public Health Crisis

More white people are waking up to how insidious racism is. It’s both great and upsetting at the same time. It should not have taken this long for people to see the issue and want to address it.

In public health, we often talk about the notion of racism and discrimination being a part of society’s culture. Some types of discrimination are especially clear in different types of settings. For example, ageism plays a huge role in pain management. Young people aren’t believed about pain. Older folks are presumed to have little quality of life, and are either over or undertreated.

While racism is not just an issue that affects only Black folx, I am focusing this piece mostly on Black pain due to racism.

When we say ‘racism is a public health crisis,’ what does that mean?

The following is from a Rolling Stone article entitled ‘Racism Kills: Why Many Are Declaring It a Public Health Crisis‘ –

When it comes to discussing racism and public health, words matter. Specifically, [Mary] Gregory says that it’s important to refer to racism as a public health “crisis” instead of an “issue.” Not only is it more accurate, she says that racism also meets the four criteria the CDC requires in order for something to be considered a public health problem. That means that (1) it places a large burden on society that continues to increase, and (2) impacts certain parts of the population more than others. In addition to that, (3) there’s evidence that preventative strategies could help, but (4) this hasn’t happened yet. And while we’re on the subject of words, Gregory wants to remind us that when we talk about “race,” we’re really talking about skin color. “There is one race on this planet — homo sapiens — and to use the word ‘race’ in talking about skin color is our first mistake,” she explains.

I highly suggest reading that article. It’s a fantastic picture of racism as a crisis.

Here in Wisconsin, it might be even worse than in some states. Still, despite Milwaukee being one of the most segregated cities in the US, Wisconsin was the first state to declare racism a public health issue.

Let’s examine just some of the ways that racism can impact someone’s life.

Environmental Racism

The Flint water crisis is still happening. They still do not have clean water, and it’s been SIX YEARS. The government continues to fail to address this issue in a way they wouldn’t be able to if Flint was full of white middle-class people. The only way they’re getting away with this is because the population is primarily BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color) folx living in poverty.

Medical Racism

Black folx are around four times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white folx.

Black people, on average, have a lower life expectancy than whites. In addition to outright physical violence, part of why this occurs is the chronic stress of being Black. As we well know, stress can cause and worsen chronic conditions. Combine this with a lack of access to medical care – or not trusting the medical system because it routinely engages in racism – and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Currently? We know that BIPOC are one of the groups dealing with the most impact from Covid.

Police

I recently covered the 2015 murder-by-cop of Madison-local Tony Robinson for my podcasts. You can listen here.

Police continue to murder Black folx at higher rates. The police ‘issue’ isn’t something we ignore, either, as half of all people murdered by cops are disabled.

A lot of people think that means the policing system needs reform. In reality, white people created policing exactly this way. The notion of police in America came out of that of the slave catchers. That’s right – the police developed from a system literally only designed to protect the property, livelihood, and well-being of white people. It likely goes without saying that, as time went on, this also meant the police attacked and oppressed anyone they saw as a threat to that – disabled, trans, queer, BIPOC, etc.

Institutional Racism

Each of these types of racism is a part of institutional racism. It’s much worse than most white folx realize.

Moving into the Civil Rights era, white people took special care to ramp up attacks on Black folx. Lawmakers drafted and passed laws around public housing, financial assistance, and many other areas. They did this to specifically target Black communities. These included laws against those convicted of felonies and drug charges living in public housing or lowering their job prospects. This combined with police increasing patrols and arrests in Black communities began to lead to the higher incarceration rates for Black folx – particularly Black men. That later transferred to affect all genders while simultaneously forcing those who are transgender or gender non-conforming into incorrectly gendered facilities where they face additional harm from guards and fellow inmates.

Combine all of that with the increase in social workers stealing children to put them in foster care under false pretenses, the school-to-prison pipeline, and rapid underfunding of any organization that might actually be able to help? It’s a recipe for disaster.

Black people are then gaslit and told that these systemic forms of oppression are their fault. While nothing could be further from the truth, the impact of those lies cannot be understated.

Epigenetics

Now, imagine this going on for any of our families for half a millennium. Consider what it would mean if we couldn’t even trace our ancestry back that far because no one had cared to collect our family stories. There’s a lot of trauma that can affect people in many ways.

Epigenetics is the study of how our DNA changes how it expresses itself in response to things like diet, exercise, and stress. Toxic stress can cause long-term problems including post-traumatic stress, changes in brain physiology, and more. These changes pass down through generations. The stress of going through abuse can be passed down to the abused person’s children, etc. This applies to historical trauma, such as slavery, too.

Epigenetics is such a new field of study that we have no knowledge yet around how to help heal those wounds. There is a specific type of post-traumatic stress called Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Things like therapy can be helpful for our own experiences, but can they touch on historic pain? Not really.

What do we do now?

If you’re white – and, from my readership stats, I know you probably are – it’s time to start learning. Here are a few resources: