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.165732.1
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 31
48
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
FIRST SESSION
, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
Rick Miera
A JOINT MEMORIAL
REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO DIRECT THE
APPROPRIATE COMMITTEE OF THE LEGISLATURE TO STUDY THE
FEASIBILITY OF REQUIRING A RACIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSED
LEGISLATION.
WHEREAS, New Mexico is a minority, majority, multicultural
state where sixty-seven percent of all New Mexico children are
children of color, fifty-one percent are Hispanic, twelve
percent are Native American, two percent are African American
and two percent Asian, while only thirty-three percent are
white non-Hispanic and over thirty percent of minority youth
under eighteen years old live in poverty; and
WHEREAS, race is simultaneously a matter of social
structure, representation and lived experience and not a
biological fact and race has real consequences for children in
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.165732.1
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a wide range of social, educational and economic institutions;
and
WHEREAS, those consequences and lived experiences of
children in New Mexico are often created and maintained through
processes, attitudes and behaviors that are intentionally and
unintentionally fostered by structural racism and by policies,
practices and laws that are structural racism and that this is
evident in the unequal outcomes in the health, success and
wellness of children of color in New Mexico; and
WHEREAS, optimal mental health is essential to prosperity
and well-being and access to mental health and physical health
is related to insurance status, and forty percent of Native
American youth, eighteen percent of African American youth and
seventeen percent of Hispanic youth are uninsured while only
fifteen percent of white non-Hispanic youth are without
insurance coverage; and
WHEREAS, youth suicide rates for New Mexico males ages
fifteen to twenty-four in 1999 through 2004 were far higher for
youth of color than for white non-Hispanic youth; and
WHEREAS, in New Mexico, Hispanic females fifteen to
nineteen years old have birth rates more than twice that of
their white non-Hispanic counterparts; and
WHEREAS, because of racism's negative impacts on
behavioral health across generations and individual life spans,
New Mexicans should work to eliminate structural racism in New
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.165732.1
Mexico;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico legislative council be
requested to direct the appropriate committee to study the
feasibility and cost of requiring a racial impact statement for
certain health and mental health legislation to determine the
potential for disparate outcomes for children of color; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee make
recommendations to the New Mexico legislature by January 1,
2008; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to members of the New Mexico legislative council.
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