Book contents
- Frontmatter
- COntents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The long road ahead
- one BLAME the BAME
- two COVID-1984: wake MBE up when Black Lives Matter
- three Black vaccination reticence: HBCUs, the Flexner Report and COVID-19
- four Pregnancy, pandemic and protest: critical reflections of a Black millennial mother
- five It’s alive! The resurrection of race science in the times of a public health crisis
- six It’s just not cricket: (green) parks and recreation in COVID times
- seven Muslim funerals during the pandemic: socially distanced death, burial and bereavement experienced by British-Bangladeshis in London and Edinburgh
- eight Racial justice and equalities law: progress, pandemic and potential
- nine Out of breath: intersections of inequality in a time of global pandemic
- ten An exploration of the label ‘BAME’ and other existing collective terminologies, and their effect on mental health and identity within a COVID-19 context
- eleven COVID-19 in the UK: a colour-blind response
- twelve Reviewing the impact of OFQUAL’s assessment ‘algorithm’ on racial inequalities
- thirteen The impact of COVID-19 on Somali students’ education in the UK: challenges and recommendations
- Conclusion: Long COVID, long racism
- Index
three - Black vaccination reticence: HBCUs, the Flexner Report and COVID-19
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- COntents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The long road ahead
- one BLAME the BAME
- two COVID-1984: wake MBE up when Black Lives Matter
- three Black vaccination reticence: HBCUs, the Flexner Report and COVID-19
- four Pregnancy, pandemic and protest: critical reflections of a Black millennial mother
- five It’s alive! The resurrection of race science in the times of a public health crisis
- six It’s just not cricket: (green) parks and recreation in COVID times
- seven Muslim funerals during the pandemic: socially distanced death, burial and bereavement experienced by British-Bangladeshis in London and Edinburgh
- eight Racial justice and equalities law: progress, pandemic and potential
- nine Out of breath: intersections of inequality in a time of global pandemic
- ten An exploration of the label ‘BAME’ and other existing collective terminologies, and their effect on mental health and identity within a COVID-19 context
- eleven COVID-19 in the UK: a colour-blind response
- twelve Reviewing the impact of OFQUAL’s assessment ‘algorithm’ on racial inequalities
- thirteen The impact of COVID-19 on Somali students’ education in the UK: challenges and recommendations
- Conclusion: Long COVID, long racism
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, Black and Brown people, who comprise the global majority, experienced health disparities in their communities. The saying ‘when white folks catch a cold, Black folks get pneumonia’ is an apt gibe about the healthcare system efficacy in the US. Black communities absorbed the greatest blows from the pandemic due to their existing health challenges, disproportionate representation in the essential industries, pandemic communication gaps, and socioeconomic disparities (Tai et al, 2021: 705– 706).
A Pew Research study found that, compared with Hispanic, white and Asian Americans, only 42 per cent of Blacks planned to get the COVID-19 vaccine (Funk and Tyson, 2020).Though reasons varied, Black people generally blamed the long history of medical malfeasance by government representatives, medical professionals and pharmaceutical executives for their mistrust in the COVID-19 vaccine; being more concerned about patterns of medical abuse and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation than actual viral infection.
Blacks, as well as other marginalised groups, are often positioned between the tension of actively building healthy lives and negotiating untrustworthy healthcare systems. We charge that their challenges are partially the result of an evaluation of medical schools by Abraham Flexner in 1910. Grounded in the ‘Black inferiority’ and ‘academic prestige hierarchy’ myths, Flexner's analysis of schools were warped by his ideologies on race and racism.
We chose the controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT) to revisit the Progressive Era context of the 1910 Flexner report; the racialised closure of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) medical schools; and the continuing impacts of the closures on Black medical professionalism and Black healthcare. As race was integral in shaping the policies Flexner and various prominent white men endorsed regarding Black higher education, it is fitting that CRT is used to highlight truths behind this so-called period of ‘progress’.
Using the Critical Race lens
Critical Race scholars observed patterns of political restraint and rights retraction after the Civil Rights Movement. They noticed the roles legal academics and practitioners played in the creation of statutes that reproduced political, economic and social oppression (Freeman, 1995).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- COVID-19 and RacismCounter-Stories of Colliding Pandemics, pp. 37 - 58Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023