For Black Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic adds a layer of inequity on top of fundamentally unjust realities. Essential jobs like transportation, food service, and health care were already underpaid and held predominantly by people of color. Many of these frontline workers now face unsafe conditions without proper protection and are getting sick at alarming rates. Majority black counties throughout the US are experiencing COVID infection rates three times higher than that of white majority counties, and nearly six times the rate of COVID deaths.
At a time when working Black and Latino families need immediate security and support more than ever before, we find ourselves with underfunded and inadequate programs and services to serve the needs of our communities. A CDC report released earlier in April posits that 90 percent of serious COVID cases involve pre-existing health conditions — like hypertension cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic lung disease — all of which are more common and more deadly for black patients. Thirty years after the first landmark federal study on such disparities by race, Black Americans are still fighting for our pain to be taken seriously, still contending with societal conditions that deteriorate the health of our communities.
Black communities are forced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic without the same resources that predominantly White & wealthy areas can access — like higher capacity hospitals, better health care, even sheer space for social distancing. This virus compounds decades of neglect, the results of which are dense urban housing, more pre-existing conditions, but fewer paid sick days or work from home capabilities. These social determinants of health exacerbate the devastating toll that the virus is taking on Black Americans.
During my time as a public servant, I have fought tirelessly for recognition and reforms to combat the injustices that hinder Black communities. I have worked on legislation here in Colorado to not only address these harms, but also come together and empower new ways of thinking and doing. From furthering equity in our education system to policies aimed at dismantling implicit biases, our work at the Colorado legislature has tackled many deep-seated issues that disenfranchise Black communities. We’ve become a progressive voice in the nation, drowning out the past echoes of our former early 1990s moniker, the Hate State.
The current public health crisis holds a mirror to society; what we’re seeing reflected back to us now are the painful consequences of centuries of racism and discrimination against marginalized communities. The ‘cracks in the foundation’ being exposed to many Americans now by COVID-19 — the deep inequities in our economy, housing, schools, health, criminal justice, and immigration systems — reflect the long-endured and painful realities for Black and Brown Americans. They are the foundation from which we have had to emancipate ourselves. The suffering and hardship caused COVID-19 will be felt most viscerally in Black communities. At the height of the Great Depression, the US unemployment rates reached 24 percent — 50 for Black Americans. The Great Recession caused it to reach 9 percent nationally, while black unemployment rose to 16 percent.
While the virus itself might not discriminate between infecting one person or the next, it thrives on these deep racial divides and structural inequities all the same. These realities cannot be overlooked. This disproportionate impact cannot be left out of the difficult considerations ahead.
In the face of such suffering and uncertainty, we must examine these consequences with candor. In order to respond effectively, we cannot shy away from such conversations, difficult and uncomfortable though they may be. As elected leaders in Colorado, it is our solemn duty to investigate the outcomes, identify the blind spots, recognize previous failures and make way for new approaches and better responses to deal with this new reality.
Racism and inequality have been driven into the light with each progressive victory, exposed in their various forms, and dismantled bit by bit. But this work must continue — the worst injustice we could now commit is to allow them to crawl back into the shadows.
— Rhonda Fields is Assistant Majority Leader, Colorado State Senate, District 29