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8 | JUNE 11 • 2020
1942 - 2020
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
jn
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How to reach us see page 12
I
t seems as if the ability
to breathe — amid a
pandemic where a highly
contagious virus prevails and
continues to attack the respi-
ratory systems
of vulnerable
individuals —
should now
be considered
a luxury. The
opportunity
to take a deep
breath —
whether it is used to ground
yourself in an argument or
in an effort to eliminate the
current stressors in your
life — is permitted only for
those who are strong enough
to withstand the toll of this
virus. A now-luxurious act
that we once took for grant-
ed.
But what if the ability
to breathe was a luxury all
along?
While our nation’
s elderly
population is subject to the
highest death rate as a result
of the spread of COVID-
19, we must not dismiss
the notion that the virus is
disproportionally impacting
black Americans at a jarring
rate as compared to white
Americans. A Washington
Post analysis found that pre-
dominately black communi-
ties hold a coronavirus death
rate nearly six times higher
than predominately white
communities.
Could this disparity be
due to a troubling institution
in which black Americans
do not receive the same
access to healthcare as do
their white counterparts?
A report from the National
Academy of Medicine found
that minorities receive “low-
er-quality health care” as
compared to white people,
all other qualifiers held
equal.
Or could it be due to
an unjust housing system
where black Americans are
more likely to face housing
discrimination — a situa-
tion which presents serious
consequences to the health
and well-being of these very
individuals?
Perhaps this dispropor-
tionate access to “air” dates
back to an inherently prob-
lematic society in which the
ability to breathe is consid-
ered a luxury — reserved
only for those who the air
was originally intended for.
Perhaps our systematic
way of living, rooted in
ideologies stemming from
a time of slavery, is why so
many individuals — individ-
uals of color — remain gasp-
ing for air to this very day.
Perhaps the death of
George Floyd, who choked
out the words “I can’
t
breathe” in his final sec-
onds, was a consequence
of an inherently unjust and
unequal society that was
created only to protect the
breath of white individuals.
editorial
If You Can Breathe,
You’re Privileged
Nicole Dean
a suburb of my hometown of St
Louis, who had been gunned
down by a white police officer.
My daughters’
emerging identi-
ties as young black women, their
self-love and their self-doubts,
their righteous anger, their rising
independence, their bold confron-
tations with risk, developed amid
looping replays of white cops beat-
ing, strangling and shooting black
and brown bodies. They want
me to understand their feelings
of anger and vulnerability; they
doubt I can because I am white.
Yet, when there was a shooting in
a synagogue in Poway, California,
and when a rabbi’
s house guests
were attacked with a machete in
Monsey, New York, my daughters
are the first to check in with me.
Their ears are attuned to danger.
My family is black and Jewish.
The murder of George Floyd
revealed nothing new to us, the
eruptions of mass violence, the
government collusion, nothing
new. Yet perhaps this time our col-
lective memories will give us the
insight, strength and resilience to
walk into a better future.
Clare Kinberg is the editor and publisher at
the Washtenaw Jewish News.
NOTHING NEW continued from page 5
continued on page 12