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“We refuse to be silent as decades of progress unravel. The fight for equity is a fight for us all: for fair and just access to opportunities, power and resources to thrive in our workplaces, schools, and communities,” said Dr. Judy Lubin, President of CURE. 

“This moment calls for courage and clarity,” added Dr. Lubin. “We cannot allow false narratives to dismantle structures that promote civil rights, equity and justice. We must remain steadfast in our vision of a country that works for all people, across races and genders, backgrounds and abilities.”

Equity Forward features a webinar series and a set of explainers and resources, including:

• Anti-DEI Lies and the Truths that Debunk Them: This resource tackles five of the most persistent myths about DEI, countering them with comprehensive, evidence-informed responses.
• Timeline of Major DEI-Related Laws and Movements in the U.S.: This historical timeline traces the evolution of DEI efforts from the 1940s to the present, linking legal mandates, corporate strategies, and social movements.
• Navigating the Anti-DEI Movement and Advancing Racial Equity: This issue brief explores the backlash against racial equity efforts following the 2020 racial justice uprisings and offers guidance to help organizations sustain their racial equity commitments despite legislative restrictions and political opposition.
• Understanding the Anti-DEI Movement: A Glossary of Key Terms: This glossary provides critical definitions to contextualize the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion, exposing longstanding tactics repurposed to undermine today’s fight for equity. Readers are empowered to use these insights to decode and counter the misinformation that fuels anti-DEI narratives.

The Fight for Equity Continues

Movements for racial, gender, disability and LGBTQ rights have shaped this nation’s progress, yet a small but vocal faction is attempting to reverse our hard-won gains. They use misinformation and fear tactics to roll back programs that ensure fairness and opportunity for all. 

Equity Forward is more than a response—it’s a call to action. We invite organizations, leaders, and community members to use these tools to push back against misinformation, advocate for inclusive policies, and sustain the fight for equity, justice, inclusion and belonging.

To access Equity Forward resources, visit www.urbanandracialequity.org/equity-forward

For media inquiries and interviews, please contact:
Chantelle Wilkinson
info@urbanandracialequity.org 

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The COVID-19 global pandemic is a nightmare unfolding before our eyes that could have devastating impacts that Black Americans could feel most acutely. With scarce testing, health care workers and ventilators, combined with a pattern of red state governors ignoring science and placing profits above people, there are signs that Black communities across the country are bearing the brunt of an inept federal response and unjust health care system unprepared to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients.

This, of course, doesn’t have to be the case, but government failure and systemic racism means far too many Black people, especially in the South, will lose their lives unless government leaders immediately course correct from the predictable and alarming outcomes ahead.

Preliminary data show high case counts among Black residents in emerging hotspots, including New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Milwaukee, Charlotte and Albany, Georgia. There are also reports from cities, including St. Louis and Nashville, that predominantly Black neighborhoods have been slow to receive testing sites and equipment compared to white, affluent areas.

COVID-19 is a perfect storm of systemic inequities operating together to worsen existing vulnerabilities. Widespread testing, for example, is still not happening, and tests are being rationed with only the sickest, often at death’s door, being provided diagnostic tests to determine if they have the virus. Health care workers are doing heroic work under unimaginable conditions, but stories like that of Rana Mungin — a 30-year-old Black woman and Brooklyn teacher who was turned down three times before receiving a COVID-19 test and was in a coma, clinging for her life — is a warning sign of a system under stress and poised to reproduce known racial inequities in health care services.

With little to no race or ethnicity data being reported on who has been tested and a well-documented history of racial bias shaping health care decisions, a group of doctors and researchers called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to report these numbers for COVID-19 testing. Several Democratic leaders including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley followed with a similar request to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Biases are more likely to shape decisions under stressful situations, and with a system overwhelmed, such biases may enter the equation when health care workers have to make difficult decisions about who qualifies to be tested.

The same is true for determining who has access to other limited health care resources like ventilators. Recently, I awoke to a heartbreaking email from a public health colleague in a hard-hit state. He was seeking guidance on how to make equitable decisions on ventilators because current crisis standards of care, which are guidelines that state health departments use for these types of public health emergencies, will likely further disadvantage the already disadvantaged — including Black patients that have underlying health conditions that may worsen their prognosis for survival.

