Welcome. Please comment and disagree in the response balloon. Sign up to subscribe. Commend to others. And keep safe.
‘Why is Covid Killing People of Colour?’ – Review
The BBC1 documentary presented by David Harewood was shown on Monday 1st March. It was clear, well-organised and passionate. It also provided a sharply focussed picture on how racism works in Britain today.
The programme began with an over-view of the disproportionate and lethal impact of Covid. People of Colour (PoC) form 14%of the national population, 34% of Covid deaths; 21% of NHS workers but 63% of those who die from Covid. For doctors the figures are even more startling – 44% of the workforce, 95% of deaths. The first and simplest explanation was that dark skins hinder appropriation of Vitamin D from the sunlight. Conclusion: probably true but of only marginal significance.
People of Colour and Covid Deaths.
The programme then worked through three major groups of people for whom Covid has been particularly lethal:
a) those experiencing social deprivation - on average Black people are 70% more likely to live in deprived areas; Pakistanis 246% more likely. Obesity is at 36% in deprived areas, 21% elsewhere. High density housing obviously increases the risk of Covid spreading.
b) as regards pre-existing health conditions, again the programme reeled of the disparities suffered by PoC: 5 times greater likelihood of kidney failure; over 3 times level of hypertension; 4 times more likely to be sectioned because of mental health. All of this leading to a life expectancy shorter by 10 years.
c) Working in front-line occupations, not only in health care, but also transport or food production.
But the programme’s argument pivots around the question of whether these disparities are simply the consequence of some ethnic groups being over-represented in situations that are vulnerable to Covid infection because of circumstances that poor white people share with PoC, or whether those differences are leveraged by racism.
Racism andCovid Deaths
At different points in the programme evidence came forward that racism is indeed a major factor:
a) suppression of people’s progress at work because of racism either in selection or promotion. This was discussed anecdotally in a discussion between David Harewood and his sister, but there is substantial research evidence to justify the argument that PoCs are cornered into more vulnerable and less protected occupations .
b) lack of provision of protective equipment for front-line workers in health and transport. One such case was focused on. More broadly almost two-thirds of PoC felt unable to complain about lack of such provision over against one-third of white staff. The disturbingly high disproportion of deaths of PoC doctors (who would not have been socially deprived) is most likely due to this.
c) a related tendency of white people to hold on to damaging stereotypes – ‘black people don’t feel as much pain’; ‘their men are naturally big and strong’; ‘their women complain far too much’. A ‘health’ culture, that is, where PoC received less attentive care.
A deeper consequence of racism emerged towards the end of the programme – the argument by the American Dr Arlene Geronimus that racism itself does long-term damage to people’s health, which she termed ‘weathering’. The continuing pressures of racism generate stress hormones which damage the immune system, so that weathering ‘makes you older than your biological age’. This has been referred to as the ‘alliocentric load’: the crushing weight of constantly being on the receiving end of demeaning interactions. David Harewood spoke of the increased adrenalin flow he felt in his youth in being abused in the street, without being able to respond; or the simple reluctance of his father to discuss the pains and humiliations he felt.
So, What’s Going On?
The programme concluded with David Harewood interviewing the Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch. She argued that the disproportionate number of deaths was because of PoC over-representation in the three especially vulnerable groups listed above rather than explicitly because of racism. She made the point that the considerable number of recent immigrants inevitably weighted the PoC cohort to being particularly disadvantaged – a distorting factor which had not been screened out of the percentage comparisons.
However she resisted acknowledging the existence of ‘systemic racism’. Part of the problem here is the phrase itself, which is often thrown around with little attempt at precise definition. Harewood seemed to assume that it was indicated by the very existence of disparities themselves, but disparities can arise for all sorts of reasons. Recency of arrival, mentioned above, is one factor; but so are behavioural patterns. People can choose to eat in ways that reduce obesity and enhance life expectancy, whatever their level of poverty. At times the looseness of the ‘systems’ argument led to an overly determined and rigid statements: are PoC ‘kept’ at the lowest end’? do they face barriers or just hindrances to social mobility?
Nor was there any mention of one extremely serious systemic failure of the Covid narrative: the sheer ageism of elderly hospital patients being sent back into care homes with full awareness that they could be carrying the lethal virus back to other vulnerable residents.
So in what way do ‘systems’ (given the need to specify what systems we retaking about) operate to disadvantage PoC? Of the forms of racism mentioned above, that of employment procedures is susceptable to government activity; the others are more relational and can only be affected by sustained pressure on the white population to change hearts, minds and attitudes. The reference to the BLM movement saying it is ‘not willing to put up with’ the present situation can, on the one hand, seem rather toothless and ineffective; on the other hand it seems to have struck many white consciences, which is precisely what is needed. The emphasis in Critical Race Theory that it is systems rather than people who are the villains can divert attention from the reality that very often it is simply white people who need to change their attitudes and behaviour.
However, the broader issues of government policy, such as the increasing pressure on school budgets, or reduction of support to hard-pressed local authorities, are systemic injustices to all deprived people which the government needs to be challenged on.
Why, then, is Covid killing people of colour? Only with the very minor factor of Vitamin D absorption is the situation beyond human control. Otherwise the situation is caused by human actors. Partly it requires people to act carefully for the good of their own health; but substantially it requires both government policies and the general white population to be aware of the damage done by wrong judgements and attitudes.
A programme that deserves thoughtful and penitent attention.
*******************************
Add-Ons
I have used ‘People of colour’in the above article rather than ‘ethnic minorities’ because it was the term used in the programme. But with some reluctance, for the following reason:
PoC bulks up all minorities into one group so that ‘colour’ or ‘Race’ (rather like the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race) is always and forever between only two groups: people of colour and (presumably) whites. In effect PoCs are the oppressed group, always oppressed by the white power holders. In so doing it forms (as does BAME) a substantial, united cohort to resist white supremacy. It steam-rollers over the dynamic complexity of inter-ethnic relationships.
Thus it ignores substantial differences of outcome and progress between ethnic groups – last week’s blog on BLM noted substantial differences between Caribbean background and African background people. Differences between ‘black’ and South Asian populations, and then further with Chinese, are great enough to make the term PoC stagger and possibly collapse under its amorphous spread; unless you think white-against-others racism is the beginning and end of the story. The term is African American in origin. Co-opting it for use in this country for all non-white groups could be a form of black linguistic imperialism.
A further drawback is that it reproduces the problem of the older (and now looked down upon) term ‘coloured’ – that whites are by implication ‘normal’, and in several senses, ‘colourless’. Since white people are very important players in the modern world so their particularity also needs in-depth understanding, not blanc-ness.
Re-imagining Race is an online event on Thursday 25th March at 7pm, led by Chine McDonald (her book is coming out in May). Through an interactive fusion of the arts, liturgy, a prophetic address, dialogue, and personal challenge, this night is an exploration of ‘Reimagining Race?’ along biblical lines. Details and Booking on LICC web-site.