Albuquerque looking at the COVID-19 response through an equity lens

Immigrants, including those who lack U.S. citizenship documentation, can get tested for COVID-19 and seek medical care at a public hospital free of charge. A visit to the hospital will not result in a charge against an undocumented immigrant, according to Michelle Melendez, director of Albuquerque’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. She also said social […]

Albuquerque looking at the COVID-19 response through an equity lens

Immigrants, including those who lack U.S. citizenship documentation, can get tested for COVID-19 and seek medical care at a public hospital free of charge.

A visit to the hospital will not result in a charge against an undocumented immigrant, according to Michelle Melendez, director of Albuquerque’s Office of Equity and Inclusion. She also said social security numbers will not be gathered.

That message was one part of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s Facebook live press conference Monday to address equity, one of Keller’s signature concerns as mayor. When Keller took office in 2017, he created the Office of Equity and Inclusion to address systemic racism in the city and selected Melendez to lead it. Melendez has experience in social justice, economic development and public health.

Keller also restored the Office of Civil Rights as part of his effort to combat institutionalized racism.

Melendez said on Monday that anyone who feels they’ve been discriminated against during the public health emergency should contact 311 and file a complaint.

Related: Signs of rise in racism against Asians and Asian-Americans

Keller highlighted measures the city has taken to try to approach the pandemic “through an equity lens.” That includes a wide variety of measures. The city has provided 435,000 meals, 66,000 of those for senior citizens, Melendez said. The city has also been helping people who lack citizenship paperwork with assistance to maintain their housing because they were left out of the $2 trillion CARES Act passed by the federal government earlier this month. 

The city also installed 18 portable toilets around the city and opened three satellite homeless shelters, created mobile hotspots for free wifi and allocated $1.2 million for disability access improvements around the city. The city is working with Data.com, a private company that has created a map of Albuquerque showing a vulnerability index during the public health emergency. The city is also translating city documents and information into Spanish. Keller mentioned that online city town hall meetings are now taking place on Thursday evenings in both Spanish and Vietnamese.

Nearly a quarter of Albuquerque’s population is bilingual, according to Albuquerque Economic Development. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, about 3 percent of the city’s population identify as Asian. The city has an estimated 55,000 Indigenous people living in it from nearly all federally recognized tribes and 49 percent of the city’s population identify as either Hispanic or Latino.

The city received a grant of $1.3 million last year from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to, among other things, offer voluntary equity classes for city employees. Those courses had just gotten underway when the pandemic hit in mid-March. Giovianna Burrell, communications and culture change leader for the Office of Equity and Inclusion, told NM Political Report through an email that the classes have shifted to an online format but continue because the city considers the training important.

Inequities hurt the city economically, according to a recent profile.

Compiled by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the profile states that Albuquerque’s metro economy would have been $11 billion larger in 2015 if racial inequities had been absent.

Equity v. equality. What’s the difference?

The two terms look similar but have different meanings and the difference is important, according to social justice advocates. The Milken School of Public Health explains that the two terms can be defined with a set of boxes.

If three kids of different height try to see over a fence, and an adult gives all three children the same size box, those boxes might be equal, but they won’t help the shortest child see over the fence. That is an inequity.

But if the adult gives the shortest child a taller box so all three children can see over the fence, then that is equity.

Keller, in an interview with NM Political Report last month, put it this way.

“When you’re starting at a different place, you never have equity,” Keller said. “That’s the difference between equity and equality. You can never catch up if we’re treating everyone the same.”

Education is often considered to be one way out of the cycle of poverty but, according to education advocates, giving people an equal education will not enable children who need more support to close the education gap. To close that gap, people need an equitable education, many advocates have said. Equity also has serious health consequences, according to the World Health Organization.

Those consequences are being felt by Native Americans in the state right now during the pandemic, according to Keller.

He pointed out that while Native Americans make up about 10 percent of the state’s overall population, they represent nearly half of the people who have fallen ill with the type of coronavirus.

“This is a reflection of decades of structural racism,” Keller said during the press conference.

He said COVID-19 has “highlighted and broadened the cracks,” people experience who  have historically been underserved.

Why inequities need redress

Melendez told NM Political Report that “every indicator,” including home ownership and car ownership are racialized.

Because of pay disparities, an African-American woman will earn, on average, nearly $1 million less than a white man over the course of a 40-year career, according to the National Women’s Law Center. African-American women earn, on average, 61 cents to every dollar a white man makes.

For Indigenous women, the pay disparity is greater. A Native American woman earns, on average, 58 cents to every dollar a white man makes.

Such financial disparities lead to very different health outcomes. African-American women are three to four times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.

