In the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19, it is time to rethink notions of public security and public health. It is time to see that ‘being safe is a crucial measurement of being healthy,’ said Prof. Hedwig Lee, a health variations professional, in an unique interview for MNT.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests raised concerns, at the time, that they would cause COVID-19 cases to spike. Some individuals utilized these concerns to challenge the demonstrations and the public health experts that supported them.
Nevertheless, the protests did not raise COVID-19 rates and called the concept of public health into concern It is ending up being significantly obvious that we can no longer overlook social factors of health, such as hardship or racial discrimination. Authorities brutality is a public health concern, and so is racism
Additionally, in some neighborhoods, a cops existence makes the members of those communities feel anything however safe. This pleads the concern– what does public safety indicate? What is the relationship between public safety and public health?
For responses, we relied on Hedwig Lee, a teacher of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Prof. Lee’s research interests consist of health disparities, race, and policing and social control. She is also the associate director of the Center for the Research Study of Race, Ethnic Background, and Equity at WUSTL.
We started by inquiring about public safety and public health as if they were two different concepts, but Prof. Lee challenged us to “flip the script.” It is time to understand that “Being safe is an essential measurement of being healthy,” she stated.
Also, in the context of “over-policing” and how it affects Black communities, in particular, it deserves keeping in mind that ‘safety’ may indicate different things for various individuals, and this may depend upon where individuals live.
We spoke with Prof. Lee about the tradition of racial violence in the United States, policing, COVID-19, wealth inequality, and how all of these aspects are interconnected into a more comprehensive image of health. We have lightly edited the interview for clearness.
MNT: In the context of the BLM demonstrations and COVID-19, it appears like a great time to rethink the concept of public health and what it means for different communities. Exists a tension in between public security and public health? Can the previous be damaging to the latter?
Prof. Lee: I’ve been thinking a lot about your questions, and I think, coming from my point of view as a person who studies the social factors of health, it’s hard for me in some cases to disentangle public security from public health.
[C] OVID has actually changed the entire world, and in the U.S., I think it actually helped to amplify what racial inequalities really mean. I think one of the factors it did that is since it reveals that all health results relate. It reveals that there’s no such thing as a public health policy or a criminal justice policy or an education policy, however that financial policy impacts health outcomes, that education policy impacts health results, and so on
And so, when we try to produce divisions or attempt to think of public health and public safety in a zero-sum video game, I think we forget or forget the bigger photo, which is that all of these things are connected.
So, problems of structural bigotry impact policing just in the very same method that they affect people’s disproportionate threat to health risks.
Therefore, if we used that structure, we would be asking various sort of concerns. I think the questions you’re asking are still actually important and we have to think of them. However, if we’re believing more upstream, [we see that] if we were doing a much better job at, for instance, making sure that neighborhoods weren’t segregated, [if] we were ensuring that we didn’t have policies that caused racial property segregation, we ‘d have less cops violence and we ‘d have less people exposed to COVID.
Those are the kinds of things [that we should be looking at,] which’s how I think about it– big picture.
MNT: Along the exact same lines, I was questioning if there are comparable elements at play in the BLM protests. Exist any social determinants of health that we require to take a look at there before we think [in rather simplistic terms] almost the threat of spreading the infection? What are some of the underlying elements that created the protests in the very first location?
Prof. Lee: People are protesting due to the fact that of numerous factors, and I can’t list them all. I think Black Lives Matter does an excellent job of talking [about that,] however private groups of people are opposing due to the fact that of inequalities that exist across all sectors of society– in health and education, in the job market, and so on
And [people are protesting] due to the fact that at some level, we comprehend that if we really wish to enhance results for people– and that includes securing people from being at danger of COVID, making sure people have sufficient health care when they feel sick, guaranteeing that people have adequate job security not to need to pertain to work if they’re sick, making sure that they live in houses that are safe and [that] enable the capability to self-quarantine, etc.– we have to resolve larger-scale policies. I think protesting is attempting to address these larger-scale concerns.
And After That, the conversations will turn to more near problems, like fine, can people protest safely? Is this going to increase COVID-19 threat, are we going to produce new hotspots? However, I think for most of individuals opposing, they believe that they are promoting for larger-scale issues that will not just impact COVID threat now and racial variations however will avoid something like COVID from happening again in the future.
COVID is just among lots of examples that we can turn to [in order] to comprehend racial disparities in the U.S. And while COVID is monumental and extraordinary in many methods, we, as African Americans, have a higher death threat and are at higher risk for other kinds of chronic illness– the list continues. COVID is what we’re thinking about right now, but something else might change COVID.
As soon as COVID is gone, we will see racial disparities in other health and social results, and protesting has to do with doing the work so that we can repair today and tomorrow. So I believe it’s a longer-term financial investment.
So, I think if you see it that way, you recognize that individuals are thinking about saving lives today and tomorrow, and it might make you sort of reassess the costs and benefits of opposing today, offered the objectives of the protests.
MNT: With regards to this, and in connection with your earlier point that criminal justice, economy, education, and health policies are interconnected, and we should be asking different questions, can I ask you to broaden a little more on these subjects for our readers?
Prof. Lee: Yeah, I believe there are some authors who are doing a great task of this, so individuals such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, Eddie Glaude, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Alexander There are some leading public thinkers who have been talking about this, but one [question], a minimum of in the U.S., is to think about our racial history.
I believe it’s no coincidence that as our country is competing with COVID and understanding its racial and financial disparities– these extend beyond black and white because COVID is also disproportionately affecting the Latinx population, the Native American population, and other marginalized groups, so I simply want to make that clear– we’re also considering how we are going to resolve racial and ethnic disparities in COVID risk and death. And, as we’re also talking about racial variations and policing, [it’s no coincidence that] this is also a minute where people want to do some considering our history.
So, there’s great deals of discussions in the news around removing monuments that represent racial violence, getting rid of names of leaders that decorate numerous universities, entranceways, etc., and I believe it’s due to the fact that it’s clear, at least for lots of people, that if we