Sr. Chappell: Church Needs to Address Disparity in Ethnic Communities

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Catholic Charities Admin  |  Share

Boys ride their bikes past boarded-up and abandoned row of houses in Baltimore, Md., May 26, 2019. (CNS/Reuters/Stephanie Keith)

Article re-publsihed with permission from the Global Sisters Report / National Catholic Reporter 

WASHINGTON — The way ethnic communities have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus is a common topic during New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's daily news conferences on how the state he runs is handling the pandemic.

"Why are more African Americans and Latinos affected?" Cuomo asked in his April 8 press briefing after detailing how some ethnic communities in the state have higher death rates from COVID-19 than others. "Why do the poorest people always pay the highest price?"

Bill de Blasio, New York City's mayor, had also talked about the disparity in early April, pointing out that 34% of those who died in the city because of COVID-19 were Latinos, who are 29% of the city's population, and African Americans made up 28% of the city's deaths while being 22% of the population.

And yet similar statistics are playing out coast to coast and points in between. By April 27, figures out of California showed that Latinos made up 64.9% of the state's deaths from the virus among patients age 18 to 49, though Latinos are 43.5% of the state's population and similarly 15.3% of the people who died of COVID-19 in the same age bracket were black, though they're 6.3% of California's population.


"I continue to be baffled by the silence on the part of our institutional church," she said in an April 23 interview with Catholic News Service.

"We do have a responsibility to reach out," she said.

From immigration issues to lack of fair wages and access to affordable health care, "disparities in black and brown communities have escalated" and become more pronounced during the pandemic, she said.

"There are many reasons as to why that this the case," she said.


And some of them are janitors, sanitation workers, part of the cleaning staff, grocery store workers or holding any number of other jobs where employers aren't providing them with the equipment they need to protect themselves from a health situation such as the one the world is facing.

"They have to show up not having proper equipment and they can't afford to take time off because there may be no leave time built up or sick leave to take, in some cases," she said. "If they don't show up, they don't get paid and there's rent to pay and they don't have a slush fund."


And it's a situation of disparity that many ethnic communities have dealt with historically in the U.S., she said, so it's become puzzling to be told to wash your hands often when in certain places, such as Flint, Michigan, people of color don't even have access to clean water.

"So, how can you ask people to use water when the water coming out of faucet is contaminated?" she asked. "To ask those communities to shelter in place when people have no homes to shelter in? I know there are many organizations passing out food, passing out sanitizer and masks, but it's still not providing those individuals a place to come inside, where they can shower or bathe. That's basic human rights."


"These are communities that live paycheck to paycheck," she said.

And when it comes to certain members of those ethnic communities, there's the added element of dealing with an atmosphere of fear because of a family's immigration status, making some of them reluctant to seek medical help for fear of being deported, she said.  


"Certainly, the church can continue to advocate on behalf of those who have less than," she said. "The church can continue to call out these systems, saying that with this disparity, we need to make sure those in these communities have the resources they need in order to fight the pandemic."

They need testing, particularly in settings where they're not afraid of authorities such as immigration, free or reduced cost care for those who may not have insurance, and alternatives in case there is no proper way to isolate at home, she said.


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