Black people are still disproportionately dying from COVID-19. The primary comorbid condition is not drug or alcohol abuse, nor poor health, as anti-Black narratives suggest, but structural white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, the ways that it targets and decimates Black communities on all fronts and in all sectors, and how its adherents and perpetuators endanger and disregard anything and everyone that stands in the way of it flourishing.
This is especially evident in southern states that have opted not to expand Medicaid, but whose governors rushed to reopen businesses even though no vaccine or herd immunity had been established—and experienced a surge in new COVID-19 cases as a result. In May, Montgomery, Alabama, was down to one ICU bed and forced to send patients to Birmingham. At the beginning of July, Mississippi’s five largest hospitals were out of ICU beds, with four other hospitals in the state having 5 % or fewer beds available.
The Natchez-Vidalia Bridge are two twin cantilever bridges crossing the Mississippi River between Vidalia, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi.
Louisiana’s Bienville Parish, which is more than 40 percent Black, and Alabama’s Tallapoosa County, nearly 30 percent Black, has maintained high and disproportionate death rates. According to the Augusta Chronicle, cash poor, majority Black counties in Georgia with little access to intensive or primary care have suffered the highest death rates from COVID-19, with Hancock County, Randall County, Terrell County, and Early County having the highest death rates in the United States.
Florida’s Broward County is also being hit hard. According to the Sun-Sentinel, “Blacks make up nearly 70% of under-45 deaths in Broward County, the highest percentage of counties in South Florida. About 35% of the county’s under-45 population is Black.”
The Antiracist Research & Policy Center’s COVID Racial Data Tracker – The Atlantic
For Part I of our ESSENCE Reports 3-part series, “COVID-19’s Impact On Black Communities,” we turned our lens on the Black South and how histories of resistance against white supremacy—as well as white supremacy itself—shape the realities of COVID-19 throughout the region.
Featured are:
asha bandele, New York Times Best-Selling Author, ActivistLaTosha Brown, Activist and Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter FundChelsea Clayton-Bates, 2nd Grade Teacher, Vidalia Lower Elementary School, in Vidalia, LouisianaAsh-Lee Woodard Henderson, Co-Executive Director, Highlander Research and Education CenterChokwe Antar Lumumba, Mayor of Jackson, MississippiMaurice Sholas, MD, PhD, Principal, Sholas Medical Consulting, LLC.Please watch Part I: COVID-19 And The Black South above and join the conversation at #ESSENCECOVID19.
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Coming soon: Part II: COVID-19 and Mass Incarceration, and Part III: COVID-19 and Environmental Injustice.
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ESSENCE is committed to bringing our audience the latest facts about COVID-19 (coronavirus). Our content team is closely monitoring the developing details surrounding the virus via official sources and health care experts, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Please continue to refresh ESSENCE’s informational hub for updates on COVID-19, as well as for tips on taking care of yourselves, your families and your communities.
The post ESSENCE Presents: COVID-19 And The Black South appeared first on Essence.
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