Who could have ever predicted that the restrictive social distancing mandates would become a race issue?
Actually, I did, and so could anyone else who lives in a major metropolitan area.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that there is a growing “frustration and anger … over how social distancing orders are being enforced.”
That article centered pretty much exclusively on how things are going in New York City, though it was placed in the paper’s “national” section. (Hey people in Wyoming, weren’t you greatly concerned about how policing was going in a city 2,000 miles away?)
Nevertheless, the “frustration and anger” over enforcing the very thing we’re told is supposed to be saving untold lives is just one more way our sick culture is going to keep us indefinitely mired in this crisis, which is now attacking a limited number of people on a health front but everyone on the economic one.
Here’s how the Washington Post framed the latest race grievance: “Reporters and police watchdogs called out what appeared to be the [New York Police Department’s] uneven enforcement over the past weekend, during which they say officers handed out masks in parks largely packed with white residents but aggressively enforced social distancing orders in minority communities.”
The reality is that cops were given the task of enforcing restrictions on previously routine human activity when political leaders began to impose unsustainable lockdown orders on the population. A problem they’re facing is that minority groups are being disproportionately ravaged by the coronavirus. One-quarter of New York City’s population is black, yet the group accounts for the largest share of hospitalizations and deaths from confirmed COVID-19 cases. For every 100,000 people in the city, black people made up 92 deaths. For white people, representing 43% of the population, the death rate is nearly cut in half to 45.
Washington, D.C., is divided into eight wards, and Ward 8, which is 90% black, has the highest death rate, at six for every 10,000 people.
The Washington Post itself previously reported on the problems lawmakers in areas with high black population density are having with getting everyone to comply with health advisement:
“‘First, it was something from China, something overseas, something black people don’t get, something young people don’t get,’ [Ward 8 Councilman Trayon] White said, listing the excuses he has heard for ignoring the virus’s danger. When he urges people to disperse, he said, ‘They go off and they come right back.’
“Similar frustration exists in cities such as Atlanta, where the mayor enlisted hip-hop artists to help spread the word about the virus’s dangers. Health officials in Baltimore are designing an ad campaign to debunk Internet chatter that the virus is not affecting the black community.”
So, on the one hand, we’re told that heavily minority communities need more oversight. On the other, “Hey, why should they be treated any different?!”
A policy in which more public health resources were directed toward communities in need, and more aggressive efforts were made to slow the spread in those neighborhoods, might be one way that the lockdown could be eased on the majority of us. Instead, the latest controversy is yet another excuse to avoid reopening the country.
How many excuses do we need to keep the country on lockdown, incapable of moving forward after three months of hysteria?
Can we go back to business? No, not enough tests.
Can we go back to school? No, there’s no system for contact tracing of positive cases.
Can we go to a bar or restaurant? No, we’ve done more testing, and we’re seeing more cases.
Can we try, at least a little, since we’ve identified the demographics most at risk? No, that would mean “frustration and anger over how social distancing orders are being enforced.”
The favored word for all the people who are advocating for this indefinite shutdown is “no.” And now they want to bring race into it.
