We are not all in this together, but we need to be

The mass protests in Pittsburgh and in cities across the nation in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have made one thing crystal clear in this time of pandemic: Contrary to the universal mantra that “We are all in this together,” we are actually not “all in this together.”

There are two separate Americas enduring this pandemic, and they are suffering completely separate fates. More than 100,000 Americans have now died of COVID-19, and around 60% of them are black or other people of color.

Likewise, 25% of Americans have lost their jobs and over 40 million Americans have applied for unemployment. Again, black and brown Americans constitute a disproportionate number of those 40 million unemployed. They are the majority of those now facing eviction because they cannot pay their rent or their mortgages. They are the majority of those lining up for miles at the food banks for the free food.

The pandemic has ripped the veil from America’s vastly unequal economy. It has not only revealed the vast rift between the rich and the comfortable and the poor and nearpoor who have always struggled from weekly paycheck to weekly paycheck; it has actually widened that rift. And that is why there has been seething anger bubbling under the surface serenity of the country.

We live in two separate and unequal Americas: The comfortable and mostly white America, and the other America, the struggling and drowning America, mostly comprised of people of color. It is that other America that is protesting, telling us that, no, we are actually not all in this together.

ERIC LEIF DAVIN

Bloomfield