II. Foreword
“…equity and justice for all, now and for generations to come.”
The year 2020 ushered in a decade of both historic challenge and historic opportunity.
- January: COVID-19 swept across the earth and nearly every aspect of our lives.
- March: Blacks, Latinos, and people fully fluent in their native language experienced significantly higher COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates than Whites.
- April: States began to reopen the economy.
- May: The world watched Mr. George Floyd’s murder by police officers responding to a call from a store clerk claiming that he had paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Millions protested and demanded racial justice worldwide and here in Washington state. Racism, they said, is the real public health crisis that must be addressed because the distribution of privilege and the distribution of burden, based on one’s membership in a particular social identity group, continues to be uneven and unjust across society.
We remember the year 2020 as a time of historic opportunity. The Washington State Office of Equity, located in the Office of the Governor, was established in April 2020 to promote equitable access to opportunities and resources that reduce disparities across state government and improve outcomes statewide (RCW 43.06D.020). The social justice movement of 2020 demanded that government admit and repair the harm it caused to so many people. What was considered “normal” before the pandemic—to serve and privilege some at the expense and erasure of others—was no longer acceptable to people worldwide or in Washington state. People across the state mobilized to hold state leaders accountable for ending disparities, especially racial and ethnic disparities, in all aspects of state agency decision-making.
We are excited to present the Washington State Pro-Equity Anti-Racism (PEAR) Ecosystem Plan & Playbook (“PEAR Plan & Playbook”). Co-created with input from thousands of state employees and Washingtonians, it recognizes that our people and environment are both healthy and flourish when we work together with those experiencing inequities to ensure that every person who works in, contracts with, or visits a state agency for assistance or services is welcomed, receives procedural and outcome fairness, and is treated with dignity, honor, and respect.
It is time for action. Join us as Washington state leads the way in transforming government to work in a way that achieves equity and justice for all, now and for generations to come.
What are you prePEARed to do in 2022 and beyond?
–Washington State Office of Equity Team, Office of the Governor