STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 04-16-20
NCDP CHAIR CALLS FOR BURR’S RESIGNATION AMID NEW REPORT
[WASHINGTON, DC] Wayne Goodwin, chairman of the NC Democratic Party, demanded that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) immediately step down amid a new report that he sold his Washington, D.C. townhouse to a well-known lobbyist for well-over fair market value. According to the report by ProPublica, the lobbyist is a longtime donor to Burr’s campaign. Goodwin was one of many to call for Sen. Burr to step down after it was revealed he dumped $1.6 million in stock right before the COVID-19 pandemic cratered the stock market. Burr has asked for an ethic investigation.
LT. GOV. DEMANDS PANDEMIC INFO FROM NCDHHS
[RALEIGH, NC] Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a candidate for governor this fall, has demanded a list of information dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina because, he said in an April 13th letter to NCDHHS Sec. Mandy Cohen, “Now, it’s time to start planning how to rebuild.” Forest and other conservatives have been bellowing that Gov. Cooper’s measures to slow the transmission of the virus down by closing restaurants and bars, and imposing stay-at-home measures, has “seriously damaged” North Carolina’s economy. Cooper has said that the stringent measures must remain April 30th, and then he’ll look to see whether the rate of transmission has slowed sufficiently.
500 INMATES CONSIDERED FOR PRISON RELEASE
[RALEIGH, NC] At least 500 prison inmates are being considered for early release because of the COVID-19 pandemic, NC Dept. of Public Safety officials say. Those inmates may be moved to home confinement, but they have meet certain confinement requirements, says Eric Hooks, secretary of DPS. They must also already have a release date for 2020.
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THE REAL REASON WHY
BLACKS ARE SUSCEPTIBLE
TO COVID-19
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Racism, and our environments hold the keys.
In the eyes of the national media, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowly, but surely, evolved into a black people’s “problem,” and many African-Americans don’t like it.
Reports from states like Louisiana, where 70 percent of the COVID-19 deaths as of last week, have been black, and the major midwest city of Chicago, which logged over 9100 cases as of Monday of the week, with, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, more than half of them black.
Here in North Carolina, which has tallied over 5,000 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, African-Americans comprise 38% of those cases (and 39% of the over 100 deaths thus far).
And the NCNAACP has filed suit against the state to release nonviolent prison inmates now because of the danger of infection in close quarters. A COVID-19 outbreak was reported at the Smithfield prison in Johnston County, and at least three prisoners at the federal prison in Butner reportedly contracted the virus last week.
Many medical professionals have noted that those people with comprised immune systems - the body’s natural defense system that fights off disease - are highly susceptible to the physical ravages of COVID-19 the can result in high fevers, corrupted respiratory breathing and, in many cases, death. So African-Americans already suffering from diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and other traditional maladies associated with low-income living, have fallen victim.
But why, and can the environments that typically produce these dire results, be turned around?
According to social scientists, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed, without doubt, the nation’s “dirty little secret” about how it treats it’s poor, and the environmental and structural conditions America forces black and other communities of color to live in.
Crowded, isolated, older urban neighborhoods that are literal food and grocery store deserts, where families are unable to access fresh, nutritious produce, meats and dairy; and cannot even service pharmacies for important medication to properly manage health conditions.
Beyond older community centers and parks, few, if any facilities for the purpose of wholistic exercising and programs. Very little constructive exercise programming for young people!
Communities deliberately located near toxic chemical dumps, or are filled with light levels of toxic old lead paint still prominent in the housing and playground equipment.
Blacks and other poor people of color who live in these communities are largely not health-insured (though they probably need access to appropriate health coverage more than the average American), and are overrepresented in low wage/low benefits ‘essential jobs,’ like factory workers, janitorial services, bus and delivery drivers, waitresses, etc.
And now, with COVID-19, forcing these poor workers to report to work, despite overall ‘shelter-in-place’ restrictions for public safety, the risk of being infected is compounded, compared to the rest of the population.
“These communities, structurally, they’re breeding grounds for the transmission of the disease,” Sharelle Barber, assistant research professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, told the NY Times last week. “It’s not biological. It’s really these existing structural inequalities that are going to shape the racial inequalities in this pandemic.”
Dr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr. professor of biological science at NC A&T University in Greensboro, was even more blunt in his perspective.
“The effect of this kind of pandemic is going to be even more devastating on the poorest people in this nation, he told Roland Martin Unfiltered recently.
“One of the unintended side-effects of income inequality is creating a reservoir of …homeless people, and incarcerated people, who are always going to be the target of these viral and bacteria diseases, because of the conditions that they have to live in. But those people also come in contact with services where rich people are. So if [rich people] think they are going to be safe, you know, cloister themselves in their own communities, while allowing the majority of the [poor] people in this country to go homeless or under-employed, or thrown in jail, then they’ve got things absolutely wrong,” said Dr. Graves.” It’s even in their best interest to have places or people to live…people with employment that is meaningful.”
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HOW CAN BLACK BUSINESSES
SURVIVE COVID-19?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Will black businesses like restaurants, barber shops and beauty salons, and others, survive the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, or fall prey to the current “stay-in place” safety restrictions?
And if they do survive, can they navigate a probable national economic recession?
“Music is GONE,” opines popular jazz singer Eve CorneliOus. “Self-employed musicians are in trouble.”
Both are open questions now, particularly in a state that boasts to be in the top five when it comes to black businesses nationwide. Given the historic struggles black businesses encountered long before the “rona” - as some in the community nickname COVID-19 - began infecting the nation earlier this year, there is serious doubt about what will happen next.
In a normal environment, black businesses face being pigeon-holed racially; lack the both the capital and access to credit to build and hire more in the community; have to compete with non-black businesses sometimes within their own communities; adequately pay bills even when patrons fail to pay theirs on-time; not considered good enough; and maintaining product and service quality.
Indeed, according to national figures, eight out of ten black business startups fail in the first year.
“Black-owned companies averaged lower sales than those with white, Asian, and Hispanic owners, according to Inc. Magazine.
Now comes the coronavirus, and in an effort to slow down transmission of the dangerous infectious disease, Governor Roy Cooper orders all restaurants, bars and “nonessential” businesses closed, and for people to stay at home.
That order effectively closes many small businesses in the black community, let alone many small businesses overall.
Ideally, what was supposed to happen once the $2.3 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act was passed by Congress in March was small businesses were to have access to $350 billion “Payroll Protection Program” in loans (up to $10 million) from the federal government to the stave off layoffs and closures if employees are forced to stay home.
There was also $10 billion for emergency $10,000 grants for small businesses for operating expenses.
If a company has 500 or fewer workers, and it maintains it’s payroll during the pandemic shutdown, the employer could receive up to eight weeks of cash-flow assistance from the government. And if the business owner continued to pay employees while essentially shutdown, the portion of the government loan from the bailout used to cover payroll, pay interest on an outstanding mortgage, rent and utilities, would be forgiven.
But reportedly, what Trump administration officials promised would be a simple process of just going to the bank and making application online for the CARES Act loan, has turned out to be anything but for small businesses overall, thanks to administrative problems with the U.S. Treasury and the Small Business Administration.
And worst of all, banks would favor small business customers they already have a lending relationship with.
That one factor has locked a large number of small black businesses out, primarily because many aren’t able to access substantial credit on a normal basis, and thus, don’t have the strong bank relationship required to take advantage of the CARES Act loan.
Ironically, the CARES Act does provide funding to the Minority Business Development Agency, but it’s only $10 million.
It may take followup Congressional funding, along with strong input from the Congressional Black Caucus, for small black businesses to get the real financial assistance that they need to survive the coronavirus.
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