Healthy Indoors | 49
The confusion, lack of information, and unstable leader-
ship amid a national health crisis have been mind-blowing.
Communities of color, particularly in urban and impover-
ished places, are faced with addressing the Coronavirus in
addition to the already staggering issues of environmental
injustice, economic disparities, and health problems that
have burdened us for generations.
We're supposed to shelter in place, but the places we
live are overwhelmed with air pollution, making our lands
and water toxic. We're supposed to keep our kids home
and provide education but we are the essential workers that
must report to duty, and live with failing infrastructure that
can't sustain broadband. We're supposed to wear gloves
and masks, but we suffer from racial profiling—even during
a global pandemic—and are asked to leave the premises
when doing the very things that are proposed to save lives.
Has COVID-19 made the entire world forget about Tray-
von Martin and the stigma of racial profiling? As one mother
said to me bluntly, "You want me to ask my Black son to
don a mask and walk into the bank? No, ma'am, we'll just
take our chances with Corona, we might survive that." Her
words couldn't have a truer ring as we've all been horrified
by the recent and all-too-familiar story of Ahmad Aubrey,
the young Black man who was fatally shot while jogging
in a Brunswick, Georgia community by two white men. My
own stepson is a Black man who now lives in the Brunswick
community. We spent many mornings running through our
local neighborhoods in Mississippi. I can't begin to think of
what may happen if he went for a jog—wearing a mask …
READ THE FULL DAME ARTICLE HERE
TELL CONGRESS:
HOLD THE EPA
ACCOUNTABLE TO
PROTECTING FAMILIES
