The
universal mantra of this pandemic is that, “We Are All In This Together.” It’s
a nice slogan. But, no, we are not all in this together.
There are
two separate Americas enduring this crisis, and they are suffering completely
separate fates. More than 100,000 Americans have now died of Covid-19, and
around 60% of them are black or other people of color. In New Mexico, for
instance, Navajo Indians, who constitute 11% of the state’s population, account
for a majority of the state’s virus fatalities.
Likewise,
25% of Americans have lost their jobs and over 40 million Americans have
applied for unemployment. Again, black and brown Americans constitute a
disproportionate number of the unemployed. Professionals in higher paid
occupations, disproportionately white, continue working via computer from home.
Service workers, those who work at jobs where they must provide a physical
service, and who are disproportionately people of color, do not have the luxury
of continuing to work from their homes. They are the majority of those 40
million applying for unemployment benefits. They are the majority of those now
facing eviction because they cannot pay their rent or their mortgages. They are
the majority of those lining up for miles at food banks for the free food they
can no longer afford.
The
pandemic has ripped the veil from America’s vastly unequal economy. It has not
only revealed the vast rift between the rich and the comfortable and the poor
and near-poor who have always struggled from weekly paycheck to weekly
paycheck, it has widened that rift. An unequal America will be even more
unequal once this pandemic has passed into history. It will be more evident
than ever before that we live in two separate and unequal Americas: The
comfortable and mostly white America, and the other America, the struggling and
drowning America, mostly comprised of people of color.
So,
despite the Pollyanna tone of the pandemic’s universal mantra that, “We Are All
In This Together,” the reality is that, no, we are not all in this together.
