Long-established elements of structural racism, from substandard housing to mass incarceration to limited job opportunities, are responsible for the disproportionate toll COVID-19 is taking on African Americans in Chicago and elsewhere, a new paper from the Chicago Urban League argues.The paper, released Tuesday, notes that black residents account for 30% of Chicago’s population but 54% of the city’s coronavirus deaths.

The report says African Americans are more likely than other races to be infected by the virus because of larger structural forces, starting with job opportunities.

Black people represent an outsize portion of employees who work in jobs that heighten their risk of exposure, from bus drivers to nursing aides to mail sorters, and are less likely to be able to work from home.Black people are also more likely to live in overcrowded conditions, in households with older family members who are more vulnerable to the virus, or in homeless shelters, nursing homes or jails, the report says.

Once infected, the paper says, African Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19 than people of other races because of other factors grounded in discrimination, from a lack of access to health care to segregated neighborhoods where airborne pollutants and lead levels are especially high.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has responded to the disparity by creating response teams for hard-hit areas of the city and opening new testing sites in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods.

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