Environmental Racism
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“We know that in certain neighborhoods there are high asthma rates because of environmental issues, like toxic dumping,” says Dr. Blackstock, “we know that also when there are rodents, like with rodent feces and roach feces, it actually increases the likelihood of developing asthma which is another reason why we have high rates.”
The Bronx is one of New York’s poorest communities, asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations in children.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), asthma morbidity rates are higher for children living in the Bronx compared to children living anywhere else in the US.
“1 in 4 of our children have asthma,” says Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite.
Mott Haven, a section of the South Bronx, is nicknamed "Asthma Alley" by residents because it has the worst levels of air pollution levels in the US.
The study conducted by NCBI found that “compared with other inner-city children with asthma, Bronx children are more likely to be exposed to household aeroallergens to which they are sensitized and have poor housing conditions.”
“When children have safe and clean housing that does not predisposes them to some of these chronic medical problems which then makes you more vulnerable to some of the more serious complications of Covid-19,” says Dr. Blackstock.
“What we are seeing play out now with COVID has been playing out in our community for over longer periods of time.” says Johnson. “We have high rates of infant mortality. We have a lot of people dying from asthma every year. I think COVID has just …. taken the covers off, because it’s happening so much quicker and more rapid, but it has been happening for decades.”
Conclusion:
Covid-19 is a virus that preys on weakness and vulnerabilities, which has made the Black and Brown communities throughout the nation susceptible prey.
The Bronx is the hardest-hit borough in NYC due to the pre-existing health disparities, housing, and environmental issues affecting the community.
“There was and still is a pandemic of poverty, and racism and discrimination before the coronavirus,” says NY Assemblyman Michael Blake “what we’re seeing in the Bronx is a continual reality around these challenges.”
(In a tweet, Blake expresses how the COVID-19 exposes prior health disparities and poverty within the Bronx, using the #Believeinthebronx)
Blake believes the only way to address these issues is to face “them head-on and directly.”
In an interview with the tent, Blake referred to the current state of the Bronx as “it’s not a time for them to save us, it’s time for us to save us.”
“You can’t keep looking and hoping for help to happen” Blake explained in an interview with me “there has to be the understanding that we have to organize ourselves on the ground and within our particular communities to provide the immediate help. That’s the reason we launched Bronx Community Relief effort to be a part of that support immediately.”
Bronx Community Relief Effort was started in the South Bronx in response to the coronavirus hitting NYC. Their goal is to raise $10 million to help support various organizations and on-the-ground efforts to provide the Bronx community with their "most essential needs."
Dr. Blackstock shares a similar view.
“This situation being incredibly, incredibly, incredibly dire,” says Dr. Blackstock “I do think that there definitely ...individual precautions that individuals can make. But I think that with the data that we are seeing coming out of the city’s large black and brown populations showing these racial disparities in being diagnosed with Covid-19 and who’s dying from it. I think it shows that this is not an individual led the effort, an individual can only do so much, this should be a public health lead effort by federal officials by the local state government to address these issues.”
(Dr. Blackstock uses new data found by APM Research Lab to further explain the way the spread of COVID-19 is affecting Black Americans)
Assemblyman Michael Blake says the Bronx’s recovery from this pandemic will “require a reimagination of the Bronx and of our communities. And we'll turn this moment of pain into a moment of promise.”
