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Crossroads of covid and racism

Crossroads of covid and racism
16 september 2020

Covid-in-Montana. Too many stories and details. Too many headlines.

I responded to Nick Engler:

"190 new cases today. 9% positivity rate. Overall death rate once hospitalized about 30% (overall death rate about 2% when figuring that 32 of the presently 106 hospitalized will die). I've been looking at these numbers and they stay fairly stable. However, there's reason to believe that testing is inadequate. Also, many look at state figures but it's Billings-Crow-NorthernCheyenne that's really at the epicenter. 3,922 out of 9,431 cases are Yellowstone-BigHorn-Rosebud Counties with 82 of 141 deaths."

I didn't want to stir up shit on his faceport page so what I didn't say...

In Montana Native Americans are taking the brunt of this disease. And that nationally minority populations are disproportionally affected.

Whether that's due to obesity, poor health, poverty in general or genetics is an interesting and pertinent topic; however, in real time the reaction by the American public is more disconcerting.

America is systemically racist.

A typical 30 year old White Christian suburbanite with 2 kids is rightfully concerned about how s/he is going to work if the kids aren't in daycare (a.k.a. school). Because... it takes two jobs to live in a neighborhood that's protected from poverty and people who don't properly cut their grass.

That family does not have any minority friends, family, neighbors or most probably church-family. In that world people aren't dying ... they are being inconvenienced.

If people-of-color and poor-people are 'other' and/or 'lesser' or, in the case of urbanites, 'dangerous thugs' than there's little empathy.

As much as this is being addressed ... it isn't being addressed.

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