The Injustice of Inequality

I want to do the kind of post that I have turned my nose up at a number of times:  "Wouldn't it be great if the pandemic will result in this thing I really want, happening in the new world?"

This thing I want is some movement on the injustice of inequality.  

It's relevant, I think, so points for that.  As time goes on, and the virus burns through the red states, we are learning that the victims are not just Democrats, but people in the condition of poverty, and, therefore, people of color.  That connection is, actually, the whole point.  The injustice of inequality.

Most of us are at least vaguely aware of the fact that people of color are dying of the virus at rates that are greater than other racial groups.  In one Wisconsin county, 26% of the residents are African Americans, but they account for 70% of the deaths.  This kind of thing is the rule, not the exception.

Here's how the CDC describes it:

Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put many people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19.

When I read that, I thought, "Well, that does it.  Not much more to say than that."  

But of course, there's more.  Why is this so?  

The CDC report goes on to list a few major factors leading to the disproportionate number of deaths by people of color:

- Discrimination.  Again, the CDC says it better than I can:  "Discrimination in... heath care, housing, education criminal justice and finance.  Discrimination, which includes racism, can lead to chronic and toxic stress and shapes social and economic factors that put some people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk for COVID-19."

- Healthcare access and utilization.  "Healthcare access can also be limited for these groups by many other factors, such as lack of transportation, child care, or ability to take time off work; communication and language barriers; cultural differences between patients and providers; and historical and current discrimination in healthcare systems."  

- Occupation:  "People from some racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately represented in essential work settings such as healthcare facilities, farms, factories, grocery stores, and public transportation."  I would add one point.  When the lists of "essential businesses" are drawn up, "essential" often means "essential to my bottom line."  Which is more essential than the health of workers in meat processing plants.  We could live without chickens for a few months if we had to, but the lives of hundreds of Latinx and African Americans were deemed less valuable than a continuing cash flow.  

- Educational, income and wealth gaps.  Which result in lower-paying jobs, which turn out to be "essential" but do not provide sick leave or health insurance.

- Housing.  Which often tends to be crowded, so more people can chip in for the rent.  And which is probably not within walking distance of work, meaning public transportation, which is another way we pack a lot of people into a small space, so they can share their germs.  And guess which socio-economic sections of town have few or no ICU beds?  

Let me add my own candidate for unjust disproportionality.  Our justice system imprisons people of color at a much higher rate - for the same crimes - as whites, so prisons are disproportionately dark-skinned.  And prisons, of course, are, along with nursing homes, the virus's promised land. 

Oh - and "minority groups are significantly underrepresented in vaccine & drug trials" - even though we know that they suffer way more infection and death than the people who the testers are actually using as subjects.  Systemic racism, anyone?  And in April, when the Federal government gave out as many as 500 million face masks (no one seems to know exactly how many), some private schools got enough for 50 per student, while many meat-processing plants - and their brown faces working hard all day in close proximity - got none.  And people of color have much higher rates of the kind of chronic health conditions - diabetes, heart and lung diseases - that results in much more severe course of the virus, and a higher rate of death.

We know that race and poverty have been conflated for so long that it has never been simple to separate them:

There are so many stories of unequal opportunity, unequal resources, unequal results, and most of them impact people in poverty and people of color in the same degree, at the same time.  A map of NYC's five boroughs shows an almost perfect inverse correlation between wealth and prevalence of COVID-19.  If you're of color, you're more likely to be poor, and vice versa.  Either way, you're in COVID's sights.

We have been talking about wealth and income inequality for a very long time.  It's been an undercurrent in our national culture, like the hum of a refrigerator:  occasionally it's annoying, but we usually don't notice it.  

The massive protests against racial injustice that are energizing our communities could not have come at a better time.  Wouldn't it be great (remember where we started?) if the stark horror of death by inequality that COVID-19 is becoming would result in some systematic change?  Wouldn't it be great if we really wen to war with poverty and racism? 

It's beginning to look like we'll have to fight for our new world.