Pittsburgh’s Racism is a Public Health Crisis
Pittsburgh’s City Council has declared the city’s racism a public health crisis. A recent Gender Equity Council report showed Black Pittsburghers lead shorter lives, have worse health outcomes, and are more likely to live in poverty than white Pittsburghers.
But I want to know why elected officials were still studying the problem when they already knew the cause of so much of Pittsburgh’s poverty lays at the feet of the region’s largest employer: UPMC. That was established in 2015’s Wage Report, which laid out that wages paid to hospital workers aren’t enough to live on.
I know this firsthand, as a dietary worker at UPMC Presby. I live with multiple generations of family members because UPMC wages aren’t high enough for us to pay the rent.
I’ve wanted to speak up about this. I’ve wanted to go to the Presidential roundtables hosted in Pittsburgh and the public meeting Councilmembers Burgess and Lavelle had, but I can’t because I’ve been picking up extra shifts and working every time something is scheduled. During the holiday season especially, I can’t afford to take time off from work for any reason.
Employers like UPMC keep their workers in poverty and make it impossible for us to participate in democracy. Our city officials need to create solutions that address companies like UPMC instead of commissioning more studies and forums. Otherwise, they’ll never get to the root of why Pittsburgh is the worst city in the country for Black women.
-Christoria Hughes
