“We must create a new normal.” Sharpton and Jasper discuss life after the pandemic during live broadcast

BY MKUU AMANI

Reverend Alfred Sharpton told Lee Jasper that the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African-Americans in the US has been clear to see.

The Reverend Sharpton is an internationally renowned civil rights leader, founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), the civil rights organization founded in 1991.

Speaking from New York, USA, Reverend Sharpton told Jasper, who was in the UK hosting Blacksox Global’s After Lockdown – Global Black Community Update, “Clearly in the United States, we have seen African-Americans disproportionately impacted across several areas.”

He went on to outline some of the areas of concern.

“One, we have been found more to be deemed positive with the coronavirus itself. Secondly, we have died more – in most major cities, at three to four times the rates of whites. Much of that is because the healthcare and the health services in African communities in the United States are far inferior.”

“Hospitals are further away from us, trained medicals and facilities are not within our reach, and of course the cost of healthcare.”

According to Sharpton, the ‘Economic Impact Payments’ by the Internal Revenue Service are also a cause for concern.

“There have been two stimulus packages put through, over 3 trillion dollars,” he said, “Less than 1% of those stimulus dollars went to black-owned businesses. So much so that the National Action Network, the group that I’m a president of, was able to reach out and get Magic Johnson the basketball star. He put up 100 million dollars last Sunday to try and help some black-owned businesses, women-owned business and minority-owned businesses.”

Earvin “Magic” Johnson is the majority owner of EquiTrust, a minority-owned insurance company.

The funding for businesses became possible when his company announced a $100 million partnership with MBE Capital Partners (MBECP), and Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN).

Since launching, they have received over 5,000 applications from applicants applying for a Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) Loan for Coronavirus Relief.

The grim reality of the detrimental impact of the pandemic on African-Americans was summed up by Sharpton as, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths in the United States passed 100k.

“We are the ones dying more, we are the ones with the worst health conditions, and we are the ones getting the least amount of money for recovery.”

The Minister’s message may have seemed bleak, but he was also quick to point out that the situation presents an opportunity to organize. And especially around the idea of life getting back to normal after the pandemic.

“We must make sure,” Sharpton said, “that we make it clear ‘normal’ didn’t work for us. We weren’t equal in ‘normal.’ ‘Normal’ meant we were doubly unemployed. We had these archaic immigration laws. ‘Normal’ meant law enforcement that didn’t have to respect us. We must organize and unite around the diaspora to create a new normal.”

Blacksox Global’s After Lockdown – Global Black Community Update is a MediaNet TV broadcast and is available to watch on YouTube.

Lee Jasper’s other distinguished guests on the show included Kenyan Lawyer Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, otherwise known as PLO Lumumba, Dr. Clelia Prestes and member of the House of Lords, Simon Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford.

PLO Lumumba discussed Africa’s response to the pandemic.

“The good thing now,” he told Jasper, “is that for the first time in the history of post-independent Africa, nobody is leaving the country to seek medical attention elsewhere. I think that many governments are recognizing that, going forward, we must give the health sector the pride of place that it deserves.”

The renowned speaker and Director of The Kenya School of Laws also praised the work of the Institute Pasteur de Dakar, the biomedical research center in Senegal.

“We have also seen the Louis Pasteur Institute in Dakar in Senegal has demonstrated to us that within a very short time, you can innovate and have test kits which are affordable and sensitive to the realities of your continent. It is also instructive,” he added, “that for the first time in the history of the continent of Africa, the African Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) based in Addis Ababa, has now come alive.”

Referring to the work undertaken at Africa CDC’s Headquarters and across the public health agency’s five regional collaboration centres in Egypt, Nigeria, Gabon, Zambia and Kenya, Lumumba said, “This is telling us that Africa can innovate.”

According to Africa CDC, in their June 2^nd update, there were 153,135 cases of COVID-19 in Africa, 4,356 deaths and 64,793 recoveries.