Bill Text: NY J03206 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Declaring racism a public health crisis, and asking Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to establish a working group to promote racial equity in the State of New York
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-06-05 - REFERRED TO FINANCE [J03206 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-J03206-Introduced.html
Senate Resolution No. 3206 BY: Senator PARKER DECLARING racism a public health crisis, and asking Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to establish a working group to promote racial equity in the State of New York WHEREAS, The American Medical Association states that racism contributes to health inequities in the United States; and WHEREAS, Social determinants of health, the social and material factors that influence health outcomes, have a lifelong impact beginning even before birth; and WHEREAS, The American Public Health Association (APHA) has expressed that racism is a driving force of the social determinants of health due to the resulting inequalities in several matters, including housing, education, and employment; and WHEREAS, The APHA clarifies that racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal; systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks; and WHEREAS, This system unfairly disadvantages specific individuals and communities, while unfairly giving advantages to other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources; and WHEREAS, Almost all four hundred years of black Americans' experience was under slavery and Jim Crow laws, which subjected black people to hardship and disadvantage in all areas of life; and WHEREAS, The American Anthropological Association asserts that genetic analyses show race to be a social construct not rooted in meaningful biological difference; and WHEREAS, There is clear data that racism negatively impacts the lives of people of color in New York; and WHEREAS, The American Psychological Association says that, because of poverty and discrimination, racial minority children are more likely to experience traumatic events than white children, and that childhood trauma has negative impacts on academic, behavioral, and physical health outcomes; and WHEREAS, Statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control show a national disparity between black and white infant mortality rates; and WHEREAS, Data collected reveals that maternal mortality is two and a half times greater for black women than white women and that black women are significantly more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity, which includes unexpected outcomes of pregnancy, labor, or delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman's health; and WHEREAS, The APHA has identified law enforcement violence as a public health issue that disproportionately affects marginalized groups, including people of color, impacting both physical and mental health outcomes; and WHEREAS, The impact of racism on public health deserves action from all levels of government; and WHEREAS, This Legislative Body supports the establishment of a working group to address these issues and to: create a publicly accessible glossary of terms and definitions concerning racism and health equity; promote community engagement and provide tools for government agencies to engage actively and authentically with communities of color; continue to work to build alliances with organizations that have a legacy and track record of confronting racism; encourage community partners and stakeholders in the education, employment, housing, and criminal justice and safety arenas to recognize racism as a public health crisis and take appropriate action; continue to promote racially equitable economic and workforce development in New York; continue to promote racially equitable hiring and promotion of all employees including state employees; provide training to all elected officials, staff, funders, and grantees on workplace biases and how to mitigate them; promote and encourage all policies that prioritize the health of people of color; support local, state, regional, and federal initiatives that advance efforts to dismantle systematic racism and mitigate exposure to adverse childhood experiences and trauma; incorporate educational efforts to address and dismantle racism and to expand understanding of racism and how racism affects individual and population health; and secure adequate resources to successfully accomplish the aforementioned activities; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to declare racism to be a public health crisis affecting our entire State; and be it further RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pauses further to ask Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to establish a working group to promote racial equity throughout the State of New York; and be it further RESOLVED, That the members of this Legislative Body are committed to reviewing all portions of the Revised Code with a racial equity lens, and conducting all human resource, vendor selection, and grant management activities with a racial equity lens, including reviewing all internal policies and practices such as hiring, promotion, leadership appointments, and funding; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New York.