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As states begin to roll out vaccinations across the country, a disturbing but unsurprising trend is beginning to reveal itself. An analysis from the AP looking at 17 states and 2 cities has shown that the percentage of those vaccinated who are Black is less than their...
...share of the general population and their share of those over the age of 75. On the other hand, the percentage of those vaccinated who are white is roughly equal, and in some cases greater, than their share of the population and those 75+.
Additionally, Black people make up a significant proportion of the health care workforce, well over their share in the general population. [1] These facts are coming after almost a year in which Black people, along with Latin American and Indigenous people,
were nearly 3 times more likely to die from COVID than their white counterparts. [2] Moreover, there have been cases of white people from other neighborhoods or outside the city going to vaccination sites meant to serve under-served minorities. [3]
Why does this happen? It must be understood that this is the consequence of centuries of racism and exploitation in this country, as well as its continuation today. Black people are rightfully wary of the vaccine due to the legacy of the US government...
...experimenting on Black bodies. Undocumented immigrants avoid the vaccine due to fears of deportation. The root cause is that the US settler-empire requires that it prioritizes settlers over the colonized. Regardless of how dysfunctional vaccine distribution is in this country,
settlers will be prioritized and over-vaccinated. If a tribal health provider is successful in vaccinating its own people, settlers, rather than condemning their own settler government for its ineptness, demand that tribal governments vaccinate them. [4]
As pandemics become more and more common in the up coming decades, it will be Black, Indigenous, and other colonized bodies that will face the brunt of the illnesses. As vaccines roll out, it will be settlers who are prioritized.
This will not end so long as the settler-empire known as the US continues to exist. The justice for colonized peoples in this country and abroad can only be reached once the US state is destroyed, and Black Indigenous decolonial socialism is build in its ashes.
If you wish to be involved in organizing for this socialist future, contact us at reclamation(dot)and(dot)survival(at)protonmail(dot)com
Sources:
[1] https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-health-coronavirus-pandemic-hispanics-d0746b028cf56231dbcdeda0fba24314
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/us/new-york-vaccine-disparities/index.html
[4] https://www.alaskapublic.org/2021/01/30/as-essential-workers-wait-certain-anchorage-residents-are-being-vaccinated-regardless-of-age-or-risk/
[1] https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-health-coronavirus-pandemic-hispanics-d0746b028cf56231dbcdeda0fba24314
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html
[3] https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/us/new-york-vaccine-disparities/index.html
[4] https://www.alaskapublic.org/2021/01/30/as-essential-workers-wait-certain-anchorage-residents-are-being-vaccinated-regardless-of-age-or-risk/
