COVID-19 has worsened
racial issues in the United States, according to the annual ‘State of Black
America’ report released on Thursday.

The report, prepared
by long-standing civil rights organisation National Urban League in association
with the Brookings Institution, John Hopkins Center for Health Equity and
Center for Policing Equity, analysed the devastation in black communities in
the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Structural racism is not new
to many of us. For centuries and even today, Black lives continue to be subject
to laws, policies and practices that have created and sustained systematic
oppression that impacts every facet of our lives,” said Tracie Kessee,
cofounder and senior vice-president of social justice at Center for Policing
Equity.

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The report asserts that COVID-19
has brought flaws in the US healthcare system to the fore.

The research cites data from
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention which show that black and
brown victims are disproportionately dying from the virus, compared to other
white populations.

Black individuals are two
times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people who are white, and Hispanics
2.3 times more likely, as per the CDC.  

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Moreover, despite a similar
percentage of black and white Americans being vaccine hesitant, vaccination
rates are significantly lower among Black populations. The disparities in
vaccination rates indicate iniquities in vaccine distribution, the report goes
on to say.

The report also found that Black people are more likely
to live farther away from vaccination centres than white people.

The State of Black America report also throws light on economic
inequalities which too worsened due to the pandemic. According to data from the
Federal Reserve Bank, a typical Black household has 15% of the median wealth of
the typical white household and Black workers face major pay gaps in the
workforce.

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During the pandemic, nearly 17% Black households lacked
the basic financial services, compared to 3% of white households, according to
the Brookings Institution.

The National Urban League experts said that existing
inequalities can be fixed by closing the racial wealth gap, reparations and
more.