But institutional racism has a broader impact, according to reproductive justice advocates. Even when an African-American woman earns a high income, institutional racism negatively affects overall well-being, according to the Center for American Progress.

Indigenous people are 4.5 times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes than a non-Hispanic, white woman, according to the Center for American Progress.

“There’s no better time to be working on this topic,” Melendez told NM Political Report.

Keller’s hope is “to weave equity into everything we do.”

“We’re looking at systemic change that affects communities disproportionately,” Melendez said. “What can local government do differently to change those outcomes?”

We're ad free

That means that we rely on support from readers like you. Help us keep reporting on the most important New Mexico Stories by donating today.

Related

Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Lujan Grisham pocket vetoes two bills

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pocket vetoed two bills the legislature passed this legislative session: one changing the Cybersecurity Act and the other concerning law…
Gov signs bills with some vetoes 

Gov signs bills with some vetoes 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed 69 bills that the legislature passed during the 2024 legislative session. These included the General Appropriations Act which contains…
Guv signs state budget

Guv signs state budget

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the budget bill for Fiscal Year 2025 and the Capital Outlay spending bill. The FY25 state budget bill passed…
Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

New Mexico advocates seeking to have the Gila River designated as a Wild and Scenic River will travel to Washington D.C. this week to…

NM Supreme Court annuls $10,000 penalty in PNM/Avangrid merger case

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a penalty the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission levied against the state’s largest utility was…
State fines oil company more than $2 million after spill

State fines oil company more than $2 million after spill

The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department fined an oil and gas company operating in the Permian Basin more than $2 million over produced…
Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

Amid new graduation requirements, what do high schoolers want to learn?

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican The main things that bring Brayan Chavez to school every day: Seeing, talking to and engaging with…
Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

Special ed teachers hope lawmakers OK pay raises, admin changes

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican Brittany Behenna Griffith has a laundry list of adjectives to describe the ideal special education teacher:…
Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

Lawmakers must find consensus on competing education spending plans

By Margaret O’Hara, The Santa Fe New Mexican A challenging task awaits New Mexico lawmakers in the next 30 days: Reconciling three very different…
Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Lujan Grisham, Biden admin announce $10 million in federal funds for tribes, pueblos

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Friday $10 million in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act was awarded to six tribal nations and…
Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

Proposal to curb executive powers moves to House Judiciary

The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee discussed a potential constitutional amendment that seeks to limit the governor’s executive powers. The committee approved…
Supreme Court censures attorney over conduct in anti-COVID policy suits

Supreme Court censures attorney over conduct in anti-COVID policy suits

The New Mexico State Supreme Court censured a New Mexico attorney because of her “misconduct” in two unsuccessful cases pushing back on COVID-19 regulations…
Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case against the abortion medication mifepristone. It will hear a second…
How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

President Joe Biden highlighted reproductive rights issues as part of his State of the Union speech Thursday. Biden delivered his 2024 State of the…
Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

U.S. House of Rep. Melanie Stansbury has invited an OB-GYN doctor from Roswell as her guest for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union…
Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Supreme Court to hear two abortion cases this spring

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case against the abortion medication mifepristone. It will hear a second…
How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

How Biden, others highlighted reproductive rights at the State of the Union

President Joe Biden highlighted reproductive rights issues as part of his State of the Union speech Thursday. Biden delivered his 2024 State of the…
Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

Stansbury invites OB-GYN doctor as her state of the union guest 

U.S. House of Rep. Melanie Stansbury has invited an OB-GYN doctor from Roswell as her guest for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union…
See who’s going to be on your primary ballot in June

See who’s going to be on your primary ballot in June

Tuesday marked the official beginning of the 2024 New Mexico primary season for the legislature, with candidates officially filing for candidacy. This is the…

Bill to require disclosure of use of AI in campaign materials goes to governor

The Senate approved a bill aiming to require the disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence or other changes made by computers to campaign…
House amends, passes bill banning firearms near polling places

House amends, passes bill banning firearms near polling places

The House narrowly approved a bill that would ban firearms near polling places. The House voted 35-34 to pass the bill following an extensive…
Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

Advocates travel to D.C. to push for additional protections for the Gila River

New Mexico advocates seeking to have the Gila River designated as a Wild and Scenic River will travel to Washington D.C. this week to…
U.S. Supreme Court lets ban on Couy Griffin from holding office stand

U.S. Supreme Court lets ban on Couy Griffin from holding office stand

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Republican official who was barred from holding office after being convicted for a…
Politics Newsletter: legislative leaders not running for reelection

Politics Newsletter: legislative leaders not running for reelection

Hello fellow political junkies! Candidate filing day has come and gone, and members of House and Senate leadership opted to either not seek reelection…

GET INVOLVED

© 2023 New Mexico Political Report