COVID-19 Magnifying the Target on Minorities
We can agree that COVID-19 has changed “normal life” and replaced it with uncertainty and anxiety. The pandemic has affected everyone, some more than others. And while many of us continue to be on lockdown, the situation has forced us to acknowledge something that was already there: racial marginalization.
Stephen Thomas of the Maryland Center for Health Equity says, “The data is clear and has been clear for decades: African Americans, Latinos, and other minority groups live sicker and die younger. We cannot close our eyes or put up blinders to the disproportionate impact of this disease on racial and ethnic minority communities.” He acknowledged that some have said “that the virus knows no race, no color, no socioeconomic status. It treats the wealthy and the poor the same. But that’s not true.”
Since its arrival within the United States, the Center for Disease Control has estimated that nearly one million individuals have been infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus, and early medical statistics show that racially marginalized groups are disproportionately being affected. Analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that communities of color are at higher risk for contracting the virus due to their underlying health problems, initially caused by social and economic disparities.
These disparities have been in place since before the founding of our nation and are only being worsened by our current climate. Minority groups who have always shared financial burdens are now in desperate need of employment. Many people of color hold high-risk jobs such as stocking warehouses, emptying food trucks, and delivering food. They are the marginalized who risk their lives for the sake of maintaining the comfort and safety of the privileged.
Another side effect minority groups are currently facing is the higher chance of being trafficked. Although COVID-19 has put much of the world at a standstill, it has not stopped traffickers. With many non-profit organizations shutting down, the lack of preparation and outside help is at an all-time low. The eyes of governments have been shifted elsewhere while the novel coronavirus has created an abundance of exploitable victims.
With the dwindling of resources amidst minority communities, individuals of color, particularly women and children of color, are more susceptible now than they already were. Whether the virus has isolated more vulnerable people (women and children) with their abusers, or pushed potential victims to search for sexual jobs as a last resort, these problems only amplify what life already was before the pandemic. Trends have shown for decades that people of color are more likely to come from abusive communities. These trends point to the number of children of color in welfare and foster care systems as well as those that are homeless. Abusive environments and poverty limit educational resources and create desperation.
The lack of employment and resources for previously deprived and financially destitute minorities will most likely push victims into “consenting” to prostitution, putting everyone involved at risk for sexual diseases as well as COVID-19.
“If women really choose prostitution, why is it mostly marginalized and disadvantaged women who do? … Surely the issue is not why women allegedly choose to be in prostitution, but why men choose to buy the bodies of millions of women and children worldwide and call it sex... Increasingly, what is defended as a choice is not a triumph over oppression, but another name for it.”
The virus has spotlighted the racial inequality that has always underlined our society, and inequality that has seeped into all aspects of life for minority individuals. A higher risk of contracting the virus is more of a side effect of preexisting conditions.
But let us not perpetuate the patterns that have been exposed. “Normal life” was just the normalization of victim blaming, disconnection, greed, and egocentrism. We have been given irrefutable evidence of humanitarian issues, but will we brush it aside, or knit the new fabric for a more humanized and decent “normal life”?
About the Author
Jocelyn Cortez is a SoCal native, born and raised near the outskirts of Los Angeles. She is a creative writer who travels between the realms of fiction and reality (most of which takes place in one of the aesthetically pleasing coffee shops that are part of her rotation). She is an adventurous soul who loves the outdoors and finds excitement in activities that require signing a waiver. She is a proud Latina who is zealous about life, family, faith, culture and people. She is currently finishing her Master's in English at Azusa Pacific University.