By Sarah Marsh — HAVANA (Reuters) – Communist-run Cuba said this week that use of two drugs produced by its biotech industry that reduce hyper-inflammation in seriously ill COVID-19 patients…
New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area — The Institute of the Black World 21st Century announced that the Black Family Summit, which the organization convenes, has developed a culturally responsive helpline for first responders and essential workers. The Community Cares Listening Line will provide emotional support and resource information in critical areas of need. This initiative seeks to address the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on African Americans and people…
The National Council For Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls will be hosting a virtual conference October 2-3, 2020.
Helping the Helper: The Legendary Earth, Wind & Fire With a Message to the Nations Essential Workers
A message from the Legendary Earth, Wind & Fire, as we at BPA extend well wishes and emotional support to the nation’s essential workers. About BPA The Black Psychiatrists of…
A National African American Commission Virtual Forum The Growing Demand for Reparations Juneteenth Forum to Address COVID-19, Killing of Black People National Commission Seeks to Advance HR-40 The National African…
By teleSUR — Brazil’s government stopped publishing the total accumulated COVID-19 deaths and infections, in an attempt to hide the real extent of the disease in Latin America’s largest country. After months of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, the government decided to withdraw a Ministry of Health website, which provided daily figures on deaths and infections. The site was launched a while later, but totals of…
By Allyson Y. Schwartz and Martha A. Dawson — News about the novel coronavirus, which has now claimed over 90,000 American lives, is all around us. A subtext told in this reporting is the painful story of the pandemic’s devastating effect on people of color. While coronavirus does not know boundaries of race, income, or ethnicity, its disproportionate impact on minority communities is unmistakable and points to a deeper crisis of racial…
By Rebekah Barber, Facing South — During this time of pandemic-related social distancing, phone conversations are helping people stay sane and connected. But incarcerated people, who are among the most vulnerable to…
The government could have predicted, and perhaps prevented, many deaths. It did not. By Sonia Faleiro, NYT — In early April, Maruthalingam Thiyakumar, a 58-year-old employee of the corner shop in my neighborhood in South London, died from the coronavirus. While some of my neighbors and I were able to follow Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s injunction to “stay at home” and “save lives,” Mr. Thiyakumar continued to provide toilet paper and tea…
By National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) — The COVID-19 pandemic presently sweeping the world exposes the continuation of centuries-old, deeply entrenched racial inequities that are embedded in the very fabric of the United States and the world. NCBL’s mission is the dismantling of this structural racism by serving as the Legal Arm of the Black Liberation Movement. This pandemic has underscored the need for the United States’ federal, state…
But When Cortés’s Soldiers Arrived Carrying a Novel Virus, the Empire First Succumbed to Smallpox and Then Fell to Spain. By David Bowles, Zocalo Public Square — Every civilization eventually faces a crisis that forces it to adapt or be destroyed. Few adapt. On July 10, 1520, Aztec forces vanquished the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men, driving them from Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire. The Spanish soldiers…
By Jay Reeves, AP News — Many African Americans watching protests calling for easing restrictions meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus see them as one more example of how their health, their safety and their rights just don’t seem to matter. To many, it seems that the people protesting — who have been predominantly white — are agitating for reopening because they won’t be the ones to suffer the consequences.