California Needs a Racial Equity Office to Address Systemic Racism

June 15, 2021

The need and possible role of this office became apparent during the covid pandemic – .

Photo: ERIC BARADAT / AFP / Getty Images

For: Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor 14 of June 2021

As the nation continues to grapple with devastating police violence against African Americans and Latinos, as well as the rise in hate crimes against the Asian American community, many government leaders continue to speak out about the importance of justice racial.

It is time to begin dismantling the policies and practices that defend injustice and oppression. We need to move from words to deeds. But how to start it? Establishing a State Office for Racial Equity would be a big step in the right direction.

Across California and the rest of the nation, a growing number of local governments have created offices of racial equity. San Francisco, Sacramento, San Mateo, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Oakland are among the places that develop strategic plans and tools to advance racial equity goals. They are researching the data, setting benchmarks, tracking results, and collaborating with community leaders.

Now is the time for the State of California join them. Senate Bill (SB) 17 proposes to do just that by creating an Office for Racial Equity that would be charged with identifying and eliminating racism in state politics and addressing inequality in state programs.

The need, and the possible role of this office became apparent during the covid pandemic. As cases and death rates skyrocketed disproportionately in communities of color, the state responded to the emergency with an innovative health equity metric. Providing resources and assistance to develop plans to increase testing and reduce transmission, based on best practices from across the state.

California is rightly praised for this metric, but We need more than one approach to addressing racial equity.

The creation of an Office of Racial Equity would formalize the state’s commitment to addressing the systematic racial disparities that have often blocked the progress of people of color. It would identify when we are falling short in achieving economic, social and racial justice by providing numbers to hold us accountable.

The office would guide state agencies in creating their own racial equity plans, recommend policy and program reforms, and create a budgeting tool to assess how funding will benefit or create burdens on communities of color.

Disparities.

exposed in the COVID pandemic prompted state Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) to introduce legislation to create the Office of Racial Equity, governed by an independent Racial Equity Accountability and Advisory Council.

The senator understands that it is essential to confront how government policies have played an important role in the perpetuation of racism since the beginning of colonization and slavery.

California and l The nation have come a long way in the last year, thanks in large part to racial justice organizers who have worked tirelessly to defend the humanity of people of color and demonstrate the public will for change. .

These organizers strongly support the creation of this new office because they know that public responsibility for racial equity is essential. And because they know the truth of the old adage: What is not measured is not likely to change.

We join them in asking state leaders to act definitively on the moral issue that defines our time through the approval of the SB 17 and the establishment of the California Office of Racial Equity.

Angela Glover Blackwell is Founder in Residence at PolicyLink. Manuel Pastor is Director of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California. Both members of the Governor’s Task Force on Employment and Business Recovery.