From permanently closed businesses to limited access to health care, housing and food insecurity, increases in suicide and violent crime and educational setbacks, experts say it will take years before Black Americans are able to fully recover from the pandemic, reports National Geographic.
Pandemic for poor Black people
Black people are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized due to coronavirus. Factors include pre-existing health conditions such as Diabetes. They are more likely to have essential jobs that cannot be done remotely.
Nearly 25 percent of employed Black and Hispanic people work in the service industry, the CDC says, which requires more interaction with the public and increased risk of COVID-19. Where African Americans live also makes a difference. They’re more likely to live in multi-generational homes and densely populated cities. Some have limited access to care. They either don’t have health insurance or don’t get paid when missing work to seek care.
“The larger Black community went into the pandemic, suffering disproportionately economically, medically, academically, and otherwise,” says U. S. Representative Kweisi Mfume of Maryland. “And so, the way we come out, when we do finally get out, is probably going to be best described by those same indicators that were in play when we went in.”
“It’s always been a pandemic for poor Black people,” says the Rev. Lionel Edmonds, senior pastor at Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Washington, “but now it’s expanding and intensified for the working poor.”
Did you subscribe to our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: National Geographic
