By Denzel Tongue, California Health Report, June 18, 2020
Across the Bay Area and California, people are eager for things to feel normal. But for communities of color hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, this crisis has revealed an uncomfortable and urgent truth: “Normal” isn’t working.
Local statistics show how COVID-19 has amplified existing racial inequities when it comes to different communities’ health outcomes. These inequalities are resulting in Black residents in three Bay Area counties—San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda—dying at twice the rate of any other race. Meanwhile, Latinxs account for a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases in our region. In Alameda, for example, Latinx residents make up 43 percent of known cases but just 22 percent of the population.
Growing up in Oakland, I quickly saw first-hand how racism resigns people of color, and Black Americans in particular, to shorter, sicker lives. When I was a child, my mother was diagnosed with a rare nervous condition that left her hospitalized. During this challenging time period, my aunt, with the aid of my father, took care of me. My mother eventually recovered, but within a few years I lost my aunt to preventable heart disease.
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