Physicians shouldn’t be placed in these positions in a nation that has the resources to coordinate a rapid and equitable response to the demands of this pandemic. Instead, the Trump administration has dragged its feet in using the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of badly needed ventilators and other medical supplies. All along the way, the president has failed as a leader by calling the COVID-19 threat a hoax, and criticizing requests for medical supplies and demanding praise in return for federal aid from Democratic governors in states hit hard by the virus.

Equity — not petty politics — should be the guiding principle in this emergency, and that means resources should be targeted to where they are needed most. Ventilators, for example, should be prioritized for distribution to known hotspots like New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and areas that will likely experience a surge in severe coronavirus cases because of chronic health inequities and under-resourced health care systems, common in the South.

Long before COVID-19, Black communities were experiencing deep health and economic inequities that are only intensified by a public health crisis of this magnitude. African Americans experience higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and respiratory illnesses associated with COVID-19 death not because Black people are inherently sicker, but because systemic racism has created the conditions for these health inequities to develop. Concentrated poverty, substandard housing, lack of health insurance, employment discrimination, poor water and air quality, and the day-to-day stress of living in a society that devalues our humanity all work together to chip away at our health.

Combine these health inequities with resistance among Republican governors to implement stay-at-home orders that public health experts have said are needed to slow the spread of the virus, and we have the conditions for COVID-19 to explode in the South, where close to 60 percent of all Black people in the U.S. live and where the majority of states in the region have not expanded Medicaid. Alabama’s GOP Gov. Kay Ivey, for example, in initially refusing to issue a stay-at-home order, stated that she didn’t want to “choke” business, and proudly proclaimed the state was unlike Democratic-led Louisiana, New York and California, which have stay-at-home orders in place. Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee were also among holdout states that refused to promptly issue statewide shelter-in-place orders.

Inept government leadership in this pandemic is costing lives, and the slow and uncoordinated federal response is having domino effects across the country. Those impacts will be deeper and greater for Black and Brown workers, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet, have no health care coverage, and have jobs where they are expected to work while everyone else is sheltering at home to flatten the curve and avoid being infected by the virus.

Moreover, Black Americans make up 40 percent of the homeless population, who are especially vulnerable to a pandemic where the public is being asked to stay home as a protective measure. In prisons and jails, where Black people are disproportionately among those incarcerated, these environments are ticking time bombs for an outbreak of COVID-19 due to the difficulty of maintaining social distance in close quarters, unsanitary conditions, and the number of people regularly moving in and out.

Leadership at all levels of government needs to rise to the level of this crisis and do so with a focus on health equity and racial justice. That means widespread universal testing with no age restrictions, free COVID-19 testing and treatment provided to anyone diagnosed, and targeted outreach to communities of color to allay fears of not having access to treatment or receiving an astronomical health bill after a hospital stay.

But there are other critical policy solutions that should be considered as part of an equitable COVID-19 response and recovery plan, including immediate action to release incarcerated people, permanent paid sick and family leave for all workers, Medicare for All, housing for the unsheltered and a federal jobs guarantee in the face of massive unemployment. Enacting these policies would begin to address the depths of racial inequities that are intersecting with the COVID-19 crisis and set the stage for a reset as the pandemic subsides.

We’re learning in this crisis that we desperately need better planning, leadership, a focus on our shared humanity and targeted strategies to reach, connect with and care for the populations and communities that will experience the most economic harm and loss of health and life. Racial health inequities are not a foreign concept in public health and it should concern all of us that the most basic step for addressing them — reporting racial data — has been largely ignored in local, state and federal reporting on COVID-19. Without an approach that actively addresses the many ways that systemic racism is already shaping outcomes in this pandemic, Black communities will be left without the resources to address the compounding impacts of COVID-19 as the rest of the country recovers and pushes forward.

With intentional policies and actions that prioritize racial equity now, government leaders and policymakers can avoid repeating mistakes of the past. They can reject calls to go back to “business as usual” and seize the moment to usher fundamental change that addresses the generations of neglect and political malpractice that created the pre-existing health, social and economic conditions that are being magnified in this tragedy.

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Given the multiple intersections of health, economic and social harms that will be felt disproportionately by communities of color, the Center for Urban and Racial Equity (CURE) developed the Equitable Response Community Commons, an online hub for equity and justice in the U.S. coronavirus response. We encourage you to use this site to post resources and to share it with your networks to invite contributors. We envision this tool serving as an easily accessible resource for quickly finding tools and information in over 20 categories addressing  anti-racism and stigma, policy demands and calls to action, mutual aid networks, testing and health care services, financial assistance, and population-specific issues and outreach materials.

