Advocates: Inequities highlighted by pandemic must be addressed
As the novel coronavirus spread rapidly in cities, eventually reaching across the state and country, inequity became very black and white.
“For me, the only story in this crisis is inequality,” said Michael Kraus, an assistant professor of organizational behavior in the Yale University School of Management who specializes in the study of inequality. “In every facet of our response to the pandemic there has been unequal exposure, risk and, ultimately, harm.”
Before the pandemic, society was stacked against communities of color in their access to higher paying jobs, quality health care, equal education and likelihood to be involved with law enforcement, according to Lorenzo Boyd, assistant provost for diversity and inclusion at the University of New Haven and director of the center for advanced policing.
In turn, the virus has unsurprisingly taken the biggest toll on communities that pre-pandemic already were vulnerable to economic downturn.
“Every day we’re hearing about people not making it through this and more it’s looking like black and brown people,” said Dori Dumas, president of the NAACP New Haven chapter. “It’s a horrible way for it to come to light, but no one can deny what the numbers are clearly showing. It goes on deaf ears way too often, but now it’s time for them to step up and find some equity so families and communities will come out of this OK.”
As of Wednesday, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests for Hispanic and nonHispanic black Connecticut residents was more than twice as high compared to the positive test rate for whites, according to state data on COVID-19.
Death rates follow a similar trend, with black residents accounting for the highest rate of COVID-19associated deaths, followed by whites, Hispanics and Asians.
Even if people of color aren’t suffering or dying from COVID-19, the symptoms of the pandemic continue to disproportionately affect those communities in their access to learning or food resources, ability to socially distance or work from home, and get tested, Kraus said.
But when communities re-emerge from the crisis, people may wonder how those inequities might change, for better or worse.
“To ask what’s going to happen to poor people or people of color after the pandemic, there’s really no reason to think it’s going to be better because during the pandemic we’re not doing a great job of keeping them safe,” Boyd said.
Returning to “normal” when the crisis ends shouldn’t be society’s goal, experts said, because for communities of color, normal meant struggling with inequity.
Dumas said as they’re advocating for communities of color to get their fair share of resources during the post-crisis recovery, she hopes legislators can build supports to make sure jobs and businesses are better than they were before.
“I hope the unfortunate reality that it’s showing is having an impact,” Dumas said. “When you shine a light on it and no longer can hide, it gives it the shock for things to go in a new direction.”
“It would be a shame of historic proportions if this wake-up call wasn’t enough of a wake-up call,” said Kate Gervais, executive director of the Race Equity Center, a Connecticut nonprofit that works with schools to create racial equity in education.
Dumas, Gervais and others said people need to think about changing policies now so that when the economy restarts and businesses reopen, decisions are made with the most vulnerable populations in mind.
“A reopening of the economy that puts vulnerable citizens at undue risk of loss of life should be a nonstarter,” Kraus said.
Without that in mind, it could mean dramatically disproportionate underemployment of minorities because service industries have suffered, or children of color falling farther behind in school, because without continued focused support from government leaders the pandemic aid won’t last.