There is No Room for Hate and Discrimination

As June has now come to an end, I think it is a worthy cause to dissect the events and misconduct that occurred, which launched this nation into the Black Lives Matter protests. I am writing to understand the position of the Black body not only in the realm of the arts but also their relationship to the systematic abuses placed upon them.

One of the most famous injustices placed upon the Black community was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. For more background, the study was a 1930’s experimentation where scientists recruited Black sharecroppers. These men were recruited with the promise of receiving free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. However, the caveat is that the study was conducted without the benefit of the patient’s informed consent. Researchers informed the men that they were being treated for “bad blood”, which was a term to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In conclusion, the subjects did not receive proper treatment for their diagnosed illness and instead experimenters allowed for their disease to fester.

Events such as the one mentioned above are ripe for mistrust in healthcare systems and are an inherent cause for concern in the Black community in regards to receiving proper health care. One could argue that this mistreatment and injustice was done so about 100 years ago, surely things have changed, right? Well yes and no. Over the past century, there have been implementations of ethical responses to resolve such issues like the incorporation of the Belmont Report and Institutional Review Boards. However, there is still a considerable injustice placed upon Black communities, and this has been evidenced through COVID-19.

Nationally speaking, African American deaths from COVID-19 are 2X higher than what would be expected based on their share of the populations. To put this information into numbers, African American communities comprise 30% of the U.S. population, but these communities were the source of 56% of COVID related deaths. It goes to show that communities of color are being hit disproportionately hard.

So what is contributing to this imbalance of diagnosed illness? Well, one thing is that Black communities include more people of low socioeconomic status, meaning people are more likely to have to leave their home to earn their income to survive. But their source of income is more likely coming from occupations that are deemed essential during this current health crisis such as retail work, sanitation, farming, and etc. Each of these occupations is critical in helping “flatten the curve” so that the remaining population can stay at home. It has been shown that virus “hot-spots” has been in predominantly low income African- American neighborhoods, where residents are likely to not have cars. And diagrams and research have shown that testing centers are more likely placed and more accessible in those neighborhoods of high socioeconomic status.

Carrie Mae Weeks is an artist who is planning a campaign to alert the world on just how COVID-19 has hurt communities of color. Her project is titled “Resist COVID Take 6” about standing 6 feet apart. She is using her voice as a way to bring the general public into the conversation of what steps can be taken to improve the community. Her initiative will be conducted in phases, the first comprising billboards and the second including items such as bags, magnets, buttons, and etc.

COVID-19 has shown weaknesses in healthcare and exposing these weaknesses only aims to remedy the injustice faced. Keeping these facts visible and known is a way to minimize such inequities because it will allow the viewer to remain conscious and cognizant of mistreatment that would otherwise go unnoticed.