Racism pandemic – Hellas Pindakaas on koutipandoras.gr

There is a triple threat of racism lurking through America and, by extension, the whole world. You could also call it the perfect storm of racism, without being hyperbolic. On one hand, we have Donald Trump and the new authoritarianism model that he promotes, a model that many other leaders around the world embrace or would like to embrace.  We heard him say things like “there were very fine people on both sides” when he addressed the news about the fascist ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville last year. We “saw” him use tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters, so that he can have his photo op. We heard him talk about using tanks to quell the George Floyd protests. In Washington D.C. masked troops stood guard outside the Lincoln Memorial, a historic site for peaceful protest. It’s where the Women’s March started in 2018. It’s where Martin Luther King Junior delivered the “I have a dream” speech.

On the other hand, we have a pandemic that hits harder on the black communities. Half of all COVID-19 cases and nearly 60 percent of deaths due to the disease in the US occurred in counties that are disproportionately black. Only 22 percent of counties in the United States are disproportionately black, but the people within them have endured the majority of deaths in the country. We read in The Verge that “In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic, there are stark differences in the rates of hospitalizations and deaths by county, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Bronx has the highest proportion of racial and ethnic minorities and higher death and hospitalization rates than New York City’s other boroughs, which each have their own counties. Manhattan is predominately white, and it has the lowest rates for deaths and hospitalizations.” Other stats show us how this virus is not only racist but also sexist and class-conscious. In the European Union, and in the health care sector, in particular, studies show that, although both women and men working in this sector are exposed to the virus, women are potentially more at risk of infection because they make up the majority (76 %) of healthcare workers. These professions are some of the most undervalued, and underpaid jobs in the EU. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), there are also several other people working in essential jobs that require contact with others, such as supermarket cashiers, who face greater exposure during the Covid-19 pandemic. Women are especially affected as they make up 82 % of all cashiers in the EU.

The third leg of this triple threat that looms over America has to do with the systemic racism that every so often shows its ugly face and sends shock waves through every peace-loving and democratic society in the country and the world. This time around it manifested in the brutality with which a white police officer in Minneapolis killed the unarmed African American George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. People are protesting all across America, in all 50 states. Racial and ethnic minorities got to the streets to protest against a president that degrades and demeans them in every way he can, against a virus that kills them disproportionally more than it kills other groups, and against a system that victimizes them and condemns them to poverty and brutality.

The cherry on this racist cake comes with the depression that is expected to follow the pandemic. Analysts in the USA predict a 30% GDP contraction for the current quarter, and probably even more for the next one. Millions of people will be out work at the same time. People don’t have the kind of money they need to support themselves over such a long period of time and they are not getting it from the government either. And here is a blast from the past, that scares the hell of a lot of people, not just in the USA but across the world. If the Great Depression is what gave us the rise of fascism and a certain leader in Germany, what is the next great depression going to do to our political conscience? We were already moving in a populist and neo-authoritarian direction when the economy was doing relatively well. What happens when the real effects of this new crisis start to sink in on our economies and tens of millions of people go from unemployed to completely desperate, not just economically but also politically?

Democracy is already receding in so many parts of the civilized world, including within the European Union member states, such as Hungary. What will be the answer that capitalism gives to all these challenges and to the armies of jobless people that crises produce over the years?

Nikos Koulousios