内容摘要：Judges and court staff previously earned their positions through merit and experience. Now the election has more than 7,700 candidates vying for more than 2,600 judicial positions, including on

Judges and court staff previously earned their positions through merit and experience. Now the election has more than 7,700 candidates vying for more than 2,600 judicial positions, including on

said they finally felt heard by theto address disparities like disproportionate

The declarations “signified this might be us finally breaking through the noise that they haven’t been willing to hear,” said Ryan McClinton, who works at the nonprofit Public Health Advocates in Sacramento County, California. Marsha Guthrie, the senior director at the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, called 2020 a “catalytic moment for us to kind of reimagine social consciousness.”“Think about the ... decades (and) decades of just fighting to get the conversation about race even centered in the American psyche,” she said. “Now people talk about it as a general course of fact.”Some places’ health departments took on the work of the declarations, creating improvement plans centered on

. Others turned the work over to task forces and consultants to look at internal work environments or make action plans and recommendations.Years after the declarations, community organizers and public health advocates in Milwaukee and Sacramento County say not much has changed. Officials counter that it’ll take more than a few years to undo centuries of structural and institutional racism.

But experts, officials and advocates all agreed on one thing: The declarations were an important first step toward creating a racially equitable society. Extensive research shows racism can have detrimental health impacts on people of color, including chronic stress and anxiety and higher rates of heart disease and asthma.

AP correspondent Kenya Hunter reports on how communities responded to racism being declared a public health issue.During an ultrasound a few minutes later, Coles watched Dr. Jacob Lenz point to her unborn baby’s eyes, mouth, hand and heart. He printed an image of the scan, which Coles immediately showed her daughter.

Keener said she’s gratified that Coles would not be giving birth prematurely this time.“You made it to term – yay!” she told her client.

Coles smiled. “My body can do it!”While programs like Healthy Start focus on individual patient needs, other efforts manage the overall quality of medical care.