We bring you a special episode on declaring structural racism as a public health crisis, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

Whether at the hands of police or because of pervasive inequities built into the fabric of our society, Black and brown people are dying at disproportionately high rates compared to white people. Systemic and structural racism in housing, health care, employment and healthy food access is resulting in Latinos and Blacks being three times as likely to be infected with COVID-19 as their white counterparts and twice as likely to die of the virus as white people.

We spoke with three community leaders on why naming structural racism as a public health crisis is crucial and what comes after the acknowledgement.