Article:
Why are Blacks dying at higher rates from COVID-19?
Response by Natalia Perez
Rashawn Ray’s article, “Why are Blacks dying at higher rates from Covid-19,” explains and demonstrates the causes of why black community is dying from Covid-19 in a higher rate than any other race. The main cause of these higher rates are health disparities which can be based on how communities are raised by.
In which I mean that the black community has “less” resources such as “healthy food options, green spaces, recreational facilities, lighting, and safety.” In addition, many black people do have jobs, such as Ray states, where they can be janitors, food services, bus drivers, retail stores, etc. The aftermath of when the lockdown started caused many of them to lose jobs and having to work through the pandemic to gain some money.
As read from Golash-Boza’s reading, institutional racism is a form of racism where there is any racial inequalities in any institution/organization. It can be shown/set through any political, educational, economical, health, and any more kind of institutions.
In Dr.Ray’s article, he states that criminalization is one of the causes of health disparities which can also be seen as an example of institutional racism. There is a huge imbalance in the criminal system in black communities. It is extremely horrible. Dr.Ray explains a situation where currently, during a pandemic, black men are “coincidentally” getting stopped because they look suspicious from wearing masks. There was even a case where a police officer started to cough on a black person just for their pleasure.
It has been seen many times where police are racially profiling a black person and being rude to them in any kind of way. The criminal system has been a disappointment to the black community as seen throughout the years.
When reading Dr.Ray’s article, the sentence that I think summarized the article was when he stated, “I argue structural conditions that inform pre-existing conditions and health disparities are the main culprit for the epidemic within the pandemic which is ravaging Black communities across the U.S.”
He explains the cause in why the Black community is dying which is all these health disparities because of race and how the different communities are brought up. Because of all these differences such as resources and the health inequalities, it is causing the death rates from Covid-19 in the black community to be so high.
Covid-19 caused a worldwide lockdown which sadly took away jobs that caused chaos in the working class and lower class because it was their source of income. Many of these people are parents or have a family in which they are part of the family’s source of money.
Now, many of these people are having hard times to pay rent or even pay for groceries. Thankfully some of these people got stimulus checks but for some it was not enough to pay for simple things. Many people even got to the point of being close to homelessness because they had no money to pay rent. On the other hand, there are still some people who thankfully still have a job but they had to go through the dangers from Covid-19.
They never knew if they would get Covid or not but they had to get through to have some money as support for themselves or families. Although, compared to wealth people, I would think they had it easier because many would have money saved and still have their jobs and would work from home which is a different complete story for the lower class.
In my experience, as someone who is part of the working-class or lower middle class, Covid-19 has had a huge impact in our family. Although we were not left jobless, my parents are working more than usual (overtime everyday). I was scared that my parents would get Covid-19 but they had to go to work to support the family because if they did not work, we would sadly not be where we are now.
Prepare a Socratic seminar styled response to the analysis written by natalia perez .
