A graffiti depicting the importance of face masks, part of a Covid-19
awareness-raising campaign, is pictured with the Arabic hashtag "Stay
aware" on a wall in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on April 8, 2020.
PHOTO | ASHRAF SHAZLY | AFP
Many hoped the interconnectedness of humanity would take on this
incurable, infectious disease which does not choose race or ethnicity,
with its terrifying reality of death tolls rising daily and possibility
of world economy collapse.
Optimists believed the
pandemic brought together divided societies to imagine a shared future.
Some even called it the great equaliser.
Pessimists predicted a tightening of laws to keep out immigrants, closing of national borders and increased surveillance by governments. The virus infected equally, however the impact was based on socio-economic status, they said.
Racism manifested quickly as incidents against people of Asian origin began.
It, however, took a conversation on coronavirus by two French Doctors—Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group and Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris—on television to shatter “the we are all in this together” myth for Africans.
Pessimists predicted a tightening of laws to keep out immigrants, closing of national borders and increased surveillance by governments. The virus infected equally, however the impact was based on socio-economic status, they said.
Racism manifested quickly as incidents against people of Asian origin began.
It, however, took a conversation on coronavirus by two French Doctors—Camille Locht, head of research at the Inserm health research group and Jean-Paul Mira, head of intensive care at Cochin hospital in Paris—on television to shatter “the we are all in this together” myth for Africans.
Dr Mira said; “If I can be provocative,
shouldn’t we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no
treatments, no resuscitation? A bit like it is done elsewhere for some
studies on Aids. In prostitutes, we try things because we know that they
are highly exposed and that they do not protect themselves.”
Then Dr Locht responded: “You are right. We are in the process of thinking about a parallel study in Africa.”
Football
greats, Didier Drogba of Cote d’Ivoire and Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon
emphasised Africans were not guinea pigs, categorising the doctor’s
comments as deeply racist. Moroccan lawyer’s initiative is suing for
defamation.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said he was appalled.
“At a time when we need solidarity, this kind of racist remarks,
do not help. Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any
vaccine.”
Dr Tedros called for an end to this colonial
mentality and termed it a disgrace that such comments could be made in
the 21st Century by scientists.
Although Dr Mira later
apologised for his remarks, he tried to justify by explaining, the
research had Africa, France and Australia in mind.
Past experiences tell us that this stereotypical remarks on Africa will have implications on people with implicit bias.
Implicit
bias results from the tendency to process information based on
unconscious associations and feelings even when these are contrary to
one’s conscious or declared beliefs.
This means that a
person may declare they are not racist, but process information based on
how black people have been treated in the past. The racist remarks on
Africa’s unhygienic conditions allow for generalised opinions on
coronavirus.
Shalini Bharat, an academic with extensive research work draws examples of stigmatisation of black people as unhygienic.
A
research on the health of slaves on Southern Plantations (in the US)
speaks of the Negro bringing disease from Africa with “the one
dominating image being that of carriers — a portrait of a social menace
whose collective superstitions, ignorance, and carefree demeanour stood
as a stubborn affront to modern motions of hygiene and advancing
scientific understanding, a people best understood as a disease vector.”
This, despite 15th Century Portuguese occupation having introduced
smallpox to Africa.
Bharat illustrates harassment of black Haitians accused of bringing AIDS into the US.
Travel
restrictions placed on foreigners saw African students in USSR and
Western Europe detained and isolated, accused of spreading AIDs/HIV.
In the Gulf countries, mandatory testing was imposed on foreigners. Bharat concludes racism intensifies existing inequalities.
Five
congressional Democrats in the US have requested a public report from
the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on
the racial and ethnic demographic information of patients tested for and
affected by Covid-19.
They are concerned existing
racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and healthcare
access may mean the nation’s response to preventing and mitigating its
harms will not be felt equally.
Many are looking at WHO
tackling racism in the medical field by disaggregating data on racial
or ethnic discrimination related to coronavirus research, prevention and
care; developing a research programme to document evidence, nature and
forms of race-based stigma; examining the intersectionality of race and
ethnicity and its impact of the quality of life of the affected;
documenting and creating awareness of evidence of good legislative
practice countering racist attitudes and stigma; informing educational
curriculum on countering racism and documenting data on medical
personnel trained in poor countries at public expense taken by the
developed world to work in their hospitals.
Writer
Arudhati Roy says historically pandemics have forced humans to deal with
the past and imagine their world anew. It will take much more than a
virus to end centuries old racism, but we must start somewhere.
Nderitu is the author of Beyond Ethnicism. Mukami Kimathi, Mau Mau Freedom Fighter and Kenya: Bridging Ethnic Divides, info@mdahalo.org
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