A blessing in disguise?! Not if you’ve lost a loved one and are struggling financially because you lost your job.
- 21.3% of New Jersey coronavirus deaths involve African American patients, although they make up just 14% of the state’s population.
- In Michigan, 40% of the deaths but 14% of the population.
- In Alabama, 44% of the deaths but 25% of the population.
- In Louisiana, 71% of the deaths but 33% of the population.
- In Chicago, 72% of the deaths but one-third of Chicago’s population of 2.7 million.
The obvious question is: Why? The answer is two-fold: health and history.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that black Americans were more likely to have heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The Heart Foundation reports that “nearly 48% of African American women and 44% of African American men have some form of heart disease. Research has found that even among the growing middle- and upper-class black community, the rate of heart disease among black Americans is still greater than in white Americans who have a comparable socioeconomic status.”
The apparent cause for these figures seems based on behavioral habits concerning diet, exercise, and lifestyle. But there’s more to the picture.
Thomas A. Vance, PhD, in an article for the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry in 2019, wrote, “Research suggests that the adult black community is 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems.… Additionally, black emerging adults (ages 18-25) also experience higher rates of mental health problems and lower rates of mental health service utilization compared to white emerging adults, and older black adults. These sobering statistics suggest that despite efforts to reduce disparities among race and class in the US, inequalities are increasing.”
And there we have the real crux of the problem: inequality. Historically, African Americans have be purposely abused, manipulated, suppressed, disenfranchised, dismissed, and segregated in order to uphold a socio-capitalistic system based on supremacist ideology. Because of this encompassing strategy at all levels of society, African Americans responded as best they could under withering circumstances.
How this has played out is that African Americans were relegated to the lowest of socio-economic rungs from which they were enjoined to realize the American dream. Survival has been a steep climb out of desperate poverty, which has necessitated going without and affording the cheapest available in clothing, housing, food, insurance of all types, health care, and education. All while being disparaged as lazy and unindustrious.
Those striving to rise above this unbalanced and oppressive system have been maligned, patronized, hoodwinked, and imprisoned — while at the same time some have been lionized, canonized, risen to fame, and become heroes for the ages. It’s been a Catch-22 scenario since day one.
It’s no wonder that so many African Americans are battling such intense life issues — creating enormous stress and anxiety — that have negatively impacted their psychological well-being and health.
With the Coronavirus hitting the African American community so heavily, it’s important to look at what we’re going to do once the pandemic has passed. Are we simply going to return to the way things were pre-virus or become more strategic in our lifestyles, needs, and wants?
A number of theories are being advanced as to what the pandemic stands for metaphorically. However one wants to typify these circumstances, there is one significant facet to look at: our behaviors.
Reading today’s news, we see so much hurt, destruction, greed, and self-serving actions. Yet, we’re also seeing extraordinary acts of kindness, compassion, connection, and giving. The latter is what I believe resides in the core of our being, our heart and soul. We all want a better world for ourselves and our children. Let’s make that happen.
To do that will require looking at the behaviors and habits that are actually dehumanizing us, that negatively impact the world around us from humans to the environment. Imagine how different our interactions, relationships, and systems would be if we were more cognizant of the fact that we are here to help each other blossom into greater versions of ourselves.
It’s not about fame, wealth accumulation, or supremacy in any of its permutations. It’s about seeing the divine within ourselves and each other. It’s about taking care of ourselves and others in the most healthful of ways. It’s about everyone standing on the same level playing field not in competition, but in nurturing transformation.
Become a trailblazer, a way shower, a teacher, an eternal student, and become unconditional love. Use your creativity, imaginative abilities, talents, empathy, and passionate heart to rise from the pain of the past, to let go of harmful behaviors and beliefs, and transform this pandemic into a year of blessing for all of humanity. It’s your time!
