{"id":567681,"date":"2021-06-18T10:52:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T14:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=567681"},"modified":"2021-06-18T10:52:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T14:52:11","slug":"chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-declares-racism-a-public-health-crisis-diverts-10m-in-covid-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-declares-racism-a-public-health-crisis-diverts-10m-in-covid-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Declares Racism A \u2018Public Health Crisis,\u2019 Diverts $10M In COVID Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-declares-racism-a-public-health-crisis-diverts-10m-in-covid-funding%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=567681&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1322365589.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a declaration on Thursday decrying systemic racism as a \u201cpublic health crisis\u201d and announcing that the city would divert $10 million in grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), meant to be used to address the COVID-19 pandemic, to establish \u201chealthy Chicago equity zones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt almost every point in our city\u2019s history, sadly, racism has taken a devastating toll on the health and well-being of our residents of color, and particularly those who are black,\u201d Lightfoot said at a press conference on Thursday. \u201cWithout formally acknowledging this history and reality, and the continuing impact of that infamous legacy, looking at the root causes of today\u2019s challenges, we will never be able to move forward as a city and fully provide our communities with the resources that we need to live happy, vibrant, and fulfilled lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot noted that it is not overt racism that poses a significant health crisis, but rather the effects of \u201csystemic racism\u201d which, she said, has a \u201cdeadly\u201d impact on physical and mental well-being.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we think about racism, many of us think about it in visible and audible forms, but the reality is the insidious nature of systemic racism has other impacts that are every bit as deep and harmful, but often ones that we can\u2019t see, like the impacts on the psyche and other impacts on our bodies that are just as, if not more deadly,\u201d Lightfoot.<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot claimed, in her speech, that the city\u2019s efforts to battle the COVID-19 epidemic \u201claid bare\u201d the difference in how communities of color weather a health crisis \u2014 a revelation documented in a \u201cChicago Department of Public Health released a study earlier this week, showing Black Chicagoans have a shorter life expectancy rate. On average, Blacks in the city lived 71.4 years while non-Blacks lived 80.6 years. That gap is 9.2 years, but depending on the neighborhood it gets even wider,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/wgntv.com\/news\/coronavirus\/mayor-lightfoot-declares-racism-a-public-health-crisis-in-chicago\/\">per WGN News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCOVID laid bare a lot of disparities. When we started looking at the disproportionate impact of COVID on communities of color, in particular, there\u2019s a straight line to the lack of access to safe, affordable, high-quality healthcare,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The city, Lightfoot said, would put money behind a solution, taking directly from a CDC grant intended to help the city battle the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe health department is allocating $9.6 million in Covid relief funding from the CDC, to establish \u2018healthy Chicago equity zones,&#8217;\u201d WGN noted. \u201cThe six geographical areas cover the entire city and will focus on creating ways to improve wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommunity groups in each of those six areas of the city will lead efforts to come up with targeted strategies to improve community wellness. City officials have chosen six organizations to lead those efforts in each of the six Healthy Chicago Equity Zones,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.cbslocal.com\/2021\/06\/17\/mayor-lori-lightfoot-systemic-racism-public-health-crisis\/\">CBS Chicago added<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Although city officials may be shifting focus to \u201csystemic racism,\u201d it appears the single most significant health crisis facing Chicago residents is gun violence. There have been <a href=\"https:\/\/heyjackass.com\/\">312 total homicides year-to-date in the city<\/a>, and 1423 people have been shot.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/we-need-help-chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-begs-for-bidens-assistance-after-second-mass-shooting-in-four-days\">Lightfoot addressed that issue,<\/a> suggesting that lenient gun laws in other states were responsible for Chicago\u2019s spike in gun crime, and demanded that state and federal governments step in to help Chicago curb the violence.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a declaration on Thursday decrying systemic racism as a \u201cpublic health crisis\u201d and announcing that the city would divert $10 million in grants from the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280671,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1322365589.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Declares Racism A \u2018Public Health Crisis,\u2019 Diverts $10M In COVID Funding","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1322365589.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Declares Racism A \u2018Public Health Crisis,\u2019 Diverts $10M In COVID Funding","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}