Years of work led by grassroots groups, community-based organizations, government agencies, academic leaders, and many others have laid a strong foundation to address racial inequities in Wisconsin. In October 2017, the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) Group, of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, convened statewide partners at the inaugural Healthiest State Agenda Setting Meeting. The convening supported the collective identification of six statewide health equity priorities, one of which was to declare racism a public health emergency. In May 2018, the Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA) passed a resolution declaring that racism is a public health crisis in Wisconsin and committed to taking action. Building on this work, several partner organizations have worked together to transfer the WPHA resolution content to this Racism is a Public Health Crisis Sign-On. The goal is for organizations and individuals to sign-on to the declaration and commit to actions that are tailored to their specific contexts.
Sign-on
Sign on to Declare Racism as a Public Health Crisis in Wisconsin
We agree that Racism is a Public Health Crisis and commit to take urgent action because:
- Race is a social construction with no biological basis.
- Racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal and 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, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.
- Racism causes persistent racial discrimination in housing, education, employment and criminal justice, and an emerging body of research demonstrates that racism is a social determinant of health.
- More than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes.
- In Wisconsin, the highest excess death rates exist for African Americans and Native Americans at every stage in the life course and our infant mortality rate for infants of non-Hispanic black women is the highest in the nation.
- The American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism.
- Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 states that, “Wisconsin must address persistent disparities in health outcomes and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them.”
- Public health’s responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work.
- While there is no epidemiological definition of “crisis,” the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Galea: “The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of large scale solutions.”
Declaration Language and Action Commitments
See the WPHA Resolution for full declaration and citations.
(See also the Racism and Health Suggested Resources from the Wisconsin Public Health Association.)
Organizational Signers and Actions List
As of July 8, 2020 the following organizations have signed on to the Racism is a Public Health Crisis in Wisconsin Declaration:
- Access Community Health Centers
- Access Midwifery, LLC
- ACLU of Wisconsin
- AES Consulting Firm
- Appleton Health Department
- Birthing Project USA – Southeast Wisconsin
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Sheboygan County
- Center for Applied Theatre
- Center for Community Healing
- Center for Patient Partnerships
- Center for Resilient Cities
- Center of Urban Population Health
- City of Appleton
- City of Madison
- Collaborative Center for Health Equity, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Dane County Health Council
- Dean Health Plan
- Democratic Party of Wisconsin
- Florence County Health Department
- Gateway Technical College
- Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin
- healthTIDE
- iLoveKickboxing
- Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Kenosha County Democratic Party
- Kenosha County Division of Health
- Kenosha County Division of Workforce Development
- Kids Forward
- La Clinica de los Campesinos, Inc., Family Health La Clinica
- Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA)
- Lumos Doula Services, LLC
- Madison Metropolitan School District
- Maroon Calabash
- Meadowood Health Partnership
- Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Rural Medicine Interest Group
- Middleton Outreach Ministry
- Milwaukee County
- Milwaukee Men’s Health Referral Network
- Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH), UW Population Health Institute
- Morgridge Center for Public Service
- NAACP Wisconsin Conference of Branches
- Ninjas for Health
- Nurturing Diversity Partners (Jackson-Kaplan Consulting LLC)
- OutReach LGBTQ Community Center
- Parents Advocating for Greendale Equity
- Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin
- Public Health Madison and Dane County
- Quartz
- Racine Educators United
- Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program
- Stable Life, Inc.
- St. Joe’s Accountability Coalition
- St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter
- SSM Health – St. Mary’s Hospital
- Timpano Group
- UBUNTU Research & Evaluation
- Ujima United
- United Way of Dane County
- Unity Point Health – Meriter
- University Health Services, UW-Madison
- University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center
- University of Wisconsin Division of Extension Human Development and Relationships Institute
- University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
- University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
- University of Wisconsin Prevention Research Center
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
- UW Health
- UW-Madison Master of Public Health Program
- UW-Madison Master of Public Health Student Organization
- UW Preventive Medicine Residency Program
- WellFirst Health
- Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health
- Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB)
- Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WIAAP)
- Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault
- Wisconsin Environmental Health Network
- Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice
- Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
- Wisconsin Guild of Midwives (WGOM)
- Wisconsin Health Literacy, A Division of Wisconsin Literacy, Inc.
- Wisconsin Health Professionals For Climate Action
- Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce
- Wisconsin Mujer, LLC
- Wisconsin Partnership Program
- Wisconsin Physicians for a National Health Program
- Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA)
- Wisconsin Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Association
- Wood County WIC
- Wood County Health Department
- YWCA Madison