“Requiem for a Blues People”

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

By now you or someone you know has been touched by COVID-19, the novel corona virus. This cruel disease is burning a path through Black communities in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and New Orleans to name a few. And, not only are Black people coming down with COVID-19 they are dying from it at a disproportionate rate—far outstripping their proportion in their cities. We are told Black people are succumbing to COVID-19 because they are more likely to have more underlying health risks—diabetes, hypertension, cancer, asthma, and COPD for example. At some point officials at local, state, and national levels finally admitted that Black people’s high morbidity is a direct result of longstanding and persistent social disparities—lack of access to health care, poor housing, low level employment, and limited access to quality food, etc. That’s the subtle way of saying racism is killing us!