NDP Statement Concerning the Coronavirus Pandemic’s Severe and Selective Impacts on Marginalized Communities
Nurturing Diversity Partners’ office is located in Milwaukee, the most racially hyper-segregated metropolitan area in the US, in the predominantly African American neighborhood where the city’s most COVID-19 victims, as of April 2, 2020, had been living. Reggie and Fran also reside there but are healthy and safe in their homes – though grieving losses along with others.
On May 20, 2019, Milwaukee’s County Executive Chris Abele declared racism to be a public health crisis affecting our whole society. Nurturing Diversity Partners has been part of our County’s Racial Equity Initiative, working with its Office of African American Affairs (OAAA) and the Government Alliance on Race and Equity to provide training to the county’s management staff.
NDP sees Milwaukee as a microcosm of our country: a clear example of how our society’s past and present racial disparities have led to disproportionate and severe impacts by COVID-19 on marginalized communities.
Sadly, rather than pulling the US together against a common threat, there has been a shockingly steep rise in hate speech and actions by individuals and organizations.
We fervently hope that all Americans – your family, neighbors, colleagues, friends – will come to see that we are all only as safe as those in our communities who are most at risk. There is no more important time to learn about and build racial equity.
May we emerge from this pandemic having begun to truly live out the ideals embedded in America’s founding documents to “form a more perfect Union” where all people are seen as equals and are guaranteed “liberty and justice for All”!
To take action on behalf of marginalized communities, we suggest you read about, support and/or join The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival led by the Rev. Dr. William Barber, II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. This national movement has re-established Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.
For a deeper understanding of how racism impacts the health of marginalized communities and sickens our entire nation, NDP recommends these resources:
ONLINE
No, the coronavirus is not an “equalizer.” Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here’s what Milwaukee is doing about it — and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients.
The Impact of Racism Is the “Other Coronavirus Crisis” for People of Color – Reggie Jackson, Co-Founder and Lead Educator/Consultant, Nurturing Diversity Partners (March 27, 2020)
The Next Challenge of the COVID-19 Fight in Milwaukee – Reggie Jackson (April 3, 2020)
A Crisis Within a Crisis: COVID-19 Disproportionally Impacts Milwaukee’s Black Neighborhoods – Syndicated, Milwaukeeindependent.com (April 3, 2020)
BOOKS
American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise – Eduardo Porte (March 2020)
A sweeping examination of how American racism has broken the country’s social compact, eroded America’s common goods, and damaged the lives of every American–and a heartfelt look at how these deep wounds might begin to heal.
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland – Jonathan M. Metzl (2019)
A physician reveals how right-wing backlash policies have mortal consequences – even for the white voters they promise to help. The author shows these policies’ costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. White Americans, Dr. Metzl argues, must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact lead our nation to demise. Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Esquire and the Boston Globe.
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind – Harriet A. Washington (2019)
From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country-cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power.
