Requiem for a "Blues People" By Gloria Ladson-Billings --- the homegoing -- or what the rest of Americ
she was one of my most respected Profs during Grad School.
https://madison365.com/requiem-for-a-blues-people/
Requiem for a “Blues People”
By Gloria Ladson-Billings -
Apr 17, 2020 0
By now, you or someone you know has been touched by COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. This cruel disease is burning a path through Black communities in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and New Orleans to name a few. And, not only are Black people coming down with COVID-19, they are dying from it at a disproportionate rate — far outstripping their proportion in their cities.
We are told Black people are succumbing to COVID-19 because they are more likely to have more underlying health risks — diabetes, hypertension, cancer, asthma, and COPD for example. At some point officials at local, state, and national levels finally admitted that Black people’s high morbidity is a direct result of longstanding and persistent social disparities — lack of access to health care, poor housing, low-level employment, and limited access to quality food, etc. That’s the subtle way of saying racism is killing us!
Despite the acknowledgment that an unfair system is leading us to early graves, somewhere the discussion came back to our dying being our own fault. The Surgeon General, a Black man named Jerome Adams, defaulted to that old bromide… Black people are dying because they are not taking personal responsibility for their own health. He stood in front of a national audience at the daily COVID-19 press briefing and said, “Black people need to stop drinking alcohol and stop smoking.” He said that as if White people do not drink (remember the 3-martini lunch?) or smoke. He did not tell White people to stop using meth or opioids. No, his admonition was directed solely at Black people. So, in the midst of our dying, we are being shamed!
On top of all of this death and suffering, I am even more concerned about the way this moment is keeping us from one of the most sacred rituals of Black life — the homegoing — or what the rest of America calls a funeral. Black homegoings are an important culmination of our journey here on earth. They allow family and loved ones to say a formal and public good-bye to the deceased. It allows us to speak well about the departed. It allows community and friends to surround us with condolences, prayers, and love. It allows us to send our loved ones into eternity with proper reverence and ceremony....................................
(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)