A Message From Our General Manager About Racial Inequality
In the last eleven years, Abasto Magazine has always been present and by your side – our readers – during all those difficult and prosperous moments in the industry.
Through our articles and food and beverage business tips, the mission is and will always be to produce quality editorial content for the benefit of your businesses and companies.
However, in recent weeks the events that have been taking place, not only in the United States but in the world, lead us to convey a different message than what you are normally used to.
After George Floyd’s death at the hands of a white Minneapolis Police officer, and the immediate nationwide response in protests, it sparked a national debate on the persistent issue of racial inequality in the United States.
The death of George Floyd is not an isolated event. In the last five years, we see how a systematic abuse power by police has claimed the lives of Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice (a boy of just 12 years old), and other African-Americans who have been a target of police discrimination.
This apparent racism is not only caused by the police, but it is also present in other ways. A clear example is the current coronavirus pandemic, where the health crisis that affects the nation but reflects clear evidence of racial inequality. How?!
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According to Professor Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, Ph.D. (University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA), “capitalist racism is the root cause of racial and socioeconomic inequities within the coronavirus pandemic ( COVID-19) in the United States ”
Dr. Pirtle argues that racism and capitalism mutually construct harmful social conditions that fundamentally demonstrate the inequities produced during the pandemic. Among other reasons for inequity Dr. Pirtle mentions in his essay, we can mention the increase in multiple risk factors in poor people, people of color, including racial segregation, homelessness, and bias in medical care.
Leaving aside whether or not we agree with Dr. Pirtle’s argument, (I recommend reading his essay), reality indicates, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that there is “a disproportionate amount of cases of illness and death among racial and ethnic minority groups. ”
It is important for government authorities to recognize that communities of color across the United States are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. This requires a national response for those people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
You -our readers- know better than anyone how to respond to this pandemic thanks to your job stability, but we must not lower our arms. We must continue to work for our communities, but also for those minority groups who are discriminated against.
These diseases and I mean both, racism and the coronaviruses, will not be defeated if we are divided as a society. We must continue fighting together so that our communities emerge stronger and in equal conditions in the face of social and economic inequality.
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