Every Tuesday and Thursday, we will be sharing our faculty's take on questions surrounding #COVID19 and other current events in a new "Ask an Expert" series.

To launch this series, we asked Ethnic Studies Scholar Dr. Ray Black about COVID-19 and African American communities.

Q1: How is #COVID19 affecting the African American community?

A1: "When I was preparing for class last week, my cousin called me to say my uncle just passed from COVID, my aunt was in a hospital on a ventilator and our cousin, their daughter, was in quarantine. Another aunt had passed near the end of March." (1/2)

"I have heard from several of my students that they know of someone in their family who was suspected, confirmed, hospitalized or died from COVID. This is consistent with the devastating effects on the African American now being brought to the press and public." (2/2) — Dr. Black

The coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates, according to data released by several states and big cities.
—via @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/coronavirus-race.html

Q2: What are some of the health disparities that African American communities experience? And why?

A2: "The why of the African American community's health disparities is more important than the what: the country's original sin, racism, is at the root of all disparities, health, employment, criminal justice, education, and more. " (1/3)

"Specifically for health are the diseases, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, stem from a combination of discrimination in the health system to include a justified lack of trust (Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment)..." (2/3)

More https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/index.html

"...lack of access (health insurance) and environmental factors (redlining, food deserts, environmental racism)." (3/3) — Dr. Black

More on redlining https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/28/redlining-was-banned-50-years-ago-its-still-hurting-minorities-today/

Q3: What ways can we make healthcare more equitable?

A3: "Universal health care for all people, not just citizens, is one solution. Preparing culturally responsive and historically aware medical professionals, from the emergency medical first responders to administrators and clerks, to hear the symptoms and complaints." (1/2)

"Too often, doctors and others dismiss or undertreat the symptoms of their African American patients." (2/2)
— Dr. Black

Infographic courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation
https://col.st/Xn9nf 

Q4: Can the government do something differently to change the course of physical health for the African American community?

A4: "Yes, all levels of government can address African American health disparities. The national mandate for universal healthcare, the statewide efforts to treat all of their populations & the local city and county governments specifically addressing their community."
—Dr. Black

Do you have a question for Dr. Ray Black? Or another question about the historical, cultural, social, or economic impacts of #COVID19? Tweet at us with #CLAQandA.

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