ABC7 Unite: Frontline workers open up about COVID-19's impact on Black community
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Three African Americans working on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City opened up about the health crisis which is disproportionately impacting their community.
Three-quarters of the city's essential workers are Black.
"Could it be more diverse? Absolutely," Lt. Tracy Joseph, an FDNY paramedic, said.
"There are not enough African American male doctors in this country," Dr. Phillip Fairweather, who works in the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital, said.
"When a patient or a family member comes in and sees someone who looks like them, it means everything," Mount Sinai Staff Chaplain Rocky Walker said.
They are three heroes continuing the fight to save lives.
"This virus hit particularly hard the African American community," Walker said.
Pervasive social inequalities like poverty and overcrowded housing have led to more Black and Hispanic people contracting COVID-19, studies show.
"The truth is we were also putting our families at risk or our significant others at risk," Fairweather said.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Fairweather rode out the pandemic at Elmhurst Hospital.
The public hospital in Queens was pushed to the brink last Spring.
"At its worst it was chilling. It was very hard," Fairweather said. "One of our nurses died as a result of that infection and so to observe all of that and have to come to work and continue working was tremendously difficult."
As an FDNY paramedic, Joseph oversees EMS dispatch.
The Crown Heights native said she also lost coworkers to the virus.
"It can be emotionally draining. It could be your family member, it could be your friend," Joseph said.
Walker, a former Army pilot, is now working on a different battlefield.
"The work, the tireless efforts and we flattened that curve with our bare hands. It happened in this hospital. We watched it," Walker said.
During a year that saw this country undergo a racial reckoning, Dr. Fairweather had this message about the meaning of Black History Month.
"It's an opportunity for us to look at ourselves and say we're worthy. We're present. We have made huge contributions to the history of this country and we're an invaluable resource and should not be underestimated," Fairweather said.
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RESOURCES
We are also publishing resources in a range of areas, which will grow and can be found below:
Ways to Help
National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform
Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY)
Black LGBTQIA + Migrants Project
Teaching the Next Generation
Creating Space To Talk About Racism At Your School
Teaching for Black Lives - Rethinking Schools
Black-Owned Bookstores in New York and New Jersey
The Little Boho Bookshop (Bayonne)
Books
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children In A Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Podcasts
Movies
American Son: Available on Netflix
If Beale Street Could Talk: Available on Hulu
Just Mercy: Available on Amazon Prime
Selma: Available on Amazon Prime
The Hate U Give: Available on Amazon Prime
When They See Us: Available on Netflix
Documentaries
13th: Available on Netflix
America Inside Out with Katie Couric: Available on National Geographic
Becoming: Available on Netflix
I am Not Your Negro: Available on YouTube
