The Trifecta of Black Disempowerment: Poverty, Pollution, and the Pandemic
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Last month, I joined a coalition of more than 50 prominent African American community leaders in Los Angeles to issue 55 demands to public officials on the needs of Black men, women, and children in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials in Los Angeles County said that Black people alone accounted for 17% of COVID-19 deaths where race was known – yet African-Americans make up only about 9% of the county’s population.
It’s not that pollution per se harms Black and Brown people more; it’s not that the coronavirus per se harms Black and Brown people more.
On the novel coronavirus front, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot shifted larger transit buses into predominantly Black neighborhoods so riders could social distance more easily.