People of color have been disproportionately hit by COVID-19 (1), a fact to be expected given the socio-economic determinants of morbidity and mortality (2), saying, to be expected, is the epidemiologist’s data-based conclusion that Black lives don’t matter in our society as much as white lives. But racism cannot be rooted out by mere recourse to science: for far too many of us, “socio-economic determinants” are still mistakenly perceived as the lazy and inferior character of certain people.

Blaming-the-victim mentality is prevalent everywhere in America. Congressional Republicans are ideologically opposed to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan for state and local governments and the unemployed on the grounds that it will discourage people from seeking work; read, people of “lazy and inferior character.” In 2017, the GOP passed a $1.5 trillion bill that slashed taxes for corporations and the extreme wealthy; read, industrious, superior people.

It is high time that poor, marginalized, and middle-class Americans refuse to see one another with prejudice, and make common cause to remove a political party that has played us for fools while laughing all the way to the bank.

(1) The Commonwealth Fund, Beyond the Case Count: Wide-Ranging Disparities, COVID-19 in U.S., Sept. 2020.

(2) The Lancet Commissions, Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era, Feb. 11, 2021, p. 712-713

John Olin

East Haddam