Covid, race and inequality: why it's time to hold tight to human rights

01/21/21 • 30 min

In Episode 2 of Series 6 Attorney Dominique Day, founder and Executive Director of the Daylight Collective which seeks to fill the space between the status quo and substantive justice with creativity, diverse voices, and multi-sector approaches and understandings talks to Todd about how COVID is negatively and unequally impacting the lives and human rights of Black Americans of African descent.

00.00 – 02.20

Todd begins by asking Dominique to comment on the dis-proportionate impact of the Covid19 pandemic on people of African descent. She points to significant racial disparities in terms of:

Who becomes infected
Who has access to health care
Differences in outcomes in terms of severe illness and death

This is seen as an outcome of policies, which exemplify systemic racism at a global and local level.

02.20 – 05.30

Todd asks Dominique which factors she sees as playing a key role in the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.

Whilst racism is not intentional she sees it as being ingrained into the presumptions and actions of individual decision makers
In emergency departments this translates to medical bias when doctors are working under stress
As evidence she points to research which suggests that medical bias disadvantages people of African descent (and which she discusses in a related webinar)
Although the data is widely known her concern is that the issue of systemic racism is embedded in decision making even at the level of the individual clinician

05.30 – 12.40

Todd summarises and points out that the reality is that people of African descent in the USA have a markedly higher mortality rate, which is linked to a long history of systemic racism.

Dominque points to “social conditioning” in deciding which lives matter. By way of example she points to the decision to withhold the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine on the African continent and argues that it suggests that this is a decision made along the lines of race
In terms of the impact of the pandemic, there are parallels within the fields of education, the economy and health where individuals make decisions on the basis of a bias which reflects systemic racism within society
She references an email circulated within NYU hospital in New York where the onus to make rapid life and death decisions was placed on doctors working in the emergency department, without supervision and review. Given the intense stress doctors were under, those decisions were more likely to be influenced by bias (unwitting or not)
Health care providers showed no willingness to discuss the research data,
- predicting the disproportionate impact on black and brown communities
- identifying systemic racial bias
- individual doctors were prevented from commenting publicly
Warnings of racial bias were ignored and continue to be ignored

12.40 – 20.50

Todd moves on to examine differences of outcomes for black and white communities in relation to encounters with the police and references the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson a suburb of St Louis in the US in 2014.

The Ferguson killing follows a common pattern of outcomes for the black community
A parallel is suggested with respect to the security preparations made for the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 in Washington
Comparisons have been made between this protest and the insurrection staged by pro- Trump militants. Todd argues that any move to suggest the two events were similar creates a false equivalence

Dominique points out that:

In terms of policing there was a higher level of perceived threat and a heavier response during the Black Lives Matter protests than for the recent march on the Capitol in Washington
Dominique argues that the former was a racialised response conditioned by acceptance of white supremacy and a long history (in the USA) rooted in slavery and exploitation.
She references the origins of racial policing in the USA as being to protect property from the actions of slaves.
She identifies a “legacy mindset”, a baseline of white supremacy, where white people expect to be treated differently (better) than black people, a mindset which is a major barrier to progressing racial justice and equality.

20.50 – 23.45

The conversation returns to the pandemic ...

00.00 – 02.20

Todd begins by asking Dominique to comment on the dis-proportionate impact of the Covid19 pandemic on people of African descent. She points to significant racial disparities in terms of:

Who becomes infected
Who has access to health care
Differences in outcomes in terms of severe illness and death

This is seen as an outcome of policies, which exemplify systemic racism at a global and local level.

02.20 – 05.30

Todd asks Dominique which factors she sees as playing a key role in the impact of the Covid19 pandemic.

Whilst racism is not intentional she sees it as being ingrained into the presumptions and actions of individual decision makers
In emergency departments this translates to medical bias when doctors are working under stress
As evidence she points to research which suggests that medical bias disadvantages people of African descent (and which she discusses in a related webinar)
Although the data is widely known her concern is that the issue of systemic racism is embedded in decision making even at the level of the individual clinician

05.30 – 12.40

Todd summarises and points out that the reality is that people of African descent in the USA have a markedly higher mortality rate, which is linked to a long history of systemic racism.

