Systemic Racism’s Aid In the Spread of COVID-19 Amongst the Black Community

The racial tension over the summer with the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor has sparked another wave of Black Lives Matter protests reminding everyone of the numerous social injustices and systemic racism that continue to plague the black community.

Although there are numerous parts of systemic racism within the black community, with the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism within healthcare has been a hot topic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a huge discrepancy between cases, deaths, and rates of exposure between the black community and others.

Amid the spread of COVID-19, many were left unemployed, sent to work from home, or left on the frontlines as essential workers.

However, the majority of black or African Americans are essential workers putting them more at risk for contracting COVID-19. According to the Economic Policy Institute, black and African Americans make up one in every six essential workers.

As of April 2020, approximately 17% of black workers are front-line workers according to Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson from Economic Policy Insitute. This is putting black workers more at risk of being exposed to or contracting the COVID-19 virus. Graph from the Economic Policy Institute.

And for those who lost their jobs, they face eviction leaving them homeless and unprotected from the COVID-19 virus.

Even more, many black and African Americans live in very populated and compact areas where most big outbreaks have occurred.

Black and African Americans are twice as likely to contract the virus if they have underlying conditions like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes which is very common within the black community, some due to environmental factors.

Some of these specific environmental factors are direct causes of systemic racism as well.

With the lack of healthcare, these underlying issues can grow worse putting black and African Americans more even at the risk of contracting the virus or dealing with it.

Since 2016 there has been a steady increase in uninsured rates amongst the black community of about .4% according to Samantha Artiga and Kendal Orgera from KFF. With the Affordable Care Act, Obama Care, being jeopardized there may be a greater percentage of uninsured rates amongst the black community. Graph from KFF.

The older systems and practices that have been put in place have failed the black community during the COVID-19 pandemic. If this doesn’t change, the members of the black community will continue to die at the hands of the racism laced within these systems and practices.

As of May 13, 2020, the black community has 22.4% of COVID-19 deaths according to Elise Gould and Valerie Wilson from Economic Policy Insitute. However, the black community only makes up 12.5 % of the U.S. population. Graph from the Economic Policy Institute.