“underlying health conditions” are used to excuse the preventable, premature deaths of black people because ableism is a huge part of racism

racist ableism is everywhere—from the belief that black people have “lower IQs” to the diseases invented to describe enslaved people’s desire for freedom to high rates of chronic illness in black community to the disproportionate murder of black disabled people by the cops

i’ve written about the convergence of racism, ableism, and transphobia for a while. here’s my latest from @DisVisibility https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/05/14/a-paradoxical-history-of-black-disease/

COVID-19 is only making this much worse, because many contagious diseases become associated with black people and then are allowed to linger in our communities untreated.

we are given food not fit for human consumption, live without clean water, or access to healthcare. these conditions are disabling.

COVID-19 allowed to spread unchecked when it was clear it killed old and disabled people. black people experience disability at higher rates.

so when you use “underlying health conditions” instead of disabled and chronically ill, you depoliticized these deaths and the racist ableism that causes them

this makes it harder to fight, and naturalizes death from preventable, treatable diseases when the person is black.