Roberta K. Timothy

Coronavirus is not the 'great equalizer' – race matters: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 13:29:51 +0000

Coronavirus is not the 'great equalizer' – race matters: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 04/08/2020 - 09:29

Cutline

Wisconsin state representative David Bowen contracted COVID-19. As of March 27, about half of the state’s deaths and total cases were in Milwaukee and all eight people who died were Black (photo by Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/AP Photo)

Roberta K. Timothy

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

Black

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Global

Indigenous

The Conversation

One of the first stories to use race-based data to talk about the risk that Black communities face because of COVID-19 came on March 30 from the Charlotte Observer. The article said Black residents in Mecklenburg County, in Charlotte, N.C., accounted for 43.9 per cent of the 303 confirmed COVID-19 cases locally, but Black residents make up only 32.9 per cent of the county’s population.

More recently, the non-profit investigative journalism site ProPublica published a story on April 3 based on early data that shows “African Americans have contracted and died of coronavirus at an alarming rate.”

Indigenous communities globally have also been speaking about how the new virus may have more devastating impacts on their communities.

The fear and mistrust of health systems expressed by many in Black, Indigenous and racialized communities stem from historical eugenic practices of both governments and individual doctors. These communities have experienced systemic racist violence for generations. They have recently experienced xenophobic responses to COVID-19 and historically, other health crises.

Racialized people may have a fear or mistrust of health care professionals because of historical patterns of abuse (photo by Yogendra Singh via Unsplash)

I have worked for over 25 years in community health and as a health scholar. I have worked with survivors of trauma who have experienced colonial violence. I am concerned how anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism and other forms of intersectional violence will impact the health of our communities during this crisis.

Based on my research, I believe that the actions and omissions of world leaders in charge of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic will reveal historical and current impacts of colonial violence and continued health inequities among African, Indigenous, racialized and marginalized folks.

Recently, I have had discussions about COVID-19 with family, friends and colleagues globally about the impacts of the coronavirus on the health of these groups.

The question often asked is: How will we navigate health systems that continuously violate us? We are talking about those who, like us, live with intersectional social locations, such as race, Indigeneity, age, (dis)ability, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, refugee status, class and religion. Will these social factors play an implicit role in health-care workers’ decisions?

Racism impacts your health

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said: “Our government is going to make sure that no matter where you live, what you do or who you are, you get the support you need during this time.” This sounds good in a speech, but how will it be practised in a system that does not provide adequate services for racialized and marginalized communities?

African and Indigenous folks encounter racist health systems that impact their physical, mental, financial and spiritual well-being. To add to this, low-income communities’ ability to protect themselves from COVID-19 is severely restricted, as money is needed to support social distancing, pay bills, buy food supplies and hand sanitizer.

History tells us these disparities increase during stressful times.

Ignored warnings

Many government leaders ignored the warning signs emitting from China at first, including U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Did racism impact the way some leaders initially responded to the virus – both in their response to China and to the African leader of the World Health Organization (WHO)?

On Feb. 11, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, warned the world that COVID-19 is “public enemy No. 1.” He advised countries to take action immediately or have detrimental consequences. Instead, many national leaders and media outlets continued to focus on the Chinese government in Wuhan.

Did world leaders, like Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ignore early COVID-19 warnings? Here Johnson shakes hands with boxer Anthony Joshua after attending service at Westminster Abbey in London on March 9 (photo by Ben Stansall/Pool)

On March 11, Tedros told nations to prepare for the onslaught of a global health crisis. Although those in medical communities understood his warnings, many leaders of nations did not initially heed that advice. Tedros said he was concerned by “alarming levels of inaction.”

China’s global warnings and loss of lives were not heeded by many governments until countries in Europe and then the U.S. were being devastated.

The focus on China’s “inadequate responses,” instead of their warnings and losses, mirrors similar world crises where racialized folks deaths are not taken seriously by western nations and media.

One example is the world’s lack of action on Ebola. The lack of support to Venezuela and Iran during this COVID-19 outbreak is a recent example.

How we see disease

Race plays a part in how we see diseases. How will the local and global responses to COVID-19 impact African/Black, Indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities?

The blatant acts of continued racist violence against Asian communities globally have been heightened by Trump’s consistent labelling of COVID-19 as the “China virus.” These reactions evoke memories of Ebola and HIV. Those diseases were initially seen as exclusively African and Black in nature.

Other infections like Zika, chikungunya and malaria are seen as “tropical” or a “disease of the south.”

In response to anti-Asian racism in the current pandemic, Asian, Latin-American and Black U.S. leaders came together to condemn all forms of racism and scapegoating.

Racialized front-line workers

Medical personnel like nurses and doctors are on the front lines of this health tsunami, along with paramedics, cleaners, personal support workers, child-care workers and other health aides. But health care in the West comes with distinct racialized hierarchies.

African and Indigenous workers in health care are not often found in roles of power or decision-making roles. In fact, Black and Indigenous workers experience increased levels of employment disparity and violence in their workplaces.

African and Indigenous workers in health care are not often found in roles of power (photo by Francisco Venancio via Unsplash)

As a result of colonial violence, African, Indigenous and racialized folks are disproportionately undocumented, under-housed, unemployed, working migrants, food-insecure, mental health-challenged and imprisoned.

As well, others are dealing with health violence because they are also addiction-involved, (dis)abled, sexually and gender-diverse or survivors of chronic health conditions such as people living with HIV.

Myth of immunity

There is an online rumour that Black people are less susceptible to COVID-19. This comes directly from earlier pandemics. During the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, Black people in the U.S. had lower rates of infection.

Meanwhile, Black folks’ health in the U.S. and globally continue to be inflicted by the impact of enslavement, poverty, incarceration and other colonial realities. The local and global impacts of racism and health violence are insidious. We are all at risk.

