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COVID-19 and Racism

COVID-19 did not just affect people’s health — it also exposed and increased existing inequalities in society, including racism.

During the pandemic, many racialized communities, especially Black and other minority groups, were more affected by COVID-19. This was not because of race itself, but because of systemic issues such as:

working in frontline or essential jobs

living in more crowded housing

having less access to healthcare

existing social and economic inequalities

These conditions made it harder for some communities to stay safe during the pandemic.

At the same time, racism also showed up in different ways. Some groups experienced:

discrimination in healthcare

unequal access to testing and vaccines

stigma and blame during the pandemic

increased surveillance in certain communities

COVID-19 highlighted how racism is built into systems, not just individual behaviour.

This connects to movements like Black Lives Matter, because both focus on systemic inequality and the need for change. The pandemic made many people more aware of how unfair systems can impact people’s health, safety, and opportunities.

As individuals, we can learn from this by:

understanding how inequality affects different communities

supporting fair access to healthcare and resources

challenging misinformation and stereotypes

advocating for more inclusive policies

Conclusion, COVID-19 showed that social issues like racism do not disappear during a crisis — they can become even more visible. This is why awareness and action are important for creating a more equitable society.

Moteleola O. Adetunji.

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A social work has a huge roles to play in providing psychosocial support and advocating for social inclusion for the population who are faced with racism. A social worker can implement ways of interventions that will impact the lives of the vulnerable population positively.

A social worker can help the vulnerable faced with racism to mange their emotions awareness and also help them new ways in face their problem. they can show them how to face their situation in a different way.

Chioma Ezera

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There are couple of things social workers can do to reduce the impact and the possibility of catching covid. One thing they can do is make sure they're vaccinated. No vaccine is ever guaranteed to stop someone from catching a disease, however, the covid vaccination will reduce the effects of the virus and highly reduce the chances of an infected individual passing it on to someone else. There are several reasons why black people and people of color are getting infected by covid at a higher rate.

A lot of times POC live in poorer communities where their jobs require them to come into contact with people more often than someone who works in the corporate world would, for example, someone who work's in a market selling fruits and vegetable, would have more physical contact with different people than someone who works for broadband company.

Social Worker can equally advocate for Black Canadians with services out there that can promote their health and wellbeing, such as seeking financial support and rent assistance schemes for many that live in a very disadvantaged environment or are homeless. Health education on the importance of taking Covid vaccines and the need for prompt medical care when sick. Support them on how to avail of Covid testing kits.

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Covid-19 has brought forward various problems that the people of color faced. It is sad that even in the hard times of pandemic when everyone was so stressed and needed equal access to healthcare facilities, races was considered, prioritized . Marginalized communities faced lack of healthcare facilities in such a time. Some of the ways social services workers can help to reduce the racialized impact of covid-19 are by speaking out loud about the issue, making more and more people aware of what's happening around them and helping those marginalized to raise their voices against racism during covid19. An important thing is to get more informed about what's actually happening, what issues are people facing  and then taking actions. Social service workers can assist by providing the resources that people need. In order to assist the racialized people, social service workers should focus on the aspect that everybody has equal access to all the facilities. They should help these people to access the healthcare facilities they need. SSW's should ensure the division of resources is equal.

-Rupanjot Kaur

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"Unfortunately, [COVID-19] has had a greater impact on people in our community who experience more health inequities," said de Villa, the city's chief medical officer.
According to the data, Black people account for 21% of all recorded cases in the city, although accounting for only 9% of the total population. Similarly, Arab, Middle Eastern, and West Asian persons account for 11% of the city's COVID-19 cases despite accounting for only 4% of the entire population, according to de Villa.SSWs can assist in the provision of tools and resources to communities. They can also be allies in reaching out to others and promoting the lack of resources and inaccessibility. As we can see in today's world, social media is used to promote incorrect information. As SSWs, they have the ability to change this and use it as a successful means of disseminating the limitless statistics displayed in readings and videos regarding the Covid 19 pandemic. It's about a lot more than the pandemic.

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Its sad that in 2022, we are still pinpointing women and men of color in regards to a virus that was contracted from abroad. I think people in society need to stop picking on black people and putting the blame on them for silly things. This virus was not solely surrounded around black people and its easy to say that they are the ones contracting it more because there were a lot of black male and females who decided they were not gong to get their vaccination because they simply did not believe in it. As a social service worker, we need to stand up and be advocates. We need to speak on and help in areas where lower income families and individuals are lacking access to proper health care as well as making sure that all resources are being shared and divided evenly between everyone of all colors, class, gender, ect.

