The Montgomery County Council’s Government Operations and Fiscal Policy (GO) Committee voted unanimously Thursday to adopt regulations for an action plan that aims to improve racial equity and social justice in the county.
In reviewing the Racial Equity and Social Justice Act’s action plan, the committee discussed the importance of the law’s impact on advancing racial equity by taking various measures such as employee training and spending changes. “If we don’t know what works to address these disparities, they’re only going to get worse, and then we’re just throwing money out there trying to address it without any particular structural and strategic guidance,” said GO Chair Nancy Navarro.
The act works toward applying a racial equity and social justice lens to the development and application of the county and its departments’ policies, practices and procedures, the plan writes. “We know that we have a racial hierarchy across almost all issue areas in this county, and the country, that has white residents who are fair and far better than our black and brown residents, right, and we’re saying that that’s because of systems, not because of people,” said Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice Director Tiffany Ward.
The committee emphasized the role of institutions in why racial disparities exist across the county, and how the legislation can target these institutions.
“The issues that we are looking at are our systems, [the] things we have control over – we are here to interrogate those systems and how they are working or not working for communities of color in Montgomery County,” Ward said.
For more details, view the plan at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/exec/Resources/Files/15-21.pdf