If we are to truly survive this global pandemic as a global community, we must drastically de-colonize and change our health ideologies and practices.

Roberta K. Timothy is an assistant professor, teaching stream, of social and behavioural health science at the ��Ƶ’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Reparations for slavery and genocide should be used to address health inequities: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 16:02:21 +0000

Reparations for slavery and genocide should be used to address health inequities: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 12/06/2019 - 11:02

Cutline

Health justice funds could be used to support Black and Indigenous health initiatives and provide mental and physical health services to deal with the impact of trans-generational trauma (photo by Shutterstock)

Roberta K. Timothy

Topic

Our Community

Black

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Indigenous

The Conversation

As soon as I entered Elmina Castle (the dungeons) in Cape Coast in Ghana, I felt haunted by over 400 years of brutality and the enslavement and genocide of millions of African and Indigenous Peoples. That violence still impacts the health of Black and Indigenous folks today.

The literal branding of Black people through mostly European state-sanctioned chattel transatlantic slavery by the Portuguese, British, French, Swedish, Dutch and Danish among others, haunted me in those dungeons. Colonialists built churches on top and below prisons, chambers, pits and caves where my ancestors were chained, branded, raped, killed and violated.

The international decade for people of African descent (2015-24), the “year of return,” encourages Africans living in the diaspora to travel back to Ghana (formerly known as the Gold Coast) to embrace their African heritage and ancestry.

As a descendant of enslaved Africans via the Caribbean, living in colonial Canada (Turtle island), and a human rights health scholar, my trip to Ghana this summer during the “year of return” was significant.

We are often asked to forget or minimize our enslavement histories through forced amnesia. But the smells of blood, sweat, terror and bones haunted me as I explored the impact of transgenerational trauma on myself and communities. These are the roots of anti-Black racism and white supremacy.

Former governor general of Canada Michaëlle Jean leaves a room at Elmina Castle in Ghana, on Nov. 29, 2006. African slaves passed through here before they were loaded onto slave ships (photo by Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press)

Presently, in the United States, presidential candidates are discussing reparations for the descendants of enslaved men and women. The proposal to research reparations for African descendants, H.R. 40, has been presented to Congress.

In Canada, health justice reparations would support the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s Calls to Action and other Indigenous redress initiatives. For instance, recommendation No. 21 calls upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Indigenous healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.

Reparations and justice

Health justice reparation is a call for returns to past and present-day countries that benefited from the exploitation of African and Indigenous Peoples and our resources. Health justice reparations are for Africans who were forcefully taken away and for those who stayed on the continent, both living through the anguish of family separation, grief and loss.

Health justice reparations need to be discussed in local, national and transnational contexts, and among non-governmental, private and governmental organizations.

Reparations have been discussed by African descendants in our communities since at least the abolition of the slave trade in 1833 in Britain.

Some scholars wrote about reparations starting in 1949 after the Second World War as the International Court of Justice heard the case “Injuries Suffered in Service of the United Nations.” Survivors of the Holocaust received reparations through funds given to Israel and the World Jewish Congress shortly after.

Although there have been many discussions on reparations for African descendants by Black politicians and legal experts, official redress for slavery and its associated atrocities before the Second World War for predominantly African populations have not been significantly considered.

Human rights compensations

Health justice funds could be used to support Black health initiatives and provide mental and physical health services to deal with the impact of transgenerational trauma. Health justice reparations could be used to educate the public and historicize the voices of African and Indigenous Peoples experiencing health inequity (violence).

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker talks with author Ta-Nehisi Coates as he waits to testify about reparation for the descendants of slaves during a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on June 19, 2019 (photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)

Health justice reparations could also be used to support Indigenous Peoples living in the Americas who have suffered horrendous genocide and deal with continued health struggles because of it.

Reparations should be looked at globally as a way for African and Indigenous communities to address state-sanctioned violence and trauma against our communities transnationally.

African and Indigenous Peoples living in Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Australia, Europe and North America, including Canada, are demanding redress for continued harm, loss and violence experienced.

Health justice reparations include compensation and amends for mental, emotional, physical, social, cultural, spiritual and financial harms. The impact of cultural genocide by forcing the enslaved to speak the languages of the colonizer and to be re-named by those colonizers needs to be addressed.

Transnational Indigenous languages need to be taught everywhere.

Collect more data

Collecting race and intersectional-based statistics is critical to addressing the health disparities in Canada and globally. The often missing data, if collected, can be used to support life-saving health research and programs.

Transgenerational health trauma is directly connected to present-day health inequities and health disparities. Addressing health disparities in Black and Indigenous communities must include ways to deal with ongoing transgenerational trauma as a direct result of colonial violence.

Health justice reparation requires recognition of the impact of violence on long-term health. Historical and contemporary anti-Black racist policies and practices need to be addressed with apologies and new policy implementation.

Structural violence inflicted on Black and Indigenous Peoples’ lives by state institutions such as children’s aid organizations, prison systems, hospitals, schools and public housing needs to be addressed for its impact on health.

Addressing health violence must include transnational Indigenous knowledge and anti-colonial research ethics

The western medical model – linked to scientific racism and other forms of discrimination – must be challenged. This model has lead to cultural biases and stigma-based scientific inquiry that has created biased health research.

Health justice reparations must include debt forgiveness to countries and community members of African ancestry for transgenerational trauma. Debt forgiveness can put back money into struggling health-care systems and communities globally that were forced to cut social service spending.

Our conversations need not be about the impossibility of reparations. Health justice reparations is about life and death, it is about our past, present and future.

Roberta K. Timothy is an assistant professor, teaching stream, at the ��Ƶ's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.