Kaneesha Thomas

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Social Service Workers are bodies that provide assistance to the community, their support is especially required during Covid-19. The pandemic has caused various detrimental effects, these effects showed to impact neighborhoods and communities due to the lack of research and studies done on the virus and racialized minorities. Some of the ways social service workers can reduce the impact of Covid-19 is by getting in touch with the community and checking on their well-being, providing online sessions to support mental health, and implementing programs to aid with daily life. In addition to that, Covid –19 has put many people out of jobs therefore job assistance is another way an SSW can aid racialized communities. Moreover, one of the most important ways to contribute is simply to listen to the concerns that the community has. Having someone to talk to during these hard times can be highly beneficial to supporting individuals in the community.

- Jasleen Brar

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Covid19 has brought lot of issues where lot of people were struggling to earn a living but marginalized were the worst sufferers. it can be seen that black people were the people who were not able to get access to the resources and to the health care benefits .
As a social service worker it is our responsibility to help marginalized people by raising voices for them and and becoming their helping hands.
Jaspreet kaur.

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Its sad to see that certain races and certain levels of society (low income) are denied access to proper health care and access to the things that will help keep them healthy.
The government has set up programs, but because the people in the chosen field are not being paid "a higher wage" and has to do this as "charity work" people can be denied the same level of care and miss treated than those in wealthier parts of society.

Our roles as SSW would be to advocate and ensure things are truly being spread out equally amongst all.

Rose coloured glasses?

Cecille

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What are things social service workers can do to reduce the radicalized impact of COVID-19?

There is many factors, how we can help our community to reduce the impact that the pandemic brought, according to the information provided, is necessary to say, that we still have a lot of work to do outside, also in ourselves, is a constantly learning every day, but we have to educate our people, change the bias, provide information to teach them about stereotypes and how this actions are affecting multiples communities, in ways that some others will never experienced or not a that level, Oppression and racism is something that we are still living with, Dr Onnye Noorom address it by saying on the interview "Studies that have shown us that our postal code matters more than our genetic code" in regards to the rise of COVID-19 cases on racialize neighbourhoods, there is many factor that could be affecting, such as health by what kind of food they have access in that areas?, Works by What kind of work is this community doing?, between others, from this point of view, there is where us as social service workers we can start to look at, and work cooperatively with the community.

-Joseline Villeda Pozos

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When reading the info regarding COVID, and race, I am certainly not suprised by the findings. Listening to one of Podcasts by Dr. Oyne Noorom was an eye opener. One of the comments she made about the pandemic that really resonated with me was "We are all in this storm, but not in the same boat". To me, that speaks volumes. From the reports that I have read and hear throughout the ongoing pandemic is that the majority of people that are not able to work from home, and working in riskier environments (ex. PSW's)where they are more susceptible to contracting COVID are black people. She also discussed individuals that have underlying health conditions (ex. diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure) are more prone to an increased risk of hospitalization from COVID, due to these underlying issues. She also mentioned that while these health issues are predominantly in blacks, we were not born with these medical conditions, environments created these issues. So, as a SSW, helping black communities to resources to being more pro-active with health check-ups, and healthier eating, rather than being re-active, by having more medical issues come about when current ones are not being cared for and addressed. Self-care is so important, especially among the black community, as statistics have shown that they may not be receiving the same level of health care than their white counterparts.

- Karrol McBurnie

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During the pandemic the real difference between the communities is seen for example difference towards the black people or lower class people as it is observed clearly in the time of need these people were not the equally prioritised. In this scenario social service workers out there can help these people by providing the material they need like food, water, medical treatment or shelters moreover
they can provide awareness and help people.
-Sehajdeep Kaur Dhaliwal

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Covid-19 has brought forward many issues amongst marginalized groups. This specifically can be seen within black communities where they are offered less resources in their community. In that case, a SSW's can go into these environments to see the lack of supplies and provide the  resource that are needed.  They can also inform themselves and others about problems within that community and be ally's .

