Written By: Elicia Bates
A couple of days ago, I was listening to the news and reporters were discussing the disparate impacts of coronavirus. They explained how across the country, Black people make up around 33 percent of hospitalizations due to coronavirus, but are 13 percent of the population. And while this is clearly a travesty, that isn’t what upset me while listening. What upset me was how shocked the reporters were. The tone of the entire story conveyed that they just couldn’t believe that this was happening, as if this was some sort of wild twist. The thing is: this was entirely predictable and virtually inevitable.
The discrepancies are a result of years of systemic racism and apathy towards these issues. And in that apathy lies the problem. As long as the issue is not immediately in front of many white people, including liberals, racism does not have to be discussed or dealt with. So for many people this means avoiding hard conversations, not taking Black studies courses, and not wanting to get involved when their coworker is in the midst of a bias incident. Whatever it is, some people will subconsciously, or consciously, avoid discussing racism in nuanced detail.
The problem with this avoidance is that these reporters, and their work, are just discussing that racism is wrong, without mentioning the tangible impacts of racism and discrimination." If you understand the impacts of racism, the death rates from coronavirus aren’t remotely surprising. Take redlining for example. Redlining is the process of creating “Black neighborhoods,” by restricting where Black people can move within a city. This is done either explicitly by local law (a practice which is illegal) or implicitly by denying loans to purchase homes in more desirable areas of the city. The practice is technically outlawed, but unconsciously biased bankers are still inclined to deny loans to black applicants.
The discrepancies are a result of years of systemic racism and apathy towards these issues. And in that apathy lies the problem. As long as the issue is not immediately in front of many white people, including liberals, racism does not have to be discussed or dealt with. So for many people this means avoiding hard conversations, not taking Black studies courses, and not wanting to get involved when their coworker is in the midst of a bias incident. Whatever it is, some people will subconsciously, or consciously, avoid discussing racism in nuanced detail.
The problem with this avoidance is that these reporters, and their work, are just discussing that racism is wrong, without mentioning the tangible impacts of racism and discrimination." If you understand the impacts of racism, the death rates from coronavirus aren’t remotely surprising. Take redlining for example. Redlining is the process of creating “Black neighborhoods,” by restricting where Black people can move within a city. This is done either explicitly by local law (a practice which is illegal) or implicitly by denying loans to purchase homes in more desirable areas of the city. The practice is technically outlawed, but unconsciously biased bankers are still inclined to deny loans to black applicants.
As a result the neighborhoods Black people can live in are often polluted, which triggers health issues. For example highway placement and industrial dumping, among other factors, have led to higher levels of upper respiratory disease and chronic conditions like asthma. With just the basic knowledge that Black people were not able to move into desirable areas (and that companies and governments have been polluting theirs for years), you can guess that Black people will be more affected by a virus that targets the respiratory system. If anyone should have this knowledge, and be ready and willing to use it, it is the reporters that talk about social issues.
The shock and indignation of news outlets ignores the work that Black people have been doing for years. Every so often, when a national issue disproportionately impacts Black people, white journalists and commentators act like they have discovered something new. They rarely ever reference the work done by so many before them because they didn’t pay attention to these issues before. Imagine dedicating your entire life to understanding something and then one day you hear someone on an oka podcast present it as if it is the Theory of Relativity. That is what happens every time we have these discussions as a society.
We already know why it's happening, we need to know how to fix it. We need to talk about what policies, what organizations and what people can give us long lasting change. If there is one thing that can be taken from this crisis, and I do NOT mean the only thing because Lord knows this has shown us a lot of bad in this world, it is that we should remember that people have been talking about inequality for years. When the inevitable economic recession hits, remember, you can probably guess why that is the case.
SO the question is not: Can you believe this?
The shock and indignation of news outlets ignores the work that Black people have been doing for years. Every so often, when a national issue disproportionately impacts Black people, white journalists and commentators act like they have discovered something new. They rarely ever reference the work done by so many before them because they didn’t pay attention to these issues before. Imagine dedicating your entire life to understanding something and then one day you hear someone on an oka podcast present it as if it is the Theory of Relativity. That is what happens every time we have these discussions as a society.
We already know why it's happening, we need to know how to fix it. We need to talk about what policies, what organizations and what people can give us long lasting change. If there is one thing that can be taken from this crisis, and I do NOT mean the only thing because Lord knows this has shown us a lot of bad in this world, it is that we should remember that people have been talking about inequality for years. When the inevitable economic recession hits, remember, you can probably guess why that is the case.
SO the question is not: Can you believe this?
The question is: What do we do about this thing and prevent it from happening for the umpteenth time?
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