Why Is Everyone Silent About Our Malignant Neglect in the Face of COVID-19?

Download PDF format of this press release here.

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(WASHINGTON, DC) African Americans who are already marginalized will not see relief from THE CARES ACT. THE CARES ACT is a deceptive title and a misnomer. Those who were not cared for prior to COVID-19, will largely see no relief from THE CARES ACT. It should be titled THE BUSINESS AS USUAL ACT or THE WE DIDN’T CARE BEFORE AND WE STILL DON’T CARE ACT. The stimulus bill as drafted will explode the racial wealth gap. As a group – American Descendants of Slavery have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions and disabilities. We are gravely concerned about the lack of advocacy for the least of us. Those who have long been neglected will find no shelter in THE CARES ACT. The bill is like FDR’s New Deal, where African Americans were excluded from many of the benefits. THE CARES ACT is a continuation of America’s malignant neglect towards African Americans.

Attorney Antonio Moore discusses the details of the 2 Trillion Dollar stimulus package and how it left out Black America.

Moore looks at articles discussing the SBA loan program’s impact on Black businesses, and the $1,200 individual check payments.

He also delves into how the stimulus makes reparations for American slavery that were made to sound unreasonable as cash payments seem much more realistic.

https://eurweb.com/2020/03/28/trillions-in-stimulus-reparations-forgotten-what-is-in-it-for-black-folk-watch/

“After 20-plus years of working at the highest levels on responses to both natural and man-made disasters, I know firsthand what can happen to vulnerable communities when their lives and unique challenges are ignored while governments struggle to react. We must prioritize underserved communities by being willing to place the resources and expertise in the areas that are most at need.”

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-03-17/ring-the-alarm-for-communities-vulnerable-to-coronavirus

How Racial Health Disparities Will Play Out in the Pandemic

Dr. Uché Blackstock explains how the coronavirus will affect Black patients, and why that terrifies her.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/how-racial-health-disparities-will-play-out-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Who will help with dealing with the final remains of a family who has lost multiple family members and their job? Will the shutdown impact individuals who need to report to their probation officer? Once the moratorium for disconnecting utilities ends, will bills become due immediately? For those who did not have utilities prior to the pandemic crisis, are they still without utilities? How do they wash their hands and take other protective measures?

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-lead-testing/

Further, if you are uninsured, are you more likely to not receive the test and/or be told to return home without treatment? Who is getting tested? Who is turned away? Are African American healthcare workers disproportionately positioned to assume more risk of infection during this crisis?

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/03/30/elizabeth-warren-ayanna-pressley-are-racial-data-coronavirus-tests

Groups of Individuals Who Will Struggle to Obtain Payments OR Are Ineligible

People behind on their child support payments

The incarcerated

Anyone who did not file taxes in 2018 or 2019 You many make less than the minimum income to file How will they find the forms to file? You may receive a Social Security check and did not file You will receive a check eventually, but it may come in the mail months later

The Unbanked as no checks will be sent

The Homeless population

Families in homeless shelters

College students who are dependents or anyone who is dependent including disabled adults

Individuals recently released from prison

While the CARES ACT will increase the payout to individuals by $600, the monies will be sent to the state to dispense. In GA, can we trust Governor Kemp and his administration to add additional funds to unemployment checks or to send checks out in a timely manner?

In Milwaukee, most deaths and new cases are Black men. Why is the CDC and other governmental agencies refusing to reveal the numbers of cases, deaths, testing, ill people refused treatment by race and ethnicity? “Democratic lawmakers are calling out an apparent lack of racial data that they say is needed to monitor and address disparities in the national response to the coronavirus outbreak.”

Homelessness

More than 50% of homeless families are black, government report finds

African Americans, despite making up just 13% of the U.S. population, account for a staggeringly disproportionate chunk of the nation’s homeless population, according to a government report.

Once again, those on the margins are being swept under the rug. Since African Americans are disproportionately housing insecure, how do we protect this population from contracting COVID-19? How will they survive without receiving aid from the CARES ACT? Many of the homeless are our Veterans, young children and adults with mental health disease. No provisions have been made for this population. See tables below:

https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ga/

The undersigned are demanding action on the questions above, demand reparations and an additional stimulus bill that truly seeks to make sure those who were hardest hit before the COVID19 crisis will not continue to erode in this country. Our demand for reparations is even more urgent because of the worldwide pandemic. After 150 years of malignant neglect, the time to pay the debt owed to the descendants of the builders of this country, the enslaved, is long overdue.

Signed,

ADOS Alabama

ADOS Atlanta

ADOS Orlando

ADOS Pittsburgh

The Black American D.O.S. Caucus