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Why African Americans Were More Likely to Die During the 1918 Flu Pandemic

Why African Americans Were More Likely to Die During the 1918 Flu Pandemic

By Commentaries/Opinions, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

By Rodney A. Brooks — When it came to getting healthcare during the 1918 influenza epidemic, America’s Black communities, hobbled by poverty, Jim Crow segregation and rampant discrimination, were mostly forced to fend for themselves. Opportunities for hospital care proved scarce, leaving many relying on family care and, where available, the small but burgeoning ranks of Black nurses. When the 1918 influenza epidemic began, African Americans were already beset by a barrage of social, medical…

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The Black Wall Street mural in Tulsa, Okla.

It’s time for wealthy donors to embrace reparations, not more charity

By Reparations

Philanthropy as usual isn’t enough to confront a racial wealth gap that’s exploding during the pandemic. By Edgar Villanueva & Chuck Collins, Market Watch — As the coronavirus rages and the economic fallout continues, the wealth gap between our country’s largely white top 1% and the Black and brown communities bearing the brunt of the pandemic has never been more exposed. U.S. billionaires have increased their wealth by nearly $1 trillion during…

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Housing Segregation

Black Households Earned 61 Cents for Every Dollar of White Median Incomes

By Commentaries/Opinions

Police violence linked to segregated housing. By Charlene Crowell — The August 23 police shooting of an unarmed Black man in Kenosha, WI, triggered yet another round of community protests and national news coverage of a Black man. A series of multiple gunshots fired by a local police officer, were not fatal for 29-year old Jacob Blake; but may have permanently paralyzed him from the waist down. Days later on…

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From Left to Right: Photo by Jessica Simmonds; Photo Courtesy of Dash Harris Machado; Javier Wallace by Sarmia Osbourne

For Some Black People, The Term ‘Latinx’ Is Another Form of Erasure

By Commentaries/Opinions

Black diasporans discuss the ways the label can be overly broad—and leave out an important part of their identities. By Janel Martinez, Vice — For many Black people, their identification with Latinx identity is complicated—the term, meant to be all-inclusive, has the exact opposite effect. Though Black and Indigenous Latin Americans have contributed significantly to Latinx culture (think musical genres like rumba, tango, and reggaetón, to name a few, or the masterful creations…

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Protest outside the Minnesota State Capitol demanding reparations, St Paul MN, June 19 2020.

It’s Time for Reparations and Transitional Justice for African Americans

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

The country needs truth-telling and acceptance of our moral, legal, political, and sociocultural responsibilities. By Joyce Hope Scott, BU Today — This is a transformative moment in history in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. Despite myths of a post-racial society as a result of many positive social transformations, we are today again forced to examine our inheritance of America’s great sin—slavery and its…

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