, I’ve heard it said, when America gets a cold, Black people get pneumonia. So I wasn’t surprised to hear that coronavirus is hitting Black folks around the country the worst.¹ This pandemic is magnifying the environmental injustice we’ve spent decades fighting. It’s making environmental inequity bigger and more dangerous -- and also making it more visible. It’s hitting the bus drivers, cashiers, and janitors worse than people who work from home. More people are dying in Dorchester than in the South End.² It’s hitting folks with asthma and diabetes worse than those who live in neighborhoods with clean air.³ It’s going to devastate people in jail and prison. In Dudley Square, this is a familiar story: folks on the front lines of the environmental crisis get hit first and worst. We haven't had the same access to homeownership opportunities. We haven't had the same access to quality education. Over decades, this increases our risk. If your lungs are damaged by decades of bus and truck pollution, if you haven’t had access to healthy food, if your job didn’t offer affordable insurance, if you were the first to get laid off -- all of this makes you more vulnerable to the virus. The coronavirus is making it harder for anyone to ignore the racial and environmental injustice that is usually “behind the scenes.” My hope is that as we make our way through this pandemic, more folks open their eyes to the environmental injustice in Boston and around the country. And also open their eyes to how we can fight it. Let’s keep educating ourselves, building power with one another, and maybe we can come out of this stronger. |
