Black Bodies And Original Sin

2020 has been a year-and-a-half, even though it is barely six months old. Does anyone remember that early January morning when it burst upon us with all the hype and noise about clear vision, and all that?  Some even suppressed, albeit momentarily, the persistent, deep ache induced by the virus-like sickness that had afflicted us for more than four centuries.

    But the year was not even a week old when reports of a new type of viral illness began to emerge from China. And, in no time at all, the new sickness, which was to be named COVID-19, corona virus disease 2019, had spread, and was continuing to do so, so rapidly, that the World Health Organization was forced to call the outbreak a  pandemic. Shortly following that declaration, many world leaders began the task of controlling the epidemic by curtailing economic and social activities within their territories and, subsequently, closing their borders to all but essential traffic.

         Sixteen weeks on, pandemic is front-and-centre in everyone’s mind, recognized around the world as the plague that is unravelling our modern way of life. As I write, nearly12 million  , distributed over 213 countries, have been infected by COVID-19, and more than half a million have died, economies have tumbled, and social orders rattled. We have had to re-define important aspects of our lives, and unexpected revelations about who or what is important have emerged. The term ‘essential’, as in essential worker, for example, has been clarified in sobering ways.  Essential workers, we now learn, are the workers required to be physically present, on location where, if they are not, the wheels that keep our societies turning grind to a halt. And, unsurprisingly, it is at these interfaces that the risk of catching COVID-19 is highest: We now realize that the essential worker is not just among obvious groups like doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers, EMTs or firefighters, policemen, and security guards, garbage collectors, but also includes people who keep our food and other supply lines intact (obvious as that should have been), workers who keep our transport networks rolling; supermarket checkouts, janitors, cleaners and, notably, the hitherto much under-valued personal service worker or PSW who, to our shame, we had accorded little respect. (We, unknowingly, shot ourselves in the foot here, as the number of vulnerable lives lost among care home residents reveals. That is a story that needs its own telling). These workers are the lifeblood of the economy not only in normal times, but as we now see, in times of trouble as well.

         What about those who are not among the category of the essential? The majority, unfortunately, have been laid off or sent on furlough. However, we are told that as many as 40% of the modern economy’s workforce have continued drawing their pay without leaving the house. These work from home (WFH) folks carry on their business, and/or that of their employer, striking keyboards and clicking mice, experiencing little inconvenience apart from having to change from their pyjamas into their day clothes, if that at all. But, however convenient their situation, their exertions have apparently not been enough to prevent the economy diving. Governments did what they had to do and provided emergency cash for the laid-off or furloughed. So, economic disaster has been staved off.

         Of course, viral pandemics come and go. They appear, suddenly, or, creep up upon us and cut their way through countries and regions, killing hundreds of thousands, or millions, until, eventually, they run out of potential victims, and allow survivors to breathe again. This is what pandemics do and have done for hundreds and perhaps, thousands of years. So, COVID-19 will go away too, sooner or, as some fear, later.

         But, this time, there has been a confluence that has resulted in totally predictable consequences. COVID-19 targets, with unerring focus, the group that have been, and continue to be, the victims of that other virus-like disorder, the one that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, and which has been a stain on humanity for centuries; it is the only virus that has remained resolutely out of control and resistant to all forms of therapy, presumably because it is an affliction of mind rather than one of body. And so, the moment arrives, when COVID-19 meets racism, on the bodies of Black people. The results have been devastating but unsurprising. All the factors contributing to this shameful outcome stem directly from anti-Black racism: having to work in essential fields, inconsistent access to health care, chronic health conditions, the societal stress of being Black and its adverse effects on the immune system are laid bare in this analysis and is the result of what is often called America’s original sin. That sin was in public display when the life was squeezed out of Black George Floyd by a White policeman. America must exorcise this sin, or its presumed leadership of the world would slip into the hands of others. That, perhaps, might not be such a bad idea.

Tell Fren Tru