Is Coronavirus Racist?

Is Covid-19 racist? A daft question you might think, but think again because there’s nothing so daft that a bunch of left-wing ethnic minority race whingers won’t ask it. This particular clique is called “Charity So White” and its particular gripe is that the charity sector is dominated by white people, their concerns and preoccupations. The organisation introduces itself online with these words: “Charities may have good intentions but some uphold White supremacy and racism”. Leaving aside for another time a discussion as to the meaning of “white supremacy and racism”, it’s quite clear that one of the main objectives of Charity So White is to squeeze more money for ethnic minority charities and community groups which, I was surprised to learn, number between nine and ten thousand. I was under the impression that it was unlawful for a charity to define its beneficiaries by race, until I remembered that that only applies when those beneficiaries are defined as white –  a charity set up specifically for the benefit of non-white ethnic minorities is lawful;  isn’t white supremacy wonderful?

The latest effusion from Charity So White is a paper headed “Racial Injustice in the Covid-19 Response”. This title seems to imply that black and Asian people are being left to die while whites are hogging the emergency beds and ventilators! Absurd of course, and it doesn’t become any less absurd when you discover that the “racial injustice” that they are moaning about is that BAME (black and minority ethnic) communities are disproportionately likely to catch coronavirus, to be gravely affected by it, and to die from it. It seems that while non-white ethnic minorities are 15% of the population of England and Wales according to the census of 2011, 35% of those hospitalised and 28% of the most gravely ill are of that description, evenly divided between blacks and Asians. So where’s the injustice? Isn’t it just a matter of fact?

Needless to say, Charity So White has scratched around and come up with some possible “injustices” (according to its own idea of injustice of course), such as black people being more likely to be hassled by the police; why? because they like big noisy parties or what? Asylum seekers and illegal immigrants get a mention of course.

But the really interesting question is why this disproportion exists? I don’t like to be fair to Charity So White, but apart from moaning about racism they do come up with one or two ideas. One idea that we can discount is that black and Asian people are over-represented among NHS staff and so more exposed to whatever is going around; while 15% of people in England and Wales were BAME nine years ago, the proportion working in the NHS today is 18.5%, so not wildly disproportionate. Much more to the point is that they are more likely to live in large multi-generational households where self-isolation is more difficult. Even more to the point is that they are much more likely to have the “underlying causes” which lead to people becoming gravely ill and dying – for example BAME people are SIX times more likely than white people to suffer from diabetes! They are also much more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease affecting the heart and lungs.

So there is the real reason, and nothing to do with “racial injustice”: it’s just that BAME people are more likely to be in poor health anyway. Why? Lousy diet must be part of it, but plenty of white people gorge on Kentucky Fried Chicken too. Genetics are certainly part of it as well; I remember reading some years ago that men from the Indian subcontinent living in the West were far more prone to heart disease than whites because their genes had not equipped them to cope with a western diet – so much for race only being a social construct!

Anyway, Covid-19 may not be racist, but it’s certainly sexist and ageist as men are far more likely to get it than women, and old people than young people. Genetics again. It’s just that life ain’t fair – and nor is death.

By Frederick Dixon © 2020