Santa Clara County officials push to declare racism a public health crisis

Board of Supervisors set to vote on resolution, but some community leaders say it’s not enough

Santa Clara County officials are pushing to declare racism a public health crisis in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement as local civil rights leaders call on them for more meaningful systemic change.

The Board of Supervisors will vote today on two resolutions spawned by both recent anti-police brutality protests and data showing that Black and Latinx residents have disproportionately been infected and died from COVID-19. If approved, the resolutions would publicly affirm that Black lives matter and explore ways to incorporate more race- and healthbased initiatives into county government operations.

Local civil rights leaders called the resolutions a positive first step but emphasized

that the county must push beyond symbolic gestures to uproot racism.

“This is the beginning of the conversation, and it’s a good start, and the community would like to see it go further and ensure that we have more than just words on paper, and that we attach measurable outcomes so we know we’re moving the needle toward meaningful racial equity,” said the Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley NAACP, listing specific policy changes ranging from removing police from schools to creating a race-based social work task force.

“We want that conversation part of this now, not tomorrow,” he added.

The resolutions, backed by Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez and Supervisor Dave Cortese, would take stock of options for reviewing human resources and hiring practices, along with codified ordinances, through a lens of racial equity. It would also push for training elected officials and staff on mitigating workplace biases, incorporating educational activities on anti-racism and encouraging policies prioritizing the health of people of color.

But without more sweeping changes to law enforcement funding and oversight, such efforts fall short of improving realities for Black people and other people of color, said Raj Jayadev, director of Silicon Valley De-Bug.

Last week, the San Jose City Council voted to maintain the police department’s $449 million budget, instead setting aside about $2 million for equity and policing reforms — a move that Jayadev called an “outright insult” to Black and brown communities countywide who have led a growing chorus to defund the department.

“While I am excited about a proclamation, a declaration, I am more excited about the invitation for policy changes that it is a premonition of,” Jayadev said. “Because what we know is that these last two weeks have been a calling for radical change, but also a time of empty political gestures. It’s been a time of law enforcement and elected officials trying to be on the right side of history.”

The effort isn’t the first to tie together race and coronavirus in the county. In late May, San Jose Councilwoman Magdalena Carrasco formed a race and equity task force to shape local policy surrounding language barriers and providing culturally competent testing and contact tracing.

Chavez and Cortese said that the moment called for much-needed conversations surrounding race and policing in the county.

“I want the Black community to know that we see them, hear them, support them, and are ready to learn from them,” Chavez said.