Sean “Diddy” Combs moderated a virtual town hall on YouTube Thursday night that sounded the alarm about how COVID-19 is impacting the Black community.
Hosted by Revolt TV, the music cable network Combs founded, “State of Emergency: State of Black America & The Coronavirus” provided a platform for Black Americans to discuss their concerns about the coronavirus pandemic in an uncensored manner.
“We have to tell the truth about how we feel and talk about the facts about what affects our well being,” Combs said.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, Van Jones, Angela Rye, Rev. Al Sharpton, Killer Mike, Yara Shahidi and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were among those who joined Combs during the two-hour livestream.
The impact the novel coronavirus is having on Black Americans became a national story this week when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shared alarming statistics showing how Black residents in large American cities were disproportionately contracting and dying from COVID-19.
“Forty percent of the deaths in the United States from COVID-19 — 40 percent– have been Black folks despite the fact that we’re only approximately 13 percent of the population,” Harris said at the start of the discussion.
The former Democratic presidential candidate pointed out that Black Americans are 20 percent more likely to have asthma and 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure while Black women are three times more likely to have lupus than their white female counterparts.
“The truth hasn’t really been told yet about how dangerous this virus is for black people in particular,” said Jones, a CNN political commentator and host of “The Van Jones Show” who co-moderated the town hall with Combs.
Older adults with underlying health conditions are at greater risk when it comes to this disease but they aren’t the only ones needing to take precautions. Individuals with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma are at risk too.
“We’ve talked about old folks— which is true — but you can be 30 years old and die of this if you have high blood pressure. Your 27-year-old nephew who’s got an inhaler can die because of this virus,” Jones warned viewers.
Health, economic and educational disparities that have long existed in the Black community are now highlighted because they are exasperated by this crisis. Nearly all U.S. states have enacted statewide nonessential business closures to help slow down COVID-19’s spread. As a result, many people are working from home. However, a number of Black Americans don’t have that luxury since they’re less likely to telecommute based on the nature of their jobs.
“So that means that they’re either getting out there, trying to go to work every day, often without paid sick leave, or staying at home, which means that they don’t actually have an income,” Harris said.
Rye, a CNN political commentator, said this pandemic will give Black Americans a “unique opportunity” to unite and solve problems affecting their community.
“The only way for us to truly survive this won’t be through a federal stimulus bill. It will be through a community stimulus plan,” Rye said. ”We have to start to lean on each other to ensure that we’re doing our very best. Just like we’ve always done. I know people are tired but this is the time for us to rally together and make sure we’re all good.”
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