Civil Rights: A Thread Unwoven

Food insecurity, poverty, discrimination, racism, unemployment, geographic isolation, overcrowded multi-family units, lack of water and basic sanitation are pre-existing conditions that continue to plague the moral fabric of the U.S. In the 1960’s, the Poor People’s Campaign and other social movements (American Indian, Chicano) exposed pervasive poverty and racism and called for a radical redistribution of wealth, land and rights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized economic and racial justice as the unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the COVID-19 has exposed the deep structural racism and the failure of the Trump administration and other elected officials to respond to an aggressive pandemic.  In an interview with CNN, Dr. Camara Jones, a national public health expert emphasizes the gravity of the impact: “Inequality spreads COVID 19 and COVID-19 exacerbates inequality .” This thread, left unwoven, weakens our resiliency as a nation to resist and overcome historical policies of genocide, slavery and exploitation. As a result, vulnerable populations continue to suffer the most, including the elderly, homeless, people with disabilities, immigrants in detention centers, incarcerated, racial and ethnic minorities and rural and tribal communities.