The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued a statement denouncing the coronavirus pandemic’s “disproportionate” impact on black Americans and the “systemic structural conditions” underlying it, Breitbart reported on Tuesday
“Our hearts are wounded for the many souls mourned as African American communities across the nation are being disproportionately infected with and dying from the virus that causes COVID-19,” the bishops said in the statement.
The USCCB stressed that “We raise our voices to urge state and national leaders to examine the generational and systemic structural conditions that make the new coronavirus especially deadly to African American communities.”
The bishops’ statement concluded that “We stand in support of all communities struggling under the weight of the impact this virus has had not only on their physical health, but on their livelihoods, especially front line medical and sanitation workers, public safety officers, and those in the service industry.”
Breitbart pointed out that the statement came out as a similar one was released by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as part of an overall proposal aimed at “rooting out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, our institutions, and our hearts.”
Biden wrote that “The truth is, African Americans can never have a fair shot at the American Dream so long as entrenched disparities are still allowed to chip away at opportunity,” pointing out that “The data we’ve seen so far suggests that African Americans are dying from COVID-19 at a far higher rate than whites,, [and] the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 have exposed - and cruelly exacerbated - the disparities long faced by African Americans.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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