Dominque points to “social conditioning” in deciding which lives matter. By way of example she points to the decision to withhold the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine on the African continent and argues that it suggests that this is a decision made along the lines of race
In terms of the impact of the pandemic, there are parallels within the fields of education, the economy and health where individuals make decisions on the basis of a bias which reflects systemic racism within society
She references an email circulated within NYU hospital in New York where the onus to make rapid life and death decisions was placed on doctors working in the emergency department, without supervision and review. Given the intense stress doctors were under, those decisions were more likely to be influenced by bias (unwitting or not)
Health care providers showed no willingness to discuss the research data,
- predicting the disproportionate impact on black and brown communities
- identifying systemic racial bias
- individual doctors were prevented from commenting publicly
Warnings of racial bias were ignored and continue to be ignored

12.40 – 20.50

The Ferguson killing follows a common pattern of outcomes for the black community
A parallel is suggested with respect to the security preparations made for the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 in Washington
Comparisons have been made between this protest and the insurrection staged by pro- Trump militants. Todd argues that any move to suggest the two events were similar creates a false equivalence

Dominique points out that:

In terms of policing there was a higher level of perceived threat and a heavier response during the Black Lives Matter protests than for the recent march on the Capitol in Washington
Dominique argues that the former was a racialised response conditioned by acceptance of white supremacy and a long history (in the USA) rooted in slavery and exploitation.
She references the origins of racial policing in the USA as being to protect property from the actions of slaves.
She identifies a “legacy mindset”, a baseline of white supremacy, where white people expect to be treated differently (better) than black people, a mindset which is a major barrier to progressing racial justice and equality.

20.50 – 23.45

The conversation returns to the pandemic ...

Previous Episode

COVID-19 and women's rights: what impact is the pandemic having?

In Episode 1 of Series 6, Todd is talking with Dr. Nina Ansary an award-winning Iranian-American author, historian, and women's rights advocate. Nina is the UN Women Global Champion for Innovation and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Women, Peace & Security, and author of Anonymous Is a Wom an: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality. They discuss the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on women’s rights and on the citizens of Iran.

00.00 - 05.06

Todd begins by asking Nina for her reflections on the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on Iran. She comments that:

Covid 19 has served to exacerbate existing economic problems and far from supporting the population the regime has continued its crackdown on advocates for freedom and closer ties with the West
The health service is under severe strain not helped by the impact of sanctions resulting in shortages of medical equipment and medicines
Overall Iranians now feel more isolated than ever
While there are numerous organisations engaged in lobbying on human rights issues the international community could do more
The impact of Covid 19 has pushed human rights issues to the background

05.06 – 06.55

Todd moves on to ask Nina for her take on the existing nuclear power deal and US sanctions.

She argues that while the sanctions are not the cause of Iran’s economic difficulties they have accelerated the impact of economic mismanagement and corruption, which has fallen on the people and not the regime or its leaders.

06.55 – 11.05

The discussion moves onto the impact of Covid 19 on women’s rights. Prior to the pandemic, Nina says:

The advancement of women’s rights was moving at a ‘glacial’ pace.
Discrimination was present in a wide range of economic and political activity
Stereotyping of women was commonplace

The effect of the pandemic has been to exacerbate inequalities, expose vulnerabilities, encourage discriminatory practices, and set back the advancement of women’s rights, in particular those who are most vulnerable and those who are marginalised. Nina notes that women have been losing employment at a disproportionate rate as a result of Covid 19. She concludes by referencing the Beijing World Conference on Women 1995 and the lack of progress made since then.

11.05 – 15.05

When asked about the impact of the pandemic on women in the USA Nina refers to existing reforms which have been too narrow and the need to “move beyond the reforms of the past” to create a more equitable future. Todd then asks whether Nina foresees a move to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA (ERA).

