The Friday Reflection

July 17, 2020

Dean Ryan Newman

These days, Bishop Rice often says that we find ourselves living amid two pandemics-both COVID-19 and racial injustice. The ills of these two, combined pandemics have heaped tremendous suffering and disparity upon our sisters and brothers in minority communities. Sadly, as these pandemics collide, our minority sisters and brothers, especially in the African American, Native American, and LatinX communities, are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The numbers are shocking and alarming!

Current research shows that minority communities in America continue to have significantly less access to healthcare. Their inability to obtain proper healthcare access is a significant reason for the disproportionate numbers of COVID-19 cases and death in minority communities. Also, for so many of our minority sisters and brother, their living and working conditions, due to long-standing, systematic racism, injustice, and disenfranchisement, predispose minorities to worst COVID-19 outcomes.

As of today, the demographic data collected by the COVID Racial Tracker by the Atlantic Monthly group shows that black people are dying at 2.5 times the rate of white people. Nearly 28,000 black lives have been lost to COVID-19-23% of all COVID-19 deaths where race is known.[i]

   

In California, Hispanic/LatinX account for 55% of all COVID-19 cases and 44% of all deaths in the state. In Wyoming, Native Americans make up only 2% of the state’s population, yet 45% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths are Native American. Maine has the nation’s worst COVID racial disparity in the country-blacks are contracting COVID-19 at a rate more than 20 times that of white residents.[ii]

As a Christian and a member of the human family, it is hard not to be angry and appalled by the disturbing disparity. Woefully, throughout our nation’s history, being a minority community member has always put one at a greater risk of severe injury and death. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is another illustration that our sisters and brothers in minority communities are the most vulnerable and most in need of our love, support, and advocacy. Serving Christ in all persons, striving for justice and peace, and respecting the dignity of every human being means we cannot sit on the sidelines and watch our minority sisters and brothers suffer and die at the hands of an aggressive pandemic. We cannot allow others to be harmed or killed by another human’s action (or inaction).

One of the many prevailing themes from our conversations this month as a Diocese with Constance and Dain Perry is the need for white people to listen first before talking about race and racial reconciliation. As one of our clergy colleagues said, “Shut up! God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason!” We need to stop and listen carefully to our sisters and brothers who are suffering overwhelmingly during both these pandemics. We need to hear their voice. We need to listen to their cries. We need to acknowledge our role in their suffering. We need to come to understand what it means “to be white!” This is not just important work-this is Baptismal work…this is also a Gospel mandate.

More than ever, we need to use our ears-and all our senses God has blessed us with. We will have plenty of time to speak in the future. If we listen carefully now, the story we will tell and what we will advocate for in the future, likely will be somewhat, if not radically, different than the one today. As Christians, and as leaders, we need to discover and rediscover the art of audiology if we are going to live into God’s theology!

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