Virtual conference to focus on racism and COVID-19

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Action for a Better Community will partner with a number of local organizations next week on the first day of a series that will address Rochester’s two pandemics: COVID-19 and racism.

“Racism is a Public Health Crisis — Attacking the 2 Pandemics” will be presented virtually Jan. 14, 21 and 28. The conference will feature notable speakers including Wade Norwood, CEO of Common Ground Health, as well as Bryan Duncan and Denise Harlow from the National Community Action Partnership and Joy DeGruy of Joy DeGruy Publications Inc.

More than 500 people are expected to attend the call to action addressing racism and COVID-19 by promoting equity and justice for all members of the community.

“Systemic and structural racism have been so resilient that they have survived for centuries,” said ABC CEO Jerome Underwood, explaining the need to address racism as a pandemic.

Underwood noted that in August 2020, ACT Rochester and Rochester Area Community Foundation released a report that documents how the status of African Americans and Latinos in the nine-county Rochester region significantly lags their counterparts in New York state and nationwide.

“For those of us who are doing this work year in and year out, there weren’t many surprises in there; we continue to see significant disparity in education, unemployment, employment. It’s a fact that somebody of African or Latino descent that is highly educated, their colleague who is Caucasian will out-earn them by probably 30 percent,” he said.

And when looking at housing, health care and other social determinants of health, the lack of education, access to fresh foods, safe neighborhoods and livable wages will make you ill, Underwood added.

“Racism is not the only thing, but when you talk to people of color they will tell you that it is the primary thing, that has held them back from achieving economic self-sufficiency,” he said. “I refer to (systemic racism) as one of America’s original birth defects.”

In April last year, the Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group declared racism a public health crisis, asking community members and businesses to sign on to the declaration, which enumerates nine attributes that make racism a health crisis. Underwood is a member of BAG.

“Endorsing the declaration is one thing, but what are you going to do?” Underwood asked. “This conference is part of our ‘what are you going to do.’ So we’re bringing together a very diverse group of professionals working in health care, in human service, in mental health, in criminal justice systems and we’re trying to get some students and consumers to participate.”

Why?

“Because this is for 15 year olds to 115 year olds,” he said.

Analysis has shown, and Underwood believes, that the disparate impact of COVID-19 among races is due to systemic and structural racism.

“People who are more susceptible to this horrible virus are people with respiratory issues, people with underlying conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes,” he noted. So it’s not a coincidence that you would find in multi-dwelling facilities — the ‘projects’ — a higher incidence of people of color.”

Yet despite knowing that, Underwood contends that it took much longer for COVID-19 testing to become available at health facilities that serve many of the region’s poor and poverty stricken.

“Death rates are much higher for people of color than they are for our Caucasian brothers and sisters,” Underwood said. “We should be taking care of everybody, but in an equitable way. The care that has been given by our health systems is not equitable. That’s not just the health systems’ fault because it’s systemic. The systems are set up that way.”

So the three-day conference will feature a different theme each day. The first day will establish why racism is a public health crisis.

“We want to do it in a way that is non-threatening to people. We want to get people into the anti-racism camp,” Underwood explained. “What does that mean for policy, practice and procedure? What does that mean for your board of directors? This cannot be the flavor of the month.”

Day two of the event will focus on health and what happens to people of color when they experience racism.

“It weighs on your mental health, which then affects your physical health,” Underwood said. “So how can we bring relief to that?”

The final day of the conference will focus on healing. DeGruy, who wrote the book “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” will keynote the third day of the conference.

Because of the pandemic, ABC was unable to have its traditional luncheon and awards event, so the organization, whose mission is to promote and provide opportunities for low-income individuals and families to become self-sufficient, chose instead to raise unrestricted funds through professional development.

Several local organizations have stepped in to sponsor the conference, including presenting sponsors ESL Federal Credit Union, Greater Rochester Health Foundation and KeyBank. Other sponsors include University of Rochester, Catholic Family Center, Rochester Regional Health and others.

“We have a longstanding relationship with ABC, have worked with them closely on promoting and sharing information,” said Greater Rochester Health Foundation President and CEO Matthew Kuhlenbeck. “What was important at the health foundation was one of our core values is equity, and it’s the central value that we use in all of our grant making, decision-making, internal operations, as well as external work.”

As a nonprofit, the foundation believes that to achieve justice and fairness in health resources and outcomes we must disrupt the conditions that result in racial and other health inequities, Kuhlenbeck said.

“This event fits our mission and our purpose incredibly well and we felt it was a great opportunity to continue the conversations that are happening in the community, but also move towards actionable next steps as a result of the work that’s going to be done,” he added. “We see ourselves as not just a grant maker, but how can we help effect change in the region?”

Kuhlenbeck said what GRHF hopes the community will take away from the event is a clear understanding of why racism is driving health outcomes in the region, why it is important and why it should continue to be a focus.

“And then also come away with practical next steps on what they can do, either within their organizations, within their community or within the work that they do with others to really effect change in this space,” he added. “So not just being a share information event, but really how do we formulate action steps as a result of what we’ve learned through this.”

Prior to joining the foundation two years ago Kuhlenbeck lived in St. Louis, where in 2014 Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer.

“There was intense community outreach, a lot of public protests, a lot of action developed as a result of it,” Kuhlenbeck recalled. “But shortly after those action plans came to the public the momentum waned and there was a real desire to go back to ‘normal.’ Based on that lesson, based on what we’ve experienced over the past year here in Rochester, for us there’s an absolute desire to not lose the momentum, not go back to the status quo, but take what we’ve learned, take what we’ve experienced and envision what the future should and could look like and start working towards that. For us, that’s what’s really critical about this event and this opportunity. We are continuing to further the conversation, further actions that can effect change and keep the momentum going.”

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