Sibylla Bostoniensis

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I believe that Americans – of all colors – badly misunderstand how race and class function in the US, and nowhere is that more tragically apparent than in the racially disparate impacts of COVID-19.

COVID-19, as has been widely reported, has been massively disproportionately impacting black Americans. Apr 7, Chicago Tribune: "Chicago’s coronavirus disparity: Black Chicagoans are dying at nearly six times the rate of white residents, data show".

This ignited the entirely predictable usual dialectic in the popular discourse. Was it because of some biological trait inherent to black people that made them more vulnerable to catching COVID-19? Or was it because black people have been historically maltreated by their society in ways which have given them pre-existing health conditions that leave them extra vulnerable to COVID-19?

The former position is popular with what we might term "social conservatives", if by which we mean "enthusiastically, if covertly, white supremacist". They are extremely fond of stories about how there are things essentially wrong with the bodies of black people. What – as Dumont tells us – the Nazis called "constitutional". Even mutually contradictory stories. They're not fussy. They see in any story about the inherent nature of black bodies (or any racialized bodies), justification to kill them and take their stuff: the logic goes, "because [anything essential], we are entitled to kill them and take their stuff."

The latter position is popular with what we might term "social liberals", if by which we mean "people who think white supremacism is bad". As that very ChiTrib article opens:

Black Chicagoans are dying from the coronavirus at a rate higher than any other racial demographic, public records show, a reflection of the deadly consequences that economically disadvantaged communities have faced for generations.

The paradigm is that of course black bodies are screwed up, given the history of racism in this country, and how it has radically curtailed black people's economic status, which has had both direct (e.g. stress-related hypertension) and indirect (e.g. inability to afford health care) health consequences.

( Now, don't get me wrong: both these positions do have merit... Read more [5,630 Words] )

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