Rantz: Washington Department of Health releases radically racist, exclusionary COVID-19 report

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) released a report sharing what its left-wing community partners learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an aggressively unserious document that includes a virulently racist claim about the evils of white people.

“Don’t forget sometimes white people disengaged on safety when they learned people of color needed help,” the report absurdly claims.

The report paints an entire race with a broad, divisive brush. Or it’s meant to guilt white DOH staffers into giving organizations more money.

It demands WADOH “use COVID as an opportunity to invest in… youth of color… (and) incarcerated youth” by “celebrating their gifts” in ways that “don’t stigmatize or typify them when society fails them.”

The report even suggests that WADOH “get creative” in promoting health crisis materials by using flash mobs or collaborating with “BIPOC artists, trans/queer artists of color, women of color of all gender expressions, incarcerated youth and adult artists.”

More from Jason Rantz: Seattle may close 20 elementary schools due to avoidable problems

What is in this racist Washington Department of Health COVID-19 report?

“A Chorus of COVID – Voices from the Frontlines,” was highlighted in an Aug. 31 DOH post on X. It aims to “help us all reflect on lessons learned” during the pandemic.

DOH says it will use the lessons to help create better plans for supporting future efforts, with an aim towards better serving marginalized communities. It’s part of the department’s efforts to reach “health equity.”

“Poor health is often how communities that dominant society marginalizes know and feel what exclusion really is,” the report claims. “COVID showed several intersecting crises in public health — from the home front to the workforce and practically everywhere else you could imagine.”

Community partnerships were fundamental to the COVID-19 response. Our partners compiled their insights in two documents that help us reflect and remember equity lessons learned. Learn more at https://t.co/vCit7tYjex pic.twitter.com/ioQeuXr8tS

— Washington State Department of Health (@WADeptHealth) September 1, 2024

Dear White Progressive: Give us more money

The report predictably focuses on funneling resources specifically into “marginalized communities,” with the organizations behind it making clear that they prefer to have direct control over those funds.

They urge the state to “keep lowering the barriers to accessing funds,” but notably fail to provide any details on accountability or oversight—because why would they? This seems to be more about securing power and influence than protecting any community.

When it comes to decision making in how to best help during a pandemic (or other health crises), the reports asks DOH to give marginalized communities “decision-making power and influence.” It does not elaborate.

“Design trainings by and for communities that experience inequities such as mass incarceration, housing and food insecurity, substance use, mental illness, racism, ableism, ageism, xenophobia, sexism, transphobia and other forms of exclusion,” the report continues.

More from Jason Rantz: Seattle deputy mayor says downtown activation plan a ‘roaring success.’ Biz owner says no, it’s not

There’s a lot of demand for “centering” in the report

The report demands that DOH “center” prison inmates and illegal immigrants for agency engagement. It explains that any DOH-produced guides should include photos of people “with dark to fair skin tones, all body types, ages, gender expressions, hair textures, facial features, [and] economic backgrounds.”

But the focus should be around visually representing ” Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latinx, (and) BIPOC faces.”

The report is also drenched in far-left coded language that means absolutely nothing. Take, for example, the demand to “make human-centered frameworks that avoid pathologizing communities that experience disparities due to social exclusion and oppression and ask for better civic and community investment.” This is a jumble of meaningless jargon.

What’s the point of this Washington Department of Health COVID-19 report?

The DOH report is an exercise in fluffery and pandering. It’s the embodiment of a virtue signal: presenting the groups responsible for the report as noble frontliners fighting against imaginary systemic injustices. Based on ideas in the report, the emphasis on these community organizations shows their perspectives are neither more valuable nor more valid than actual professionals who handle health emergencies.

If this were merely a way to engage community organizations so that they won’t protest you in the future, it would be one thing. DOH doesn’t want to deal with a progressive mob when dealing with any health crisis.

But DOH and other government agencies have aggressively pushed left-wing dogma over their actual missions since 2020. During the pandemic, the DOH let providers deny vaccines to white people in the name of inclusion. This document raises concerns that it could serve as a blueprint for further wokify DOH.

The wrong direction

The insistence on “centering” narratives and experiences primarily on the basis of race is what actually ends up marginalizing people. More problematic, it also reinforces a victimhood mentality, suggesting that these communities are perpetually oppressed and incapable of thriving without special recognition or financial assistance.

The Washington State Department of Health report, if its ideas are implemented, would prioritize racial and social narratives over practical solutions, ultimately marginalizing the very people it claims to uplift.

Washingtonians should be deeply worried that DOH might actually follow through on this laundry list of woke demands, putting ideological posturing over effective public health strategies and initiatives. That won’t serve anyone.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason on X, Instagram and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz