Why are Black Americans more likely to die from COVID-19?

“When you live in a society that is not colorblind, you can’t have colorblind policies. Instead what we need are health equity policies.” In this episode of The Current, Brookings Rubenstein Fellow Rashawn Ray attributes the huge racial gap in coronavirus death rates to both the over-representation of Black workers in essential jobs, like transit, grocery, cleaning, health care, and the structural inequities that have long affected Black neighborhoods.  He argues that in response, local and federal leaders need policies that will empower the disenfranchised people and places being hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related material: 

• Why are Blacks dying at higher rates from COVID-19?
• How to reduce the racial gap in COVID-19 deaths
• Black Americans were forced into ‘social distancing’ long before the coronavirus

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Thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo, Chris McKenna, Fred Dews, and Camilo Ramirez for their support.

The Current is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.