COVID-19 and Code Switching
Date Posted: May 10, 2020
Posted In: COVID-19 Updates, Discussion, Ideas, News,
Editor’s Note: The author, Malaika Horne, is director of the Executive Leadership Consortium at UMSL. She holds a doctorate in public policy studies from Saint Louis University, and a post-doctorate in psychiatric epidemiology and bio-statistics from Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.
From the St. Louis American: There’s usually a bit of grimacing and wincing when the media puts out bad information about African Americans. This time it’s about the disproportionate number of blacks falling prey to COVID-19. In these moments, you kind of wish for a bit of code-switching.
All Americans are dying in record numbers. The virus is blind to color, class or any other differences with no borders. You could be a CEO of a multinational corporation or someone down on your luck; if you’re exposed, you’re at risk. The fact that blacks are more likely to be infected doesn’t mean others don’t get it.
Yet, inequality is a comorbidity – a serious medical and social condition compounding the problem. For example, it’s more difficult for blacks to social distance because a disproportionate number live, work or transit in more densely populated areas. Many are essential workers who don’t have the privilege to work from home. Nevertheless, the virus has brought into sharp relief widening inequality.
Malaika Horne, Phd
At one point, the conventional notion was that the drug epidemic was primarily a black problem and could be contained in urban areas. But unbeknownst to many, the drug scourge was wreaking havoc in the suburbs and rural areas. When is the last time you heard someone say that drug abuse is a black problem?
Communicating bad news about people of color is like walking a very tricky line between the facts and reinforcing negative stereotypes, the core of institutionalized racism. Panic triggered by fear can quickly erupt from the deep dark recesses of the mind, historically imbedded with myths and misinformation of African Americans as diseased and pathological. Nor are Africans spared with historical and current images and messages rife with death and violence. Recall Trump recently referring to African countries in a very contemptible and disrespectful way.