{"id":26924,"date":"2020-07-16T15:41:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T22:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=26924"},"modified":"2020-07-16T15:41:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T22:41:28","slug":"establishing-an-antiracist-los-angeles-county-policy-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=26924","title":{"rendered":"Establishing an Antiracist Los Angeles County Policy Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, CA (July 16, 2020) –\u00a0Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas will introduce the motion \u201cEstablishing an Antiracist Los Angeles County Policy Agenda<\/a>\u201d at the upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting on July 21st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Noting the legacy of slavery continues to disadvantage African Americans, the motion calls on the Board to declare that racism is a matter of public health, and to prioritize its elimination from County policies, practices, operations and programs.<\/p>\n

The motion also calls for making legislative, policy and programmatic changes to prioritize physical and mental health, housing, employment, public safety and justice in an equitable way for African Americans. Finally, it calls for tracking progress by reporting annually on the State of Black Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n

“It is incumbent upon those of us who sit in positions of authority to begin dismantling systemic racial bias within the entities for which we are responsible,” Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said. “It’s no longer sufficient to support diversity and inclusion initiatives. The County has made great strides toward addressing and eliminating implicit bias; it is time to advance to the next level. The County must move to identify and confront explicit institutional racism to set the national standard and become a leader of antiracist policymaking and program implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion comes in the wake of the May 25th killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that set off nationwide protests against structural racism and discrimination, asymmetrical consolidation of power, and extreme wealth and income inequity \u2013 all of which disproportionately disadvantage Black people.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Ridley-Thomas has fought against racism throughout his 40-year career, beginning with a decade of service as the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles (1981-1991), whose national organization was co-founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/p>\n

In the past year alone, the Supervisor advocated for implementing the recommendations of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s groundbreaking Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness, which\u00a0identified racism as the primary driver of homelessness among African Americans<\/a>. He also convened a coalition of African American leaders to create an\u00a0Agenda for California: An African American Perspective<\/a>\u00a0that was well received by Governor Gavin Newsom, and sponsored the \u201cUndesign the Red Line<\/a>\u201d interactive traveling exhibit to educate the public about discriminatory housing practices against African Americans.<\/p>\n

The Supervisor previously authored motions to create the Los Angeles County Equity Initiative and to enhance the training of Los Angeles County employees to\u00a0stifle implicit biases and subconscious prejudices that adversely affect public service.<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, the heads of various\u00a0Los Angeles County departments issued a statement pledging<\/a>\u00a0to stand against racism. \u201cWe acknowledge that as government leaders, we have an opportunity to change the narrative on the role of government and its relationship to the communities it serves.”<\/p>\n

\u201cCollectively, the work of our departments have far-reaching impacts on all aspects of our residents’ lives, particularly in the areas of employment, land use, education, voting, housing, health, arts and museums, infrastructure, justice, veteran services, environmental protections, community services, and ensuring a fair and equitable marketplace,\u201d they added. \u201cWe stand against racism in any form, and pledge to use our offices to advance racial and social equity, diversity and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, CA (July 16, 2020)...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26925,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26924\/revisions\/26925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}