Ohio Legislature stalls declaring racism a public health crisis
Ohio’s state legislators hope to tell those affected by racism, “we hear you, we see you and we value you and your experiences” with a proposed resolution that would declare racism a public health crisis in Ohio, said Democratic State Rep. Stephanie Howse, who sponsored the resolution in Ohio’s House of Representatives.
But activity on the resolution, originally proposed in June, all but stalled as the country entered political season, said Howse, who represents Ohio’s 11th district. She attributed this in part to the state’s Republican party seeking to shield its incumbent representatives from scrutiny.
“They’ve kind of shot back because they, I’m saying they meaning the Republican party who are leading it, don’t want to put any of their members at jeopardy for the things that they might believe or things that might come out of their mouth in the House,” Howse said.
Republican State Sen. Steve Huffman lost his job at TeamHealth as an emergency room physician and faced calls for his resignation after he asked if Covid-19 impacts the “colored population” disproportionately “because they do not wash their hands as well as other groups” during a more than four hour long hearing for the resolution on Tuesday, June 9 in the Ohio Senate’s Health, Human Services and Medicaid Committee.
More than 200 people offered testimony in support of the resolution that day, and the committee heard several more hours of testimony on Wednesday, June 24. Republican Sen. Dave Burke, the committee’s chair, said he’d like to hold a third hearing for opponent testimony but has not yet scheduled it.
Because resolutions do not absolutely need hearings, Howse said she and other supporters plan to work with the president of the Senate and the Speaker of the House to bring the resolution to each chamber’s floor for a vote as the General Assembly enters lame duck sessions in November and December.
The proposed state resolution, SCR 14 in the Senate and HCR 31 in the House, aims to principally establish racism as a systemic problem in Ohio, form a working group to address it and create a public glossary of essential terms and definitions to familiarize people with various forms of racism. It also emphasizes building relationships with organizations that “have a legacy and track record of confronting racism,” and instructs legislators to engage with education, employment, housing and criminal justice agencies to combat racism.
“I think the biggest thing, you know, with the resolution is to get it on people’s minds that racism is alive and well in our society,” Howse said. “And if we want to address it, we have to be willing to talk about it and help people understand what it is. You can’t go any farther if you’re not willing to acknowledge it.”
To acknowledge the problem, the resolution cites data and statements from ten national and state agencies. The accumulated data points to racism as a driving factor in health disparities observed between white and Black Ohioans.
“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,” HCR 31 reads.
Ohio Department of Health data showed that, between 2008 and 2016, Ohio’s maternal mortality rate was two-and-a-half times greater for Black women than white women. The Urban Institute reported in May that 56 percent of Ohio’s incarcerated youth are Black, despite representing only 16 percent of Ohio’s general youth population. And The Ohio Poverty Report published in June by the Ohio Development Services Agency shows that the poverty rate for Black Ohioans is nearly three times the rate for white Ohioans.
The resolution also calls lawmakers to review all portions of the Ohio Revised Code through a racial equity lens and to consider future “human resource, vendor selection and grant management activities” through that lens as well.
Cities across Ohio and the United States have passed similar resolutions in the wake of protests for racial equality. Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and more than 20 other cities and counties in Ohio have officially declared racism a public health crisis. Although many don’t allocate funds for actions they call for, most establish committees to work out those details.
After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protests across the nation sparked new conversations about racism and policing, pressuring elected officials to respond. Protests spawned in Ohio’s larger cities like Cleveland and Columbus in the days following Floyd’s death. As the summer progressed, they even bled into Ohio’s small, rural townships like Bethel in the southwest and Garrettsville in the northeast, drawing large groups of counterprotesters.
But Howse said she’s sought to encourage Ohio’s General Assembly to look at its policies through a racial equity lens even before the summer’s heightened calls for racial justice.
“I work to try to facilitate race conversations with legislators,” she said. “So even before this moment in time, there have been requests. Unfortunately it has not necessarily fallen upon receptive ears. I think in light of the social unrest that has been happening, it is now putting more pressure on the Republican leadership to realize you cannot just turn a blind eye, right? You can’t just ignore it.”
The Ohio Legislature introduced a resolution to declare racism a statewide public health crisis back in June. The Senate held 2 hours-long public hearings, but months later, the resolution still hasn’t faced a vote.
— Michael Indriolo (@ikeyindr) October 27, 2020
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