Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele signed a resolution Monday (May 20) stating how racism is a public health crisis and that the county plans to take action.
“Everybody has been reading and hearing about the same set of statistics in Milwaukee for decades,” Abele said. “We lead in an unfortunate way the racial disparities in employment, in education, incarceration, income and even things like … access to capital.”
The resolution hopes to take actionable steps to level the playing field in Milwaukee, a playing field that finds minorities disproportionately affected.
Nicole Brookshire, the Milwaukee County Office on African American Affairs Director, was with Abele at the signing and spoke on the potential power of the resolution.
“We need to address racism as a public health crisis but on a large scale to make sure that we transform our culture, transform how we serve our residents and we drive solutions that are equitable,” she said.
The resolution hopes to assess internal policies and procedures to make sure racial equity is a core element of the county, work to create an inclusive organization and identify specific activities to increase diversity and encourage other local, state and national entities to recognize racism as a public health crisis.
