Originally published in the Cambridge Chronicle on April 16, 2020.
By Ben Clark
The coronavirus has laid bare once again the naked truth about racial disparities in the United States and the way they literally translate to life and death for many individuals in our community.
Reporting from the Boston area and around the country has shown that Black and Latinx people, and especially immigrants who identify as Black and/or Latinx, are far more likely to contract the coronavirus than white people. In our region, residents of Chelsea, Brockton, Hyde Park and Mattapan, are falling ill at up to twice the rate of those from more affluent communities. Higher frequencies of pre-existing conditions mean death rates are also significantly higher.
This is an ugly truth. It is shameful. It is outrageous.
While we are right to be ashamed and outraged, we should not be surprised. This is an entirely predictable outcome and forces us to reckon with the economic, health and educational disparities that we have neglected to address for decades. These are disparities perpetuated by systemic and institutional racism, and they can be addressed. These disproportionate impacts require of us an explicitly disproportionate response.
Even more widespread than the physical impacts are the economic and mental health impacts on families in these communities, many of whom experienced a sudden and catastrophic loss of wages. Undocumented and mixed-status families were excluded from key provisions of the CARES Act, have more limited access to health care and other basic public services, and often experience housing vulnerability. For many immigrants this crisis can be triggering, causing re-trauma related to experiences they had in their country of origin -- experiences they thought they had left behind for good.
A few days ago in Central Square, I saw a few high school students in facemasks walking with tiny plastic bags bulging with food and supplies they gathered at disbursement spots around town. It is heart wrenching to watch our young people forced into the position of having to comb the streets during what would normally be the school day, collecting random bits of basic resources to bring back to their families. Not surprisingly, all of these young people were students of color. It was a scene that would make many of us want to cry. It is unacceptable and it should make all of us want to take action.
At this time we must collectively call upon our communities and elected leaders to respond in a way that disproportionately allocates attention and resources to the communities who need them most. This applies to all facets of our response -- from financial assistance, to healthcare, housing and, importantly, educational resources. And months from now, when we emerge from crisis mode, we must finally re-examine all the systems that sustain institutional racism and work relentlessly to dismantle them. Many of our community institutions have made public commitments to equity in recent years. This is what honest pursuit of equity requires, in this moment, and once we emerge beyond it.
Although many Black, Latinx and immigrant community members lost employment recently, those fortunate enough to still have a job are courageously working on the front lines of this crisis, providing the services that are most essential right now, in positions that put them at significantly greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and bringing it back to their households. They are nurses and doctors, grocery store workers, pharmacists, drivers and cleaners. They are meat packers and fruit pickers, truck drivers and factory workers -- some now pumping masks and ventilators off reconfigured assembly lines. They are police and firefighters and first responders. They are cooks, preparing food in restaurants for delivery, hospital cafeterias and school kitchens for students stuck at home. Many immigrants with greater educational privilege are leading the charge searching for a vaccine to the coronavirus, and in improving testing infrastructure, both of which will be essential to our ability to emerge. Without the courage and ongoing daily hard work of immigrants and people of color, these organizations would simply collapse, right when we need them most. They are figuratively and literally keeping our country alive right now. These are our heroes in this war.
We must ask ourselves, “What kind of a community rewards those it finds most vital in times of need with the least respect, the least resources and the least power, on account of their race?” I know most of you reading this are thinking that doesn’t describe a community you want to be a part of or perpetuate.
That’s why it’s incumbent upon all of us to join the fight for equity and for a disproportionate response that prioritizes the needs of those who need it most. This is one of the things you can do right now.
As executive director of Enroot, an organization supporting immigrant high school and college students, I see first hand the myriad challenges immigrant students and families are facing right now. As I often say, Enroot students are among the most courageous and resilient individuals I’ve ever met. Our team is constantly inspired by their ability to express joy, optimism and spunk even in the most difficult of times. We’ve been celebrating college acceptances, scholarships and smaller victories, even as we help address their basic needs during the last few weeks. As hard as it may be to believe, many have lived through situations that were as or more challenging than this. They will make it through this too, but not in the same place the crisis found them.
The next few years will provide an opportunity to tackle systemic racism head on and begin to make irreversible progress in dismantling it everywhere it shows up. But for now, we must collectively insist on an emergency response that disproportionately focuses on the individuals and families who have been disproportionately impacted. All of us have a role to play in ensuring this happens. For many of us, this means becoming vocal advocates of this approach with our elected officials and business leaders. I hope everyone reading this will find their role and pursue it with a vigor and courage that matches that displayed every day by those on the front lines.
Ben Clark is the Executive Director of Enroot.
