A Pandemic That Disproportionately Kills Black People Is Not a ‘Great Equalizer’
Politicians like to say the coronavirus does not discriminate. But we now know that’s simply not true.
There’s a particularly obnoxious genre of platitude that’s become standard since the Covid-19 outbreak: The political call for unity. In his first coronavirus address, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that the virus “will not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender, or zip code. It will touch people in positions of power and the most vulnerable in our society.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo referred to it as the “great equalizer.”
As well-meaning as these statements may be, they’re not true. While the intent of those appeals for unity is to bind us together by the shared experience of hardship, the truth is that not all people are suffering the same. The virus is disproportionately killing black people at already alarming rates and exposing deep systemic divides. To some communities, the outbreak is an inconvenience; to others, it’s a waking nightmare.