We are all in this together. This moment is asking us to care for each other in ways we may  not have thought possible before and to work collaboratively to make sure our communities receive the necessary care and services. Below we’ve compiled a few resources featured on the Equitable Response Community Commons. If you have resources to add to this list, please add them on the hub here: https://urbanandracialequity.org/covid19equitableresponse.  

Take Action & Policy Demands 

New Politics: Demands from Grassroots Organizers Concerning COVID-19

Kelly Hayes at New Politics compiled a list of demands that should be made of federal, state and city governments including free testing for anyone who is being told by a clinician that they should be tested, free care for those who test positive, financial and material assistance plans for people who are unable to work because of social distancing orders, and a moratorium on ICE deportations to ensure that undocumented people are not discouraged from seeking treatment or testing. 

NAACP: Ten Equity Implications of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Outbreak in The United States

The NAACP released a guide to help officials responsible for addressing health, economic, and other impacts, in remediating some of the issues that are disproportionately affecting communities of color. 

National Nurses United: Tell Congress: We demand nurses are protected during COVID-19

Nurses across the country report that they are not receiving the proper staffing, personal protective equipment (PPE), education, and communication from their employers, or isolation rooms they need to safely care for COVID-19 patients. The National Nurses United is collecting names for their sign-on letter to demand Congress to protect nurses during the COVID-19 outbreak.  

The Detention Watch Network: #FreeThemAll

Incarcerated people in jails, prison and ICE detention centers are at increased risk of COVID-19 given the difficulties with maintaining sanitary conditions and frequent cycling of detainees and staff in and out of these facilities. The Detention Watch Network created a toolkit to support local demands for mass release of people in ICE custody. 

Financial Assistance & Unemployment 

One Fair Wage: Emergency Fund for Tipped and Service Workers

Tipped workers are often paid a sub-minimum wage because tips are supposed to make up the difference in pay but they often don’t. According to One Fair Wage, that nations’ largest workforce of women of color are tipped and services workers and therefore, work hard all day for pocket change. If you’re a tipped or service worker, you can apply for financial assistance through One Fair Wage’s emergency fund. Restaurant workers, delivery drivers, personal service workers and Uber/Lyft and InstaCart/DoorDash workers are eligible to apply.

Arts Leaders of Color Emergency Fund 

The Arts Administrators of Color Network has set up the Arts Leaders of Color Emergency Fund to in support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and administrators (consultants, facilitators, box office staff, seasonal/temporary employees, etc.) who have been financially impacted due to COVID-19. BIPOC artists or administrators in financial need, can apply for assistance using this application form. 

United Way 211.org  

This site helps you find your local 211 or simply dial 211 to speak with someone who can help.  211 providers help connect people with services and resources in their local communities. If you need assistance finding food, paying house bills, accessing free childcare, or other essentials – get connected with your 211 provider. 

Intimate Partner Violence

Futures Without Violence: Information for Domestic Violence Survivors 

Social distancing during the Coronavirus pandemic can place people who are surviving violence in their relationships and families in danger due to increased isolation and additional challenges during this unprecedented time. Futures Without Violence provides information for survivors of domestic violence and care providers including links to safety plans and resources for self-care and domestic and sexual violence advocacy organizations.

Coronavirus Testing & Heath Care Resources 

The Center for Popular Democracy – I Can’t Get a Test 

Do you have symptoms of COVID-19 and can’t get a test? Heroes 4 Healthcare and the Center for Popular Democracy are collecting data for a week of action to demand access to COVID-19 testing. 

Homelessness and Housing Insecurity

Public Health Awakened: Protecting Unhoused People from COVID-19

Public Health Awakened compiled a list of resources and information for community-based services providers including guidance for community and faith-based leaders and considerations for limiting the spread of infectious disease among homeless populations.  

Sustainable Economies Law Center: Legal Template For Tenant Needing Rent Extension

Far before coronavirus, the risk of eviction was already a serious poverty-related inequity affecting Black and Latinx women. While there has been a call to halt evictions in response to the spread of COVID-19, the Sustainable Economies Law Center developed this sample letter that tenants who are anxious about paying rent in the coming weeks and months can update and send to landlords to request an extension on their rent.

Donate/Support for Grassroots Organizations

Emergent Fund: People’s Bailout 

Emergent Fund launched the People’s Bailout Fund to raise $500,000 to support Indigenous, Black, and people of color organizations, collectives and mutual aid projects. To donate, click here. 

