InternationalRacism in Minneapolis was declared a public health emergency on Friday.- The
Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution to "recognize the severe impact of racism on the well-being of residents and city overall." - The resolution is authorized two months after the death of
George Floyd , an unarmed Black man who was killed after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes.
Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution to declare racism as a public health emergency to "eliminate racial disparities" for marginalized community members on Friday.
The resolution was created by council members Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham as a call for action for the city government to end racism and build "an active, anti-racist culture in the City of Minneapolis."
"It's past time that we begin to address these systemic issues that have been plaguing our society for decades," said Jenkins, according to the report.
The declaration brings attention to the economic, educational, and health disparities amongst people of color in Minneapolis, which is comprised of 40% of BIPOC community members, according to the resolution.
"Racism in all its forms causes persistent discrimination and disparate outcomes in many areas of life, including housing, education, health, employment, public safety and criminal justice; exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis," the resolution read.
By declaring racism a public health emergency, the resolution said, Minneapolis is recognizing "the severe impact of racism on the well-being of residents and city overall," and plans to "allocate funding, staff, and additional resources to actively engage in racial equity in order to name, reverse, and repair the harm done to BIPOC in this City."
Minneapolis, according to the resolution, "has some of the starkest racial inequities in the country."
The resolution comes after nearly two months after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, and sparked an eruption of protests across the US.
Since then, members of the Minneapolis City Council vowed to disband the city's police.
One of the actions to be undertaken by the resolution is to establish "a comprehensive public safety system that decentralizes BIPOC over-policing and criminalization."
Minneapolis is not the only city to declare racism a public-health crisis. In recent months, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis have also declared racism as a public health emergency following Floyd's death.