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Black Communities

Allyson Y. Schwartz and Martha A. Dawson

Racial divide of coronavirus is real, so are innovations that can help

By COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

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…

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Shoppers on Brixton High Street in South London. As in the United States, ethnic minorities are disproportionately falling victim to the pandemic.

Britain’s Ethnic Minorities Are Being Left for Dead

By COVID-19 (Coronavirus), News & Current Affairs

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…

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May 4, 2020 - Volunteers line up to begin taking hundreds of free COVID-19 tests at a pop-up site at the House of Hope in Decatur, Ga. 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.

In clamor to reopen, many black people feel overlooked

By COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

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.

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Armed protesters provide security as demonstrators take part in an "American Patriot Rally," on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, on April 30, 2020

For many cautious African Americans, the move to reopen America is not a ‘black friendly’ campaign

By COVID-19 (Coronavirus), News & Current Affairs

“Nothing about this movement is really black friendly.” By Nick Charles, NBC News — As protests erupt over stay-at-home orders and the clamor to reopen the economy becomes louder, the coalition of people storming state Capitols — some armed with semi-automatic weapons and most not wearing masks or observing social distancing guidelines — have had one thing in common: Almost all of them are white. African Americans, for the most…

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People who believe they have COVID-19, and who meet the criteria, wait in line to be pre-screened for the coronavirus outside of the Brooklyn Hospital Center on March 20 in Brooklyn, New York

Coronavirus Is Making the Case for Black Reparations Clearer Than Ever

By Commentaries/Opinions, COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Reparations

By William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, Newsweek — The COVID-19 crisis only heightens the urgency of black reparations. Long overdue, they are now more essential than ever. Mounting statistics confirm disturbing evidence of racial disparities in reported coronavirus deaths. In Wisconsin, perhaps the state with the most extreme ratio of black morbidity, black people represent 6 percent of the population and 40 percent of the deaths. Those…

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The body of Ethel Freeman, in the wheelchair, was found outside the convention center in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

When Blackness Is a Preexisting Condition

By Commentaries/Opinions, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

How modern disaster relief has hurt African American communities By Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, The New Republic — Ethel Freeman became famous in death, even though no one knew her name. For months, she was one of the many nameless people who lost their lives in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s deadly intersection of race and class. Her son, Herbert Freeman Jr., had successfully rescued the 91-year-old retired school employee from…

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