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The other night I was watching one of the ubiquitous COVID-19 town hall meetings that have taken over cable, and the host said the coronavirus had “uncovered the inequity of healthcare in the country.” He went on to suggest it was a shame how unfair this was to African Americans. I had to chuckle; I’d heard this before. This is always the line from the media and too many in leadership positions (Black and white) when social shortcomings are “uncovered” by crisis, chaos or tragedy.
It was said the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others had pulled the sheet away and “uncovered” rampant police brutality against people of color. Many said Hurricane Katrina’s winds had “uncovered” the abject poverty Black people in cities like New Orleans were trapped in. Now, it’s the virus showing another disparity that has been in plain sight for decades.
America and African Americans are in need of new narratives to move us to a better position to combat and overcome some of the artificial and systematic hurdles encumbering communities of color. We must push away the naïve (at best) or nefarious (at worst) notions of white folks who want to believe Black people find themselves in these dubious positions solely because they are Black. You see, that is only partially true. Yes, often these undesirable positions happen because of race; however, it is not a genetic frailty or abnormality causing it. It is a nation refusing to admit that racism continues to put people of color on back burners and is rarely concerned about the social and literal maladies it causes.
I was in the midst of a tour for my book, Conversations in Black: On Power, Politics and Leadership, when the tour, like everything else, was sidelined. The book takes on a broad range of subjects from Black voter participation in electing a president in 2020; to our images in the media; to our dilemma in defining what is “authentically Black.” I wrote the book in hopes of finding new directions to more equitable positions for African Americans.
For the book, I contacted over 40 of today’s brightest leaders and influencers to talk about a myriad of topics impacting people of color. The group includes: Congresswoman Maxine Water, radio host/influencer Charlamange Tha God, rapper/activist T.I., journalist Jemele Hill, professor Michael Eric Dyson and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza. Much of what I want to come out of this book are new instructions for Black America to demand and, more importantly, receive more equity and opportunity from a nation that has yet to deliver her full promise to a people who have been loyal in spite of often being placed in positions that have literally and figuratively endangered their well-being.
The vast majority of the time, Black people aren’t killed by police because we pose more danger than anyone else. We haven’t found ourselves impoverished and living in underserved areas because we are lazy or can’t achieve, and we aren’t dying disproportionately of COVID-19 because we are weak. No, because of prejudice we are placed in untenable positions that often bring about cause and effect.
In my book, while talking about the state of Black America, legendary entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte says, “I see promises denied. I see participation in the oppression of Black culture and Black life still very active in America. We’ve come to a horrible normal, where the president of the United States is not only stirring up racist animosity, he’s also adding fuel to his own comments on what he thinks of people of color.”
It’s not a mystery; a lack of equal opportunities often due to (overt or benign) prejudice keep Black people in precarious positions. Far too many African Americans are left on an uneven playing field, left to navigate through trying times ill-equipped to succeed, or in the case of this pandemic, live. Among other things, pre-existing conditions, environmental racism, lack of insurance and inadequate numbers of quality healthcare systems all have played a role in spiking the number of Blacks getting the coronavirus. This is just a variation of the old adage, “When America get a cold, black folks get the flu.” It’s time America starts giving people of color the right medicine. It’s also time for Black America to demand better bedside manner from this country.
This is not just a health care issue; Blacks are shortchanged in many sectors. We should no longer accept from leadership, Black or white, the lack of movement to better conditions we’ve known as inadequate for decades. Much like the pandemic, working from behind makes the fight much harder.
Richelieu Dennis, founder and Chairman of Essence Ventures, says in the book, “The pressure of oppression has occurred for so long and been so intense that our (Black) leaders have just simply had to lead us to survival and keep us from being extinct.” We must now create roadmaps showing us not only how to survive, but also thrive.
Black America will end up losing a disproportionate number of lives to this virus mostly because of the continued neglect our community receives. It would be disrespectful to those who died for us not to address the discrimination, racism and prejudice continuing to restrict people of color, and in some cases, literally costing them their lives. These people should not die in vain and we should use their unfortunate deaths as fuel to ignite a renewed fight for justice and change. It’s time for real leadership to emerge. We should treat changing our narratives with the same zeal many brought to joining their favorite DJs and celebrities on IG live during this time of quarantine.
I keep hearing the phrase “new normal” thrown around as we wonder what life will be post-COVID-19. We must come out of this crisis with new expectations and demands of our government, our leaders and ourselves. That should be our new normal.
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Ed Gordon is an Emmy Award–winning broadcaster. Known for his stellar interactions with newsmakers from the worlds of politics, entertainment and sports, Gordon is the president of Ed Gordon Media, a multi-service production company. ‘Conversations in Black’ is his first book.
