Anita Cameron: Racial Disparities in the Age of COVID-19

Racial disparities in healthcare have always existed but it’s only been recently that it has been openly discussed as a serious issue in this country. Blacks and communities of color have always known about it because we experience it ourselves, first-hand. Studies show that we receive inferior healthcare compared to Whites. Little by little, the mainstream public is starting to learn. Racial disparities in healthcare are one manifestation of systemic, institutional racism.

Now, enter COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. What started as an outbreak has turned into a worldwide pandemic, with the United States now the epicenter.

As expected, the virus is severely impacting seniors, people with disabilities, poor people and communities of color. From Indigenous nations in New Mexico and Arizona, to Latinx and immigrant communities across the nation, COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire.

The Black community, especially, is being ravaged by COVID-19. We are 12 percent of the U.S. population, yet represent 59% of coronavirus deaths to date.

The numbers are even more stark when one looks at cities or states. Blacks make up 15 percent of the population of my home state of Illinois, yet are 40% of deaths. Blacks are 30 percent of Chicago’s population, but 70% of COVID-19 deaths.

Those scary figures are repeated elsewhere. 70% of COVID-19 deaths in Louisiana are among Blacks, who make up 30 percent of the state’s population. 100 percent of COVID-19 deaths in St. Loius, MO are of Black people.

Ibrahim X. Kendi’s article, Why We Don’t Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are, calls for racial data.

Kendi’s article, What the Racial Data Show, shows that communities of color are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Kendi’s article, Stop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus shows how the reasons Black folks are dying of COVID-19 are due to systemic racism.

Why is COVID-19 hitting the Black community so hard?

It is a result, again, of systemic racism. We are more likely to be poor — Black households have a fraction of the income and wealth of White households, even when the education level is the same. We are far less likely to be in positions of management, meaning that we and immigrants are the ones doing the jobs nobody wants, like picking up trash, cleaning public toilets or cleaning up hospital emergency rooms.

We Black folks are more likely to be essential workers – nurses, attendants, hospital technicians, public transit operators, sanitation workers and first responders. That brings us in contact with others who have been exposed to, or who actually have COVID-19. Most do not have access to personal protective equipment like masks, gloves and gowns, necessary to slow the spread of the disease.

Blacks are also more likely to live in poverty and not have health insurance, so when we get sick, we can’t go to the doctor. Since we receive inferior healthcare compared to Whites, especially in the treatment of diabetes, heart conditions and cancer – three conditions that make COVID-19 more likely to be fatal, we are dying at a much higher rate.

Black people are less likely to have access to information and resources. At first, we didn’t believe that COVID-19 was affecting our community. Then we begin to see that our folks were getting sick, but also saw that we weren’t as likely to be tested, even when we were clearly ill. We realized that we were less likely to have access to gloves, masks, food, sanitizer, cars, etc., so we couldn’t go shopping. We often don’t have computers, smartphones or TVs, meaning we were cut off from information on how to protect ourselves and where to go to get food or what agencies were out there to help. We don’t have jobs we could telework from, so we lost them. We don’t have access to the technology for telemedicine, so we’re not getting healthcare unless we go to the emergency room.

Now, due to hospitals being overwhelmed with COVID-19 admissions, medical rationing is being considered in the treatment of COVID-19. This is especially frightening for disabled and seniors – and Blacks and communities of color. Several states have enacted policies where treatment for COVID-19 patients would be reserved for those with the greatest chance of survival, meaning younger, healthier (read nondisabled) patients. Disabled people who use ventilators at home are terrified that if they are hospitalized, their ventilator will be reallocated, taken and given to someone the hospital feels has a better chance of survival.

Though the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights has issued guidance against discrimination and bias based on stereotypes of race, age and disability, among others, some of that guidance is not clear, and won’t stop medical personnel steeped in their own biases from doing as they wish.

If anything is a wake-up call for people to see what the results of racial bias, discrimination and disparities in healthcare look like, this COVID-19 pandemic is it. Now, add disability.

Black disabled are scared to death, and rightly so. We see panels and talks on what to do, and how to know your rights in medicine during this pandemic. We see White folks (mostly) and some folks of color on panels when Black activists brought it up, but, as yet, virtually nothing is including, or designed by and for Black folks.

Of the major organizations working on the issue of medical rationing and discrimination, few, if any, have Black staff or Black management, so we’re not thought of. As yet, none have reached out to Black activists and organizations in a meaningful way.

COVID-19 is rampaging through nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, group homes, institutions, jails, prisons, detention centers, all kinds of congregate settings. We know who are likely to be in such places — Black and Brown folks. We know who are likely to work there — Black and Brown people. Who is collecting data? Who is developing plans to get these folks who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 some kind of medical assistance? What groups are making plans to help these people get safe now?

There are some Black folks doing mutual aid to make sure folks in our community eat, have groceries, get information and get emotional support, but we still don’t have the resources that primarily White disabled folks and organizations have access to.

Still, we can’t wait around for mainstream organizations to include us. We must work ourselves to get the word out even more about how COVID-19 is ravaging the Black community. We must insist that the government keep racial data on who gets it, who dies, at what rate and percentage of the city, county, state and country. We must make sure that disabled aren’t falling victim to medical rationing or mistreatment based on race, age and type of disability. We must insist that our first responders and front line workers are safe.

Black disability organizations, Black community organizations, Black LGBTQIA2S+ organizations, Black medical organizations, Black media, senior groups, justice reform groups, immigrant rights groups, organizers, activists, youth, artists, griots, storytellers — let’s all get together and help each other during this age of COVID-19. Form our own medical rationing panels and do the work. Do our own research on racial disparities in healthcare during COVID-19 and not only get the word out, but work against it. Work to get funding and resources, particularly for disabled folks now. Tell our own stories. In doing this for us, we actually help not only ourselves, but our country.