by James A. Bacon
Now that Governor Ralph Northam has declared his intention to take down the Lee Statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue in the cause of racial equity and justice, perhaps he could take another step — one that would actually affect the lives of African-Americans in a tangible way. He could accelerate the rollback of job-killing COVID-19 emergency measures that have disproportionately impacted Virginia blacks.
In the logic of the progressive movement, which Northam has adopted in atonement of his blackface escapade decades ago, disparities in outcomes constitute proof of racism. If a disparity exists, that’s racist, end of story. No need to probe any deeper. Perhaps it is time that we apply that logic to the Governor’s COVID-19 policies.
In February, just before the COVID-19 epidemic hit, unemployment in the Old Dominion stood at 2.6%, effectively full employment. Nationally, black unemployment was a near-record low of 6.6% in the 1st Quarter of 2020 compared to 3.6% for whites. Those rates typically run one percentage point lower in the Old Dominion.
Google “black unemployment rates” and you will find dozens of stories making the point that the COVID-19 epidemic has hit blacks harder than other racial/ethnic groups. Nationally, unemployment for blacks hit 16.8% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while it reached only 12.4% for whites. The gap in white/black unemployment increased from 3.0% before the epidemic to 4.4% during the epidemic. Due to reporting delays, we don’t have the same numbers broken down by state, but there is no reason to think that Virginia is much different.
Let’s be clear about one thing. The COVID-19 virus did not wreck the economy and put black people out of work. The policy response to the virus wrecked the economy and put black people out of work. Here in Virginia, the emergency executive orders issued by Governor Ralph S. Northam devastated the occupational sectors — healthcare, hospitality, restaurants, and retail — where African-Americans are more likely to be employed.
Nationally, African-Americans comprised 12.3% of the workforce in 2019, according to the BLS. They comprised 17.7% of all workers in the healthcare sector, 13.1% in the leisure and hospitality sector (which includes hotels, recreation and restaurants), and an astounding 29% in “barber shops.” Again, there is no reason to believe that Virginia departs from the national average.
The most indefensible of Northam’s actions was the prolonged ban on elective medical procedures. As the number of procedures shrank, Virginia hospitals and surgery centers laid off literally tens of thousands of employees. While the ban might have been justifiable when there were widespread concerns that hospitals would be overrun by COVID-19 patients, it was clear long before Northam lifted the ban (just read back posts of Bacon’s Rebellion) that Virginia’s hospital industry was not facing Armageddon and that the ban served no useful purpose. While a final, definitive conclusion must await the reporting of detailed jobless numbers, we can preliminarily conclude, using the Left’s disparities-equal-racism logic, that Northam’s ban on elective procedures disproportionately punished black employees and was, therefore, racist.
A similar argument can be made that Northam’s shutdown of large gatherings (which impacted hotels, meeting venues, and recreational events) and his orders closing restaurants and personal care establishments were unnecessarily harsh, prolonged and racist.
Meanwhile, the Left has been lamenting the disproportionate impact of the virus on the health of African-Americans, who are more likely to experience co-existing conditions such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease which make the virus more deadly. (The poor health of many African-Americans, and poor Americans of all races/ethnicities, is a legitimate matter of concern, but not directly germane to this discussion.)
Here in Virginia, blacks are more likely to have died from the disease than whites and other races. However, we know that the elderly (of whatever race) are even more likely to die from the virus. We also know that the elderly in nursing homes are especially vulnerable. Indeed, by the latest count 56.5% of all COVID-19 deaths in Virginia originated in long-term care settings.
We don’t know — because the Virginia Department of Health doesn’t report the numbers — the racial/ethnic breakdown of nursing home deaths. But there are ample grounds to believe that nursing home deaths consist disproportionately of black residents. For example, te vast majority of the nearly 50 deaths at the infamous Canterbury Rehabilitation long-term care facility in Henrico County were African-Americans.
Poor African-Americans rely upon Medicaid to provide for their long-term care. Medicaid is administered by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the facilities are inspected by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). If the resources and standards of care are deficient, the state is culpable to some degree. Northam did appoint a nursing-home task force in April, but it has been notably ineffective. Virginia has one of the highest percentages of nursing home deaths of any state in the country. There has been little indication in his public statements that, after unloading the job to the task force, Northam has paid much attention to the problem.
Applying Northam’s logic to Northam, his COVID-19 policies have disproportionately put African-Americans out of work and, arguably, allowed African-Americans to die disproportionately in state-regulated nursing homes. By the standards of the Left, that’s racist. But no one, absolutely no one, has publicly made this case. You can draw your own conclusions as to why.
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