Decolonizing Wealth Fund

Decolonizing Wealth Project, in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition, has launched a rapid response fund to provide emergency support for the most vulnerable Native American families and communities impacted by COVID-19. Donations are being accepted to support this fund.

GiveDirectly 

GiveDirectly is collecting donations to help with their initiative to send $1,000 directly to low income families on SNAP, many of whom are single mothers.  They will start with 200 households and expand the initiative as resources become available. 

Resources for Organizers and Advocates

Caring Across Distance: Some Things to Consider Before Movement Gatherings during COVID-19

This important reflection article from Maryse Mitchell-Brody is making its way around social justice circles. It outlines several topics related to movement gathering during the coronavirus outbreak. It lays out some important points including the reality that racism and xenophobia has shaped the COVID-19 context and that “we can and should organize against them.” In addition to developing “community-centered responses that are in line with our movement values,” this piece offers insights on how organizers can practice social solidarity through remote gatherings and compensating impacted workers including speakers, performers, service workers and folks who are disabled, trans, and/or BIPOC, when in-person meetings are cancelled.

Design Studio For Social Intervention: Social Justice in Time of Social Distancing

Kenneth Bailey and Lori Lobenstine explore the current arrangement of individuality, local and global social arrangements as cloaked actors, and what we can do. 

Coronavirus continues to impact our immediate and global communities. In this time of uncertainty, it’s critical that we care for each other by sharing resources to help us all better navigate this pandemic. To access these resources and more, visit: https://urbanandracialequity.org/covid19equitableresponse. Please share this important resource widely and send additional resources to cwilkinson [at] urbanandracialequity.org to add to the hub. 

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On February 19, we joined South Florida People of Color at the Miami Theater Center in South Florida.  The event featured opening remarks by Dr. Lubin followed by a panel discussion with Dwight Bullard of the New Florida Majority, Jo Hanna “J” Thompson of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, Francesca Menes of The Black Collective and Ruben Roberts of the NAACP. To watch the event, click here. 

Later that week on February 22, we joined USC Upstate’s NAACP chapter in South Carolina to bring a community discussion about voter mobilization to the Black History Month Festival. The event was attended by students and the general public.  Also, there were field offices of several presidential candidates in attendance. 

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2020 Racial Justice Presidential Candidate Scorecard 

The 2020 Racial Justice Presidential Candidate Scorecard summarizes the presidential candidates’ policy proposals through a racial equity lens across key areas including criminal justice reform, education, health care, voting rights, reparations, environmental justice, immigration, indigenous rights, and policies to close the racial wealth gap. 

Support Voting Rights Restoration

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC)

FRRC is a grassroots, membership organization that helps returning citizens register to vote.  FRRC also offers to pay remaining fines and fees on sentences that often create a barrier for returning citizens to vote. 

Voter Protection

Fair Fight 2020

Fair Fight brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in targeted voter registration and other voter outreach programs and communications.

Election Protection 866-OUR-VOTE

The national, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition works year-round to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count. Made up of more than 100 local, state and national partners, Election Protection uses a wide range of tools and activities to protect, advance and defend the right to vote. On election day, call 866-OUR-VOTE to report incidents or get help voting. 

Voter Registration Resources

 USA.GOV

Visit USA.GOV to find information on how to register to vote, change your registration, confirm your registered, get a voter registration card, and more.  You can call USAGOV at 1 (844) USA-GOV1 to ask questions about the government for free. 

Vote.org 

Vote.org uses technology to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy.  On the website, you can check your registration, register to vote, get your absentee ballot, get election reminders, and more. 

Vote411.org 

Operated by the League of Women Voters, this site is a “one-stop-shop” for election related information.  Users can find information on absentee ballot information, early voting options, election dates, polling place location, registration deadlines, and more. 

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Bloomberg also has not released plans in several areas evaluated in the scorecard including police reform, universal pre-k, and protection of Indigenous rights and sovereignty. 

The latest candidate scores as of 2/11/2020 are as follows: 

The Rankings

Since its launch in December 2019, the scorecard has been featured in theRoot, Ebony, NewsOne, HuffPost and other national media. The scorecard analyzes presidential candidates’ policy proposals through a racial equity lens across critical areas including criminal justice reform, education, health care, voting rights, reparations, environmental justice, immigration, indigenous rights, the racial wealth gap, and candidates’ past and current rhetoric and language around racial justice issues important to communities of color.  

