Black American VS Corona Virus
"This is not a test, this is not a test, this is a real-life or death state of emergency. [...] 1 out 10 Americans are black, 1 out of 2 of the corona fatalities are black. We're in trouble my people, we have to come together, we have to communicate, they're not gonna give us any time on the news, they're not gonna come up with solutions for us we have to come up with our solutions," Sean Combs says on his Instagram feed. ( full clip) below
With that being said and the base of this post, black people must look at ourselves as a nation within a nation
we are almost 50 million according to the census website (about 14% of America)
over 1 trillion a year in buying power
Those things sound good but when it comes to our health we are leading the nation in chronic issues (cancer, asthma, diabetes, etc). We are the ones most likely to not have adequate health care, or even worse, to not have health care at all and this was going on way before the virus hit the western hemisphere.
So now after the virus does hit North America hard especially the major cities like NYC, Detroit, Chicago. Who will be the most vulnerable? The black, brown and the poor. Here are some numbers to think about while we follow the stay-at-home orders:
A ProPublica report revealed that Blacks made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is only 26 percent, Black.
In Michigan, where the state’s population is 14 percent Black, African Americans made up 35 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths as of April 3.
Illinois and North Carolina are two of the few areas publishing statistics on COVID-19 cases by race, and their data shows a disproportionate number of Blacks were infected, according to the report on ProPublica. On April 1, the Associated Press reported that Blacks in Charlotte, N.C. were “disproportionately affected by COVID-19, according to data released by local health officials.
“Figures from Mecklenburg County health officials show black residents accounted for 43.9 percent of 303 confirmed COVID-19 cases,” said the Associated Press, citing reporting by The Charlotte Observer.
Most states are not reporting the racial breakdown of how the virus is affecting us. So many black people are not taking it that serious or concerned. But keep in mind who works at these essential jobs, can't work at home or can’t afford to miss one day’s pay. They are the ones they still have to go out and be exposed to the virus at random. Most of those people are black people. So let us be alert and mindful that even though we are not personally infected there are black people that are and have died from it already. The solution will be to come together and govern ourselves. An example of that is laid out by The Nation of Islam with the 9 ministries.
(click the pic above to read the full news article quoted)
For the conspiracy theorists that feel it is the government pushing fear to the masses and it's not that bad or there is a hidden agenda, we don't see. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan gave guidance on this, view clip below:
Here are some new article and websites I used as my resources for this post:
HealthLeaders: Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted And Died of Coronavirus At An Alarming Rate
Final call news: COVID-19 'state of emergency' for Black America?
NY times: Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States
Illinois state site: https://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/covid19-statistic
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