Systemic racism and coronavirus are killing people of color. Protesting isn't enough
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUDDY ROYE
AS TOLD TO NINA STROCHLIC
The nightly seven o’clock clap for essential workers in New York City feels hypocritical to me. I understand it’s an offering of solidarity and empathy, but a gesture is not enough. In this city, about 75 percent of front-line workers—grocery clerks, bus and train operators, janitors, food delivery people, child care staff—are minorities. They still can’t get approved for a loan to buy property in the neighborhoods they serve or want to live in. They can’t find nutritious food on their blocks. They can’t access quality healthcare. The world they live in is unimaginable to many of those clapping from their homes every night.
The parts of New York hardest hit by the pandemic are overwhelmingly lower-income communities of color. Blacks and Latinos are dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of white people, according to early data. The front-line workers I’ve been photographing are the same people who face the systemic racism and violence that has fueled a week of protests across America.
I began documenting protests against racism and police brutality in 2012, when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin died after being shot by a community watchman in Florida. Every year, the narrative of rioting and looting drowns out the real issues. The conversation shifts before it can become productive.
This cycle makes me sick.
George Floyd’s death is no different from that of Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Ahmaud Arbery, or Mike Brown. And their deaths are no different from Emmett Till’s. The years change, but nothing else does. The conversations I hear at protests are full of anger and frustration, but they lack substance and history. I understand the rage and that it needs a release. The rage eventually dies. The fire is put out. What are we left with then?
We need to talk about the issues. Right now, we’re yelling about a man—a father, a breadwinner—killed on the street by the police. But there’s a bigger story we’re ignoring: food deserts, a lack of economic independence, racist policing. The systemic nature of racism must be confronted. Otherwise we’re playing a game of Jenga: pulling out pieces, putting them back, and hoping the tower doesn’t crumble. We need to rebuild from the ground up.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/06/racism-and-coronavirus-are-killing-people-of-color-protesting-is-not-enough/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=SpecialEdition_20200605&rid=FB26C926963C5C9490D08EC70E179424
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