Our Commitment to Equity During COVID-19
Dear Colleagues:
We trust this message finds you doing the best you can to stay safe and healthy in challenging times.
This past week, Dr. Alexander-Scott and Governor Raimondo shared that 45% of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Rhode Island are members of the Latinx community. Similar patterns exist in New York, where Latinx folks are also the highest impacted population. The African American community constitutes a shockingly high percentage of COVID-related deaths in urban centers such as Chicago and Detroit, and are a third of national hospitalizations. The Navajo Nation and other indigenous communities are similarly vulnerable and disproportionately affected. Meanwhile, Asian Americans are experiencing a sharp rise in anti-Asian xenophobia.
The roots of these disparities are systemic: communities of color experience higher rates of poverty and pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, are overrepresented in occupations such as essential services and farm jobs that preclude working from home, are concentrated in high-density areas that make social distancing more challenging, and have less access to adequate health care and coverage.
These data are not just abstract and reflective of the experience of people in only urban or far-off communities, but also within our own campus community. We urge you to remember that each of our students and colleagues is differently impacted by this pandemic. Today, we stand with our impacted minoritized community members, just as we stand against the rising anti-Asian xenophobia and all other forms of harassment that may arise through this pandemic.
This is the time to tap into our collective wisdom to support our students and ourselves. We must continue to do all we can within our spheres of influence to support equity within, and for, our community. While we continue adjusting to new ways of remote work and learning, we must see and respond to the places where inequity surfaces in our efforts with students and with each other.
Please know that colleagues in the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, University College, the School of Law, the Center for Student Academic Success, Student Life and the Latino Policy Institute at RWU stand ready to support you, as do lots of amazing organizations in our local and global communities.
In solidarity,
Yannis & Ame