Racism in Minneapolis is a “public health emergency” that causes cancer and heart disease according to the City Council.
The council officially declared racism a health emergency in their city via a resolution passed July 17. The progressive council and the democrat mayor, Jacob Frey, also “committed to a series of action steps to dedicate more resources to racial equity work,” per an official announcement.
“Racism in all its forms causes persistent discrimination and disparate outcomes in many areas of life,” the resolution reads. It goes to claim that racism causes “cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high infant and maternal mortality rates demonstrating that racism is the root cause of social determinants of health.”
The resolution also seems to accuse America of being racist for 500 years: “being anti-racist means moving and speaking in ways that repair (not simply abandon) more
than 500 years of racist policies and practices.”
It concludes by listing 10 actions the city will take to remedy the health emergency that is racism, seen below:
The resolution was authored by Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, both of whom are one of the three council members who used taxpayer-funded private security as the council attempts to disband the police.
“Racism is the underlying disease to all of the racially inequitable results we are living with today, and we have to name that if we are to heal it. This action is the first step in long overdue restorative measures for our BIPOC community,” says City Council Member Phillipe Cunningham per the announcement.