By Fiona Hinds ’21
Health & Science Reporter
The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the world, but it has not been felt equally. According to the ADL article “How Systemic Racism Impacts Coronavirus Racial Disparities,” communities of color in the United States are particularly hard-hit by the pandemic due to the country's structural racism. Structural racism is grounded in the foundation of white supremacy, shown through its presence in laws and institutions.
The impacts of structural racism are brought to the surface when considering the impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color. Black, Latinx and Native American communities are more likely than white communities to have higher rates of underlying health conditions, such as asthma or diabetes, because of structural racism in the housing and health care systems. People of color are also less likely to be able to access COVID-19 testing and treatment, as setbacks due to systemic racism cause many individuals to be uninsured or to face discrimination in the medical field.
Roughly 24 percent of Black and Latinx people in the United States are employed in the service industry, compared to 16 percent of white people. These jobs put their workers at an increased risk of exposure to the virus because they cannot be performed from home and are done in spaces where social distancing is more difficult. Workers in this field are also more likely to lose their jobs, as the industry has seen many workers laid off or furloughed.
The differing possible impacts of wearing a face covering have also been highlighted throughout the pandemic. In the Washington Post article “Masking while black: A coronavirus story,” the author, Damon Young, discusses how being Black and wearing a mask makes one appear to be more threatening than a white person wearing a mask, due to structural racism. Police are more likely to question or be violent towards Black men who are wearing masks in public, despite the universal necessity of wearing one due to the pandemic.
As a result of structural racism, people of color, especially Black communities, are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. According to the Brookings article “Race gaps in COVID-19 deaths are even bigger than they appear,” Black and Latinx people are at a significantly higher risk of death from COVID-19 than white people. Specifically, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black and Latinx people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people in every age category. For instance, Black and Latinx people between ages 44-54 are at least six times more likely to die than white people. Significantly more young Black and Latinx people contracted COVID-19 than young white people. Adjusting for age, Black people die from COVID-19 3.6 times more than white people, and Latinx people die from COVID-19 2.5 times more than white people. These statistics allude to the larger problems in American society concerning the unequal treatment of communities of color through the systems implemented to protect everyone. The pandemic is an example of where these inequalities become life or death.