Health disparity

Racial And Ethnic Economic Inequality And The COVID-19 Pandemic

August 4, 2020 Thomas Hanna, Democracy Collaborative. Educate! COVID-19, Health disparity, Systemic Racism, wealth inequality

The Democracy Collaborative prepared a report, created for the Healthcare Anchor Network, that looked at how racial and ethnic disparities in the economy are showing up in the COVID-19 pandemic and in the public policy response to the pandemic. The report also covers how the economic effects of the pandemic will likely impact racial and ethnic inequality. Every passing day brings new, painful evidence of how the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color in the United States.

Enslaved People’s Health Was Ignored From The Country’s Beginning

August 2, 2020 Eric Kyere, The Conversation. Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Health disparity, Slavery, Systemic Racism

Some critics of Black Lives Matter say the movement itself is racist. Their frequent counterargument: All lives matter. Lost in that view, however, is a historical perspective. Look back to the late 18th century, to the very beginnings of the U.S., and you will see Black lives in this country did not seem to matter at all. Foremost among the unrelenting cruelties heaped upon enslaved people was the lack of health care for them. Infants and children fared especially poorly. After childbirth, mothers were forced to return to the fields as soon as possible, often having to leave their infants without care or food.

In A Pandemic, Health Inequities Are Even Deadlier

April 23, 2020 Tracey L Rogers, Otherwords. Educate! COVID-19, health, Health disparity, Systemic Racism

There’s an old saying in the black community I’ve heard my parents and grandparents repeat many times: “When white people catch a cold, black people catch pneumonia.” I can’t help but recall that old adage as demographic data comes out showing alarmingly disproportionate rates of infection and death among Americans of color in the coronavirus pandemic. As Vox reports, “Black and Latino Americans get infected with COVID-19 at alarmingly high rates, and more are dying than we would expect based on their share of the population.” In states like Michigan, for example, where black people make up only 12 percent of the population, they account for at least 40 percent of COVID-19-related deaths. So why are black people succumbing to the virus at higher rates than whites?

COVID-19: The Symptom Of The Capitalist Disease

April 21, 2020 Black Alliance for Peace. Resist! COVID-19, Health disparity, Systemic Racism, White Supremacy

The global capitalist system has produced fabulous wealth and so-called “development” for a handful of nations and their citizens along with degrading and dehumanizing poverty, violence and war on the vast majority of humanity. Here are some figures: 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 per day 30,000 children die every day from the effects of poverty, primarily lack of clean water and access to healthcare 62 individuals own more wealth than 3.5 billion people—half the world’s population This is the reality of a global system developed after the marauding European powers grew rich and powerful through the invasion of the Americas in 1492 as well as the enslavement of Africans and genocide committed against the people of the Americas. In the European settler-colony that became the United States of America, systematic brutality and structural violence were embedded in the economic relations and social institutions of the state.

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