CT congresswoman leads effort to declare racism a public health crisis in US

Hartford Courant – Thursday, February 13, 2025
By Staff Report

As President Donald Trump attempts to eliminate any consideration of race, a new federal effort is underway to recognize the impact of racism in the United States and Connecticut U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes is among the leaders.

Hayes, D-5, a former teacher of the year from Waterbury, introduced a House Resolution declaring racism a public health crisis with U.S. Rep. Delia C. Ramirez of Illinois.

The resolution “aims to highlight the detrimental effects communities of color face when seeking healthcare treatment. Additionally, this resolution encourages concrete action to address health disparities and inequity across all sectors of society,” according to a statement from Hayes’ office.

“Across our nation, communities of color face deeply rooted and systemic barriers to quality care and health outcomes. This has resulted in lower life expectancies for people of color,” Hayes said. “Declaring racism a public health crisis is a step towards delivering a more equitable and healthier future for every American. It is unacceptable for anyone to be denied adequate care or access to medical resources because of race, and Congress must work to address the barriers to quality care faced by communities of color.”

Hayes has, according to her office, led the introduction of the resolution since 2020.

Sens. Corey Booker, Alex Padilla, and Mazie Hirono led the Senate resolution.

“This resolution is an important step toward recognizing that communities of color, particularly Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities, face disproportionate rates of chronic illness, shorter life expectancies, and increased barriers to quality health care,” Booker said. “These disparities are not accidents. They are the direct result of decades of unjust policies and systems that determine whether your air or water is clean, or how close your family is to a toxic waste site. I remain committed to working with my colleagues to dismantle the systemic injustices that continue to impact the health outcomes of communities of color across America.”

While many of the resolution co-sponsors are people of color, Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is among the few Senate co-sponsors.

The Hayes resolution focuses on health outcomes including life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, high rates of cancer and other diseases that disproportionately impact people of color. It notes public health experts generally recognize racism as a “social determinant of health” through “a broad range of nonmedical factors that can enhance or hinder quality of life and influence health outcomes; are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and include the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life” including “housing, employment, education, health care, food, transportation, social support, poverty, crime, violence, segregation, and environmental toxins” and are “linked to a lack of opportunity and resources to protect, improve, and maintain health…”

The resolution would require:

• Establishing a nationwide strategy to address health disparities and inequities across all sectors in society.
• Dismantling systemic practices and policies that perpetuate racism.
• Advance reforms to address years of neglectful and apathetic policies that have led to poor health outcomes for members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

Promote efforts to address the social determinants of health for all racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States to move forward with urgency.

Connecticut recognized racism as a public health crisis in 2021 and created a commission to study, document and strategize how to counter the effects of racism on health from pollution to health care access, poverty and gun violence.

Conversely, Trump has attempted to end efforts to address racial inequity, eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout federal government, calling it “illegal discrimination.”

Trump last month said he signed an executive order on “the civil rights of all Americans and expands individual opportunity by terminating radical DEI preferencing in federal contracting and directing federal agencies to relentlessly combat private sector discrimination. It enforces long-standing federal statutes and faithfully advances the Constitution’s promise of colorblind equality before the law.”

The order terminates diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, “discrimination in the federal workforce, and in federal contracting and spending,” the White House said.

The Congressional Black Caucus recently said the administration spent Trump’s first three weeks in office undermining civil rights protections and enforcement for workers.

“President Trump’s complete disregard for the civil rights protections of the American people is unacceptable and will have profound impacts on Black communities around the country,” said Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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