The story of ‘communities of color bearing the brunt of suffering is tragically a familiar one in our history’ but not for the reason that you think. I have been following the pandemic for quite a time now. What else is there to do? There has been a drop in actual new articles in the last week so I expected the aim of reporting to move to a different area.
The story of communities color bearing the brunt of suffering is tragically a familiar one in our history. It started out with stories about the conditions of communities in big cities showing pictures of communities of color but no stating it. The implication bothered me also. Notice it says STORY because the story is tragically a familiar one.
I would expect the storyline ‘communities that are not following Social Distancing Guidelines are bearing the brunt of suffering’. But alas no. It seems that without DATA or the benefit of medical science, we conclude that “Black people dying from coronavirus at much higher rates in cities across the USA” is a much better headline! Higher, the ‘er’ form, compares 2 things but the second is left to our imagination. Maybe because my imagination is better than your
I will complete the statement with ‘than Black people dying from coronavirus in Rural America‘. There is no DATA for this conclusion and it is not racist.
Let’s try another ending. Black people dying from coronavirus at much higher rates in cities across the USA than Black people in another country afflicted by the coronavirus. I’m not sure that another country has DATA to compare to if we had DATA. This would be an interesting study, maybe, but would not help curb the spread the virus and it is not racist
Let’s try another ending. Black people dying from coronavirus at much higher rates in cities across the USA than White people in the same situation are dying from coronavirus in cites across the USA. Now this is something. And this is what I think is the implied ending. There is NO data collected to prove of disprove this conclusion most likely because the virus does not show any racial preference and this is racist! It is ‘tragically a familiar one in our history’ because 1. history repeats itself; 2. the reasoning worked in the past; 3. advances a political agenda; 4. it furthers the ‘its not my fault, it is somebody else’s; 5. my rights have been violated. And all without stating a conclusion that can be denied.
So I found atricles for a reading list to address the issue. What I found is a shock. It seems that the pandemic is more deadly!( and I leave the reading to you )
- Coronavirus hits poor, minority communities harder
- COMMUNITIES OF COLOR BEAR THE BRUNT OF SIDEWALK-BIKING ENFORCEMENT
- Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States
- Communities of color bear the brunt of environmental hazards
- If coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, how come black people are bearing the brunt?
- Study: Latino, African-American Communities Face Disproportionate Risk From Pollution Link
- People of Color and the Poor Disproportionately Exposed to Air Pollution, Study Finds
- Teen Exposure to Air Pollution Could Reduce IQ Levels Long Term
- For Black Men, Fear That Masks Will Invite Racial Profiling
From one of these articles :
“This is a call-to-action moment for all of us,” said Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, who announced statistics of the outbreak in her city this week. African-Americans account for more than half of those who have tested positive and 72 percent of virus-related fatalities in Chicago, even though they make up a little less than a third of the population.
“Those numbers take your breath away, they really do,” said Ms. Lightfoot, who is the city’s first black woman elected as mayor.
She added in an interview that the statistics were “among the most shocking things I think I’ve seen as mayor.”
In Illinois, 43 percent of people who have died from the disease and 28 percent of those who have tested positive are African-Americans, a group that makes up just 15 percent of the state’s population. African-Americans, who account for a third of positive tests in Michigan, represent 40 percent of deaths in that state even though they make up 14 percent of the population. In Louisiana, about 70 percent of the people who have died are black, though only a third of that state’s population is.
