The Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County is proud to sign onto the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis.
Why is racism a human issue?
This is not one side or the other, it’s about all of us. We must search for dignity and belonging for all. Lifting everyone and leaving no one behind. This is big and scary and messy – but that is no reason to do nothing. We must act even if we stumble.
Why racism is a health equity issue?
Demographics don’t lie. Health disparities between white communities and communities of color are due to the life-long experience of long-standing, deep-rooted racism that created unfair systems, policies, and practices that reinforce barriers to opportunity. Barriers to health, wealth, safety, opportunity, employment, education, and clean and healthy environments.
- Older persons in Wisconsin comprise 23% of all the COVID-19 cases and 87% of all deaths.
They are 18x more likely to die of COVID-19 than their younger counterparts. - Likelihood of diagnosis of COVID:
- Black persons – 9x the rate of white persons
- Hispanics – 10x the rate of white persons
- Asians – 4x the rate of white persons
- Those of color are more likely to die due to COVID:
- Older black persons – 10x the rate of white persons
- Older Hispanics – 5x the rate of white persons
- Older Asians – 3x the rate of white persons
All of this complicates an already widening gap of life expectancy. Being old, poor, and black in this state, and all other states, is the worst demographic to be born into.
Why is racism an economic issue?
A main theme that emerges is that “workforce and diversity” are both an opportunity and a threat. It is a grim picture painted by indicators in unemployment, income, education and incarceration.
- What built Green Bay no longer works. We need to focus on high tech jobs, but the population is not educated for that transition. We need to accelerate that transition and keep young people here. Career age people are leaving, not just our area, but the state of Wisconsin.
- Who will we be the economic drivers of our future? According to the Green Bay Public School data, 55.5% of current students are NOT white. How can we ensure a well-educated, integrated, skillful workforce? Who will care for all of us? Diverse populations need to enter careers that will move our economy and our community forward – doctors, nurses, nurses’ aides, teachers, mayors, government employees. Who is our workforce of the future? Who will stay in Brown County and make their mark, change things for the better, assure we prosper and grow?
What can we do?
Where will we be? What does the future hold? A future of decline, of simply status quo, or a future we build and want to see.
- Today, ADRC sees a future in sight where the largest population does not have 30 years of contribution ahead. Instead, it’s 15 years of chronic illness, high cost health care, and the need for extensive long-term care that our government cannot afford. This is a plausible future, not the one we hope for, but the track we are traveling down. It’s up to us to change our course towards a more positive future.
Education is the key
- Who will see themselves as future professionals? How can secondary education be within reach, be anticipated, expected, and possible? This is not a burden that the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) faces alone–it cannot. The message must come from all of us, that people of color need good jobs with good pay.
Our success will depend on all of us working together, helping each other, and standing up for what is right and fair for all. The Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County is proud to sign onto the Wisconsin Public Health Association’s resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis.
