Black people are not socially distancing less than others and assuming that’s why we are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 is dangerously untrue.

Black people are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 because of racism. Full stop.

Some of us said this would happen *weeks* ago — along with other marginalized communities (e.g. people with low incomes, young people, LGBTQ+ people, etc.) — because we’ve seen this time-and-time again.

Environmental racism impacts our communities more. Pre-existing conditions impact our community more. Lack of access to healthcare impacts our community more. Living in southern states where Medicaid has not been expanded impacts our community more.

With a looming public health crisis, that created a perfect storm for disparities — one that cannot be solved by jails and policing.

While we can discuss social distancing (and hope we can recognize it as a privilege), we need to be very careful that we are not blaming Black people for higher rates because that would undercut what we know about racism and health broadly.

Because once COVID-19 is flattened then these problems will still persist. And so will blaming Black people for racist systems.