The scorecard has had an impact on the race as presidential campaigns have contacted CURE to explore ways to improve their scores. Most importantly, the scorecard is a resource for voters who care about racial justice issues, with the website averaging 12,000 weekly unique visitors. CURE is co-hosting events with community organizations to engage voters in dialogue on where the candidates stand on racial justice. Upcoming events include policy forums in Miami, Fl and Spartanburg, SC ahead of the primaries in those states. 

For more information, visit www.racialjustice2020.org.

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If you would like to book a Racial Justice 2020 talk in your community during the months of February or March, please email cwilkinson@urbanandracialequity.org. To find out if a Racial Justice 2020 talk is already coming to your city, visit our event calendar.

For the full event description, please see below:

Title: Racial Justice 2020: Voting & Building Power for a Just Future

Event Description: During the last decade voting rights were gutted and police killings of Black people sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and the beginning of important criminal justice reforms. It also brought the election of the first Black president followed by a Donald Trump presidency that is openly advancing a white nationalist vision of America that targets people of color, immigrants, Muslims, women, and LGBTQ people with policies that violate our rights, reinforce white supremacy and rollback efforts to advance racial justice. The next president must be willing to articulate a clear vision for racial justice that counters the conservative’s white identity agenda that is harming Black and Brown communities and that threatens to define the new decade. The Center for Urban and Racial Equity’s 2020 Racial Justice Presidential Scorecard encapsulates key components of this vision for equity and justice and tracks and scores the major candidates’ policy positions on voting rights, health care, education, reparations, environmental justice, criminal justice, immigration and other issues to help voters make an informed decision ahead of this year’s pivotal election. Join the Center for Urban and Racial Equity’s Dr. Judy Lubin for a dialogue on these issues, voter mobilization, CURE’s Presidential Scorecard and how we can build a just future together.

The scorecard is designed to elevate racial equity in the candidate selection process, push candidates to prioritize issues important to Black and brown communities, and help voters who care about racial justice make an informed decision in 2020. For more information about CURE’s 2020 Racial Justice Presidential Scorecard, visit racialjustice2020.org.  

Additional Scorecard Resources  

Background Document

Methodology

Advocates Guide

Social Media Graphics

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The Rankings

“With the resurgence of white nationalism, anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence, and assaults on critical policies and programs from housing to health care under the current administration, the 2020 presidential election is a change election that should be about producing real change for Black and brown communities,” said Dr. Judy Lubin, president of the Center for Urban and Racial Equity. “We hope the scorecard pushes candidates to make these issues a priority for their campaigns and serves as a useful tool for voters who care about racial justice to make informed decisions in 2020.”Candidates received points based on their on-record (e.g., campaign website, news reports, public appearances) positions on policies most likely to address persistent racial inequities. The scoring criteria included support for specific policies to further racial justice, level of detail provided to describe their policy strategies, and language used in debates and public events to explain issues impacting Black and brown voters. The scorecard underwent a rigorous external review process to ensure the scoring of the candidates were fair and on issues of importance to communities of color. Grades and scores will be updated as candidates’ positions evolve.

“The Racial Justice Scorecard articulates a valuable and needed conversation currently missing from the presidential election,” said Janet MacGillivary, J.D., LL.M, executive director of Seeding Sovereignty. “In a time of climate crisis, severe inequalities, and attacks on communities of color, it is crucial that we elect a president that is well-equipped and willing to shift social and environmental paradigms to dismantle these issues.”

“The scorecard is not only useful for primary and general election voters to assess the candidates, but it is also an excellent repository of policy plans for a racial equity agenda. Bookmark this site!” said Stephen Menedian, assistant director, Othering and Belonging Institute.

“During these times of political uncertainty, having a trusted source provide key information about the next president of the United States is an incredible resource,” said Veronica Flores, CEO, Community Health Councils. “The scorecard from the Center for Urban and Racial Equity offers the reader an opportunity to discover the history and presence of each candidate regarding their stand on racial equity, so people can make an informed decision at the polls.”

The scorecard is available at www.racialjustice2020.org. Scoring methodology and detailed breakdowns of each candidate’s score is available on the website. The interactive website will be a resource for visitors to stay up-to-date on the progress of racial justice conversations throughout the 2020 presidential elections. Visitors will have access to updated scores, candidates’ policy positions, an advocate’s toolkit, and can engage presidential candidates with pre-filled social media messaging. Social media conversations about the scorecard and candidates’ positions on racial justice issues can be followed using #racialjustice2020

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