Kamala Harris: Black Americans have been 'disproportionately harmed' by Trump
Source: The Hill
Vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) implored fellow African Americans to "do the right thing" and vote for her and presidential nominee Joe Biden this November, saying President Trump has done more to hurt Blacks than any other group of citizens in the country.
"The Black community understands just how critical this election is — because we are living the consequences of the last election every day. When it comes to nearly every issue that affects our lives, we have been disproportionately harmed by President Donald Trump and the failures of his administration," Harris wrote in an op-ed published Friday in the Philadelphia Tribune, one of the oldest continuously published Black newspapers in the country. "Make no mistake — our plans are achievable. But first, we need to vote. And we need to vote early."
Harris cited statistics proving minorities have been more harshly effected by the coronavirus, contracting the disease at a higher rate and dying more than other ethnic groups. Other studies have shown that Black-owned businesses and African American households have been more adversely effected by lockdown measures than any other group.
"And as Joe always reminds us, returning to the status quo isn’t good enough — we need to build back better," she wrote. "A Biden-Harris administration will create more jobs by investing in the industries that make our economy strong, including infrastructure, clean energy, manufacturing and care work — and we will embed racial justice into the core of our agenda."
Read more: https://thehill.com/campaign-issues/517136-kamala-harris-black-americans-have-been-disproportionately-harmed-by-trump
Of course, even in States that have been hard hit by COVID-19, Republicans have minimized the impact by saying it is mainly hitting African American and Latino communities.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/06/19/ron-desantis-blames-florida-farmworkers-for-covid-aid-groups-say-testing-help-came-late/
Public health experts and aid groups are challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ assertion this week that migrant farmworkers are driving Florida’s record surge in COVID-19 cases — noting that state help with testing, face masks and educational outreach has been late to reach agricultural communities.
After DeSantis said last week that “the No. 1 outbreak we’ve seen is in agricultural communities” and followed up this week with statements that “overwhelmingly Hispanic” farmworkers and day laborers were the leading source of new cases, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried fired back, noting that the majority of farmworkers left several weeks ago after harvests ended and that cases are spiking in non-agricultural areas.
But many farmworkers live in Florida year round, and public health experts who work with those communities say the state has only recently begun to ramp up testing and public health education campaigns in agricultural communities, where cramped working and living conditions can fuel an outbreak of COVID-19.
The state health department did not provide data or maps to the Miami Herald to document the incidence of COVID-19 by ZIP code in South Florida’s agricultural communities.
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And Trump’s inability to get the virus under control has led to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression — a crisis that is disproportionately hurting Black families and businesses. According to one study, as of April, a staggering 40% of Black-owned businesses had shut down compared to just 17% of white-owned businesses. But few Black-owned businesses benefited from the $2 trillion rescue package Congress passed in April. Black people are also more likely to be “essential workers,” which puts them at greater risk of contracting the virus. They are also more likely to experience chronic health conditions like diabetes, which makes them more vulnerable to complications that could worsen cases of COVID-19.
And the long unspoken truth is, these inequities were baked into our system long before this virus exploited and exacerbated them. They are the result of decades of structural racism that has limited everything from job opportunities, to access to health care, to the ability to live in safe neighborhoods with good schools, affordable housing and decent grocery stores. These inequities have robbed Black families of the opportunity to build generational wealth, and made it harder for Black entrepreneurs to access the capital they need to turn a great idea into a successful business.
At every turn, Donald Trump has made things worse. He has ignored the needs of working families and small businesses, while giving a trillion-dollar tax break that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and big corporations. He has denied the existence of systemic racism and deliberately stoked fear to divide Americans. And nine months into this pandemic that he admitted to playing down, he still has no plan to get it under control — which means that Americans will continue to die.
Four years ago, Donald Trump demanded our vote asking “What do you have to lose?” It turns out, everything. Under four more years of a Trump administration, we stand to lose our health care. We stand to lose our homes. We stand to lose our businesses. It’s not just our livelihoods at stake in this election. Our very lives are, too.
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https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/national-black-voter-day-a-call-to-ensure-that-black-voters-are-heard/article_3f5b7a6b-5426-5308-a97f-1e7477cb3076.html
