Black Body Bags

The Gantt Report

 By Lucius Gantt

      Someone please call 9-1-1!  African Americans are dying at an alarming rate because of a racist, discriminatory and inept federal response and unjust health care system that is obviously unprepared to handle the surge of COVID-19 patients.

Before proper testing is done and a subsequent vaccine is developed and utilized, every Black man and woman in the United States will have a family member, friend, neighbor, classmate, coworker or church congregation member that has fallen to the coronavirus!

It’s not a secret. Black citizens suffer from poor health care and people that have diabetes, asthma, hypertension, cancer, sickle cell anemia and other ailments that impact their immune systems are very vulnerable to COVID 19.

Everyday there are more and more Black Americans being placed in black body bags!

Many people of color don’t regularly watch CNN, MSNBC or other news networks or news shows. If important messages are not on Facebook, Instagram or some other social media site some of our people are clueless about the dangers of the current pandemic.

Data is available that shows high case counts among Black residents in emerging hotspots, including New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Miami, Atlanta and Albany, Georgia. There are also reports from cities, including St. Louis and Nashville, that predominantly Black neighborhoods have been slow to receive testing sites and equipment compared to white, affluent areas.

Families that have had relatives that have died from coronavirus have reported that loved ones who were recovering had been taken off respirators to make the breathing equipment available to non-Black patients.

Once care was limited or denied, they say, their family members expired.

It’s hard for a lot of us to isolate. If you don’t know, a disproportionate amount of Black men, women and children ride crowded buses, trains, subways and other forms of public transit where they could be infected.

Black people clean up hospitals, they collect garbage and they provide other essential services that may expose them to possible virus infections.

They also seek to attend events like funerals, house parties, neighborhood “pharmacies”, political rallies and other places where more than a few people congregate at a time.

We have to protect ourselves and take care of ourselves. Stop thinking that the politicians you love will enact legislation designed to assist you.

How many hospitals has the Army Corps of Engineers built in ghettos and barrios? Black doctors, nurses and other health care providers are risking their lives to treat, heal and save people of all races, creeds and colors, but we are told our pain will subside when we get to Heaven or Paradise.

Check out the COVIA 19 stimulus plan. The richest, wealthiest companies and individuals in America will get bailed out while the poorest, most needy Americans will get another economic beat down!

The elderly, the destitute, the unemployed, the disabled and the down and out Americans will be lucky to get one check for about $600 while people that earn $6000 a month pay checks are scheduled to receive stimulus checks, unemployment checks and other benefits on a recurring basis.

I know Black people are strong. We have survived colonialism, kidnappings, slavery, Jim Crow and other atrocities but don’t take COVIA 19 lightly.

Take care of yourselves and take care of your children, parents and grandparents.

Stay home. If you have to go out, protect yourself at all times by covering your face, washing your hands and distancing yourself from people that might be infected.

Help keep Black people out of black body bags!