Economic Development

April 17, 2020

When America catches a cold, black Americans get the flu but when America contracts #ThatRona, black Americans die

PREEXISTING CONDITION: RACISM 

It is most certainly not being suggested here that the Corona Virus or any virus for that matter can be racist. No, but we all know very well that policies and governmental structures can be racist. Response times from officials during disaster can be suspiciously slower in black communities and the inability to rely on truthful information from officials can have a grave impact. It’s no secret that these structural disparities act as “preexisting conditions.” When manifested in the form of environmental racism, neighborhoods with majority black and brown people are often treated as dumping centers. This yields higher rates of pollution and lower air quality yielding more cases of conditions like asthma and other respiratory diseases. Black Americans need to to be advised regarding the future that in cities like Beijing, the face mask has long been a mainstay of the daily uniform for blue and white collar folks and all those in-between. Our air quality improvement is stalling, the planet is warming and our neighborhoods have new kinds of criminals – those that come to pollute our air quality. When the masses return to normalcy, protect yourself and your family by keeping the face mask.

DECARCERATION IS PARAMOUNT

Furthermore, jail and prisons which we know are overcrowded and disproportionately housing black and brown inmates need to make strategic efforts towards decarceration to avert disaster. In the words of San Francisco’s District Attorney Chesa Boudin on the subject of COVID19, “We need to let medical professionals guide public policy.” Allowing health professionals to lead us at this time is of the utmost importance. Not only are they held to a higher standard of non-bias, they understand systems of infectious disease. The air quality in our communities is not the only area we experience vulnerability, allowing jail and prison medical staff to achieve proper social distancing for those incarcerated is an area that needs a closer look as well. In response to the conditions at Otay Mesa Detention Center, Senator Kamala Harris remarked on 04/12/2020 that “The horrifying conditions at Otay Mesa Detention Center are unacceptable. Every day that officials continue to lock up low-risk and vulnerable people is another day that people in U.S. custody along with countless facility and court personnel, legal representatives, witnesses, and family members are put at risk of a preventable death from a deadly virus.” 

HOW TO STRATEGICALLY DECARCERATE

The method for decarceration is simple: allow medical staff advise us of the acceptable number to achieve proper social distancing. Next consider release of the inmates that fall into the following categories: those with misdemeanors, the elderly, those conserved waiting for placement in a mental health facility (a reminder that our jails are inappropriately serving those in need of behavioral health services), those unable to pay certain bail amounts, veterans, those already sentenced with upcoming release dates, and those with simply technical parole or probation violations. Identifying those inmates for immediate or expedited release means analyzing the population and intentionally choosing to take measures to save lives. A failure to do so means blatantly disregarding an overwhelming majority of specifically black and brown potential deaths.

TO DO LIST

When the COVID-19 war is over, black people will have an extended recovery timeline, similar to the AIDS epidemic (still claiming many lives in the black plurality of the ATL), the glacial response times during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (also a black plurality), and other calamities long before this COVID19 pandemic. Once mass media coverage dissipates our communities will still be impacted, everyone else will be healing and “getting back to normal” while black Americans continue playing catch up. The post traumatic stress coupled with the preexisting financial and health disparities will have many implications for Black Americans’ mental health and pocketbooks. But stay awake, when the focus shifts in the media, that is the time to work even harder to be well and serve as a leader in the community by putting wellness and the sharing of resources at the forefront all we do. We can take the liberty of expecting that the long-term effects of this virus will have a disproportionately negative impact on Black Americans compared to other groups. When we started this race, the gun went off for us a few HUNDRED years after everyone else started playing. So wear your masks and only use digital means to contact the elderly. If you’re out of work take note of quarantine-proof jobs and use this time to develop new skills, write letters to the jails and prison officials asking for “decarceration” to save lives and properly achieve social distancing. Finally, if you’re one of those fortunate to still be gainfully employed during this time with a job that has you away from home, don’t fidget with the mask, try not to touch your face, greet people with a bow or an elbow (I loathe the fist bump, because you’re still using your hands), sanitize the moment you enter your home and embrace what Roddy Rich says about no shoes in the house!

DON’T FORGET

American Epidemiologist Camara Jones asserts that racism is a system that does two things: structures opportunities and assigns value on so-called race; and is the social interpretation of how one looks in a race conscious society. The structure of the systems have already deemed black and brown value inferior to others. So Black Americans should indeed ask, are we really in this together if we are not all in the same boat? 

CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH

In the words of the Reverend Al Sharpton, “If we can survive chattel slavery, if we can survive Jim Crow, we can survive this Corona Virus.”

Moriah Bradley
Chair, Health Committee
NAACP San Diego Branch