By Dr. Stephanie Schmitz Bechteler and Kathie Kane-Willis, Chicago Urban League Research and Policy Center
Longstanding structural racism and inequity contribute to a range of risk factors that make Black Americans more likely to contract and die from COVID-19, according to a new report from the Chicago Urban League’s Research & Policy Center.
The report, titled An Epidemic of Inequities: Structural Racism and COVID-19 in the Black Community, notes that while Black people account for just 13 percent of the national population, they make up about 30 percent of confirmed cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“Not long after the nation began to report rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, it became apparent that Black communities were among the hardest hit by the virus,” said Chicago Urban League President and CEO Karen Freeman-Wilson.
“The deaths from COVID-19 and the causes that underlie them are decades in the making,” said Kathie Kane-Willis, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Chicago Urban League and one of the report co-authors.
Stephanie Schmitz-Bechteler, PhD, Executive Director of the Research and Policy Center and co-author of the report, believes that the recovery process will last much longer for Black communities.