In reply she points out that women in the USA are not united around this topic and that even within the ERA movement there was/is a tendency to fragment into different groups which is a limiting factor and an obstacle to reform.

15.05 – 19.40

Todd moves on to discuss Nina’s work at the U.N. Appointed as a Global champion for innovation in 2019. Her focus is to drive transformational change by,

Creating more opportunities for women and girls especially in technology and entrepreneurship
Raising awareness of barriers to progress
Highlighting women who have made significant contributions in those fields which have been overlooked downplayed or ignored. Nina refers to Dr. Jessica Wade who been challenging theses stereotyped b posting the names of women who have made significant contributions in the field of science.
Working towards equality in participation, representation and opportunity in those fields
Discrimination and stereotyping which serve to hold women back. Here she references the infamous post by Google engineer James Damores, whose intern...

Next Episode

Covid and incarceration: how is the pandemic affecting prisons and prisoners

In Episode 3 of Series 6, Todd is joined by David Fathi, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project to discuss the impact of Covid19 on prisons and prisoners in the USA.

00.00 – 04.40

David provides an overview of the prison system in the USA. The country has:

the largest prison population in the world at over 2 million people
the highest per capita rate of prisoners at between 5 and 10 times the rate for countries like Canada, England, and Wales and even authoritarian countries like China

Incarceration in the United States is highly decentralized across 51 different prison systems. Every state has its own prison system separate from and running alongside the federal prison system, and within that the private, for profit prisons account for around 10 percent of the national prison population.

There are concerns relating to private run prisons, which have led to the Biden administration removing private companies from operating federal prisons. Concerns raised include:

lack of oversight
poor quality rehabilitation services and programming
low levels of safety and security

04.40 – 06.07

The conversation moves on to discuss rehabilitation. David notes that rehabilitation has a very low profile in the U.S. prison system. The extensive use of solitary confinement works contrary to rehabilitation.

06.07 – 09.33

David says the drivers of the prison population date back to the days of slavery, structural racism and the Jim Crow laws. He points to the post-Civil War period in the US when there was a deliberate policy of incarcerating black people. He adds that its legacy exists today in the fact that a black male is 6 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white man.

The penal system and culture is described by David as punitive rather that restorative:

average sentences are longer than in comparable democracies.
early termination of sentences is less likely.
many more prisoners serve life sentences (1 in 11 of all prisoners)
few efforts to rehabilitate and release

09.33 – 12.00

The US is also amongst the worst countries in terms of its use of solitary confinement. There are significant numbers of prisoners on death row who are kept in permanent solitary confinement often for over 10 years. It is estimated that over 100,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement on a daily basis, a number which has increased during the COVID pandemic.

12.02 – 18.30

Todd moves on to ask about the early release from prison of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer as an example of prominent individuals gaining release citing medical vulnerability to Covid19. David agrees that affluent/prominent people are treated differently by the system, but also contends not enough prisoners have been released as a result of Covid19. This does not make sense, he says because prisons are hotspots of Covid19 infection due to:

large numbers of inmates
high population density
poor ventilation
poor sanitation
an ageing and therefore more vulnerable group to Covid19 population

Although data show one in five inmates have tested positive, and anecdotally ethnic minorities have been disproportionately impacted, there are no data on whether/how BAME prisoners have been adversely affected because that data are not recorded. David says it’s hard to see this data omission as anything other than intentional.

18.30 – 21.30

The situation is similar in other detention centres, immigration centres, jails etc, but the problems of control are enhanced by the rapid turnover of people through those facilities. Todd asks how successful ACLU has been in its efforts to get prisoners released because of Covid. David says they have had:

significant success in getting people released from detention centres due to medical vulnerability to Covid19
very little success at getting vulnerable inmates released from prisons
some success in terms of mitigation of infection risk in prisons

30.00-end

Todd asks about the prospects for a reduction in the size of the prison population. David says the problem is the decentra...