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Exposing the Fault Lines in Our Racial Policies
For centuries, policies in the United States have perpetuated
segregated cities, housing with unsafe and overcrowded
conditions, inadequate public transportation, food deserts,
and
unhealthy air quality.
Through policy and practice, we have excluded many from
economic security without stable jobs that pay a living wage
with benefits, including health care and paid leave.
It is no secret that these
policies and practices have negatively impacted communities
of color, contributing to disparities in access to health
care and disproportionate rates of asthma, diabetes,
hypertension, obesity, and kidney disease. It should be no
surprise that data now starkly show that communities of
color—particularly black, Latinx, and Native communities—are
tragically and disproportionately dying from the COVID-19
virus.
Early data from across the country show
disproportionate rates of deaths due to COVID-19
for blacks in Washington,
D.C.; Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; Cook County, Illinois;
Louisiana; the Detroit metropolitan region; for American
Indians of the Navajo Nation; and for the Latinx community
in New York City.
As we come together as a
nation to attack this pandemic, the question we must ask
ourselves is whether we have the will to acknowledge and
accept this discriminatory reality, aggressively address the
problems that have been exposed, and to redesign policies
and practices so that they undo entrenched racism and justly
help everyone. If we do not, the racial and ethnic gap in
outcomes for too many children, families, and communities,
now and in the future, will continue to widen.
For many families, the
short-term adjustments and solutions to maintaining
employment and their children’s educational progress during
the pandemic are not possible. Children can’t fully
participate in all of the options for computer-based
learning and enrichment if they don’t have access to
computers or internet; parents with children in foster care
can’t effectively visit with their children through digital
meetings like Zoom or Skype or on their smartphones if they
can’t access these options, don’t have sufficient internet
access, or can’t afford a data plan or smartphone.
Parents don’t have the luxury to practice social distancing
if they must rely on public
transportation to report to jobs that are considered
essential. Neither can families doubled up in inadequate
housing or living in shelters find ways to distance
themselves from others. And
families without health
insurance and a reliable medical home cannot effectively
treat the underlying health conditions that are putting them
at such risk.
This pandemic has exposed
the structural and systemic racism in this country and
presents an imperative for tackling the root causes of the
disparate outcomes in communities of color. We need
different strategies: both immediate approaches target ed to
quickly protect the populations most at risk and
longer-term, systemic reforms and policies that account for
disparities in access and
outcomes for communities of color with a focus on
reversing them.
Public systems and their
community partners are currently adapting to help families
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the solutions they are
creating may have applicability beyond the current
crisis—quickly setting up COVID-19 help lines in multiple
languages; working with landlords to suspend evictions for
unpaid rent; providing free meals to students with school
buses delivering meals to specific housing complexes;
conducting specific outreach to immigrant and refugee
communities through trusted liaisons; and allowing for
easier applications to important programs like Unemployment
Insurance.
Some public systems are rapidly experimenting with
ways for families to access
needed mental health services through telehealth, attend
virtual court hearings, have frequent video visits when
children are placed in foster care, and return children home
from congregate care settings earlier and with adequate
community supports.
These approaches are
responding to communities in ways that increase
accessibility and attempt to reduce barriers, and are
critical for communities of colors during this crisis. And
if successful, they may provide ideas for longer-term
systemic solutions during and after our recovery.
Now is not the time to put
racial equity and justice on the back burner. Rather, as
policies are implemented to combat the societal effects of
the virus, we must develop solutions that account for and
remedy structural racism and are targeted to the people and
communities in greatest need.
We
need longer-term relief and
rebuilding strategies including, among other things,
policies that permanently provide paid leave benefits when
people get sick or need to care for their children or loved
ones; health care reforms that expand eligibility and
access; a child allowance that supports all families’
economic stability and gives every child a fair shot at
success; expanded financial
support and access to high-quality early care and education
for all young children so they are prepared for and can
succeed in school; policies that eliminate the inequities
caused by the digital divide; and effective pathways to
economic success for marginalized young adults and young
families.
Policies like these better support families during national crises
by ensuring all have the financial support they need in the
event of health emergencies and economic downturns, but
also create avenues for
families who have been historically excluded to care for
their children, meet health care needs, and provide
financial stability in better times. While these policies
benefit everyone, they can and should be designed to
structurally shift how we serve families in good times and
bad—supporting the people who need help the most and
addressing racist barriers that continue to restrict success
for all Americans.
COVID-19 has laid bare the
structural inequities impacting the health and well-being of
too many our nation’s families and children. The pandemic
also provides a chance to use the recovery to move beyond
problems to solutions so that we build a racially, socially,
and economically just society where all children, youth, and
families can thrive.
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The Center for the Study of
Social Policy (CSSP) works to achieve a racially,
economically, and socially just society in which all
children, youth, and families thrive. We translate ideas
into action, promote public policies grounded in equity, and
support strong and inclusive communities.
We advocate with and for all children, youth, and families
marginalized by public policies and institutional practices.
Learn more at www.CSSP.org
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