Native Americans in New Mexico Experience Multiple Epidemics, COVID-19 is the latest addition.
Our response must look at all the epidemics, and the social and structural factors that make those epidemics possible, not just the latest threat.
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched most human around the globe. In the U.S., we all have followed the calls for social-distance, wearing masks, and home schooling. Many people, including leaders, artists, community activists, and public officials, have said “We’re all in this together” and “we have to go back to normal.” But, for indigenous peoples, and other people of color in the U.S., the pre-Covid-19 situation was far from normal. Communities of color have endured centuries of oppression and social injustice that has led to present-day social and health disparities.
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has made us realize that we are all in this together, let’s take a look at New Mexico’s social and health disparities that have been developing prior to the arrival of the Coronavirus. Native American and other communities of color carry a much higher burden of poverty, poor health, and chronic diseases. These ongoing epidemics work synergistically to create environments of risk where old and novel virus find the ideal conditions to thrive and proliferate.
Yes, we’re all in this together, but we can’t go back to “normal.” Normal was toxic for people of color and other marginalized communities. The silver-lining of this pandemic might end up being the fact that nobody is going back to normal. We have changed. There is no going back. I will join you on the front lines to promote social justice and human dignity. I will join in your fight to destroy the virulence of racism, stigma, and discrimination that engender social and health disparities for my brothers and sisters. It will be a struggle, but it won’t be our first. There’s no going back. Let’s move forward together. And, every now and then, at 7:00 in the evening, bang some pots and pans, your drums, or sing out loud, to thank the front line workers for their fight for social justice.