-Christine

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The reason black neighbourhoods are being hit the hardest by COVID-19 is because of the community they are in. She explained how there is a stronger link between the risk of contracting COVID and lower-income or racialized communities. The social determinants of health have an impact on people's health.SSWs can help communities by providing tools and resources. They can also be allies in promoting resource scarcity. False information can be found on social media. But SSWs can change that and successfully disseminate the statistics depicted in pandemic readings and videos.

Rohit

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Based on the CBC article, Dr. Onye Nnorom explained that the reason black neighborhoods are getting hit the hardest with Covid 19 is due to the area that the community they are in. She explained how there is higher correlation between the risk of getting covid and lower income/racialized communities. Dr. Nnorom explained that its because of social determinants of health that influences poor health among people.

What we can do to help is to understand the communities and whats around their area. Marginalize and low income neighborhoods do not get the same privilege and access to resources  compared to higher income communities. Using asset mapping would help find some of these problems and understand why it is occurring. Not only that but services that are trying to help people in low income communities should use a bottom up approach. Talking to people inside the community will get a sense of what is happening. The most important thing is to educating yourself about the community instead of generalizing and taking actions without research.

- Justin Frando

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SSW's can help providing communities with tools and resources. They can also be ally's to help reach out to others and promote the absense of resources and the unaccessabilty to them. As we can see in today's society that social media is a spread of false research. Well as SSW's they can change that and use it as a successful way to spread the unlimited stats shown in readings and video's about the covid 19 pandemic. It goes much deeper then the pandemic.

Claire Jackson

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After reading the entire information regarding    the COVID race and racism. I realised that according to the opinion of Dr. Oyne Nnorom that why covid-19 leads high effect on Black Canadians ? there are several reasons due to which this community is highly affected by COVID-19 that is, lack of resources, medical facilites and income due to which they are more likely to come in the contact of COVID. Thus, for reducing this circumstances the Social Service Worker have to encourage people regarding the signs of this pandemic as well as they guide them about the safety measures. Moreover, the main reason define by Dr. Oyne Nnorom for high rate of black Canadians die is not because of genetic variations, it is more likely to exposed to COVID-19. So, it is ones duty to know about the facts about COVID disease and try to maintain distance from others.
Navjot Kaur

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After reading the CBC dose on how systemic racism predispose people to COVID. Dr. Onye Nnorom, stated her opinions on the reasons why COVID 19 impact the racialized. I realize that people who are from racialized communities are more likely to contract COVID 19 and die from it which is not because of genetics but instead they are more exposed to COVID 19 because of the social condition, structures and systems that are built and maintained. Therefore, they have a harder time accessing health care, they have low incomes and lack of resources. However, things social service workers could do to reduce this impact is, based on what Dr. Oyne Nnorom stated, there are resources to educate oneself. Therefore, they will have to educate themselves on how they can be an ally and of some help in moving forward.

-Lukannia Edwards

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As Dr. Onye Nnorom stated in her interview with CBC, the result of Black Canadians contracting covid-19 at a disproportionately higher rate has nothing to do with the genetic difference (or lack there of) between blacks and other ethnicity's, but rather has everything to do with how the system has resulted in more blacks living in lower income communities. The reason this affects covid-19 rates in these communities is because these communities lack resources for the citizens to live a healthy lifestyle, also know as "social determinants of health". An example of this would be more people living under the same roof because of the lack of affordable housing, therefore leading to closer physical contact and the inability to socially distance. Something social service workers can do to help impact these communities would be to promote building a community garden so more citizens of that community would have access to healthy foods. Our work as SSW's would be to advocate and push these types of ideas to city council and work together to make this idea a reality.

-Kurtis Robinson

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After reading the readings that associate with this padlet I'm honestly not surprised it's not racing itself that has the black Canadians in danger it's the lifestyles and what they are pre-exposed to that's making them targets. But leave it to society to say it has to do with the actual race. I believe if social workers focus on figuring out what is causing these outcomes it will help. education is the first step I in the articles it says that it's what we eat where we go and so forth so the question is how do we minimalize these small actions from having bigger impacts.... we need to learn better to do better and I feel if we know how it more so spreads we can avoid doing certain things. Social workers are there to help mentally emotionally and give you feedback and different means of doing things the correct way may be more education on covid and how to stop the spread the better the results will be on top of that educate the people as well stop lying to them

Jaclin