BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA
CHICAGO -- Everybody drinks: Whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, old people, young people, married moms in their "wine o'clock" T-shirts and suburban dads brewing craft beer in their basements. The list is endless.
So why did U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams hold a press conference at the White House last week to deliver what was, essentially, a public service announcement tailor-made for African Americans and Hispanics, asking them to "step it up"?
Adams asked these two communities, which he described as "socially predisposed to coronavirus exposure," to follow social distancing guidelines. "Wash your hands more often than you ever dreamed possible," he said, and "avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs."
He added that this was critical, "especially in communities of color." Adams pleaded: "We need you to do this, if not for yourself, then for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy, do it for your big mama, do it for your pop pop."
My question is: Why us? Why did Adams single us out? What did we do wrong?
It's Ina Garten, the white "Barefoot Contessa," who, at 9:30 in the morning, declared on Instagram that "It's always cocktail hour in a crisis!" and subsequently poured a freshly shaken cosmopolitan into a ginormous martini glass.
And it's whites -- specifically non-Hispanic whites without a four-year college degree -- who are dying "deaths of despair," according to economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who wrote the new book "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism."
In a recent webinar about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deaton said that research shows most causes of death actually go down during recessions, but suicides increase. Deaton drew a straight line between despondency and virus-related joblessness at the webinar, which was from the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also talked about the continuation of the opioid crisis and the ways in which the health care system financially ruins people. And, well, though he didn't come out and say it, it doesn't look good.
Plus, you have to remember that even though, percentage-wise, minorities represent the highest share of those in poverty, whites outnumber people of color in poverty in raw numbers.
Look, I'm not being cute or clever by cherry picking doomsday statistics about whites and ignoring the fact that people of color are truly at high risk for contracting COVID-19 and dying from it.
But I don't appreciate my ethnicity being singled out for drinking too much alcohol or not washing our hands enough when there is no data to indicate that African Americans and Hispanics are doing anything differently from whites.
Why are people of color at higher risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19? It's certainly not because we're doing shots of tequila at 9:30 a.m. It's because blacks and Hispanics tend to work low-wage jobs at "essential" businesses -- like grocery stores, restaurants and delivery services -- that bring them in contact with lots of people.
And black and brown people are likely to be underinsured and have little to no budget for self-care.
It was well-intentioned, yet ultimately condescending, for Adams, a black man, to use code words such as abuela and "pop pop" in a message that was meant for everybody. When asked why he singled out people of color, Adams replied that "we need everyone -- black, brown, white, whatever color you are -- to follow the president's guidelines."
There's no amount of hand washing that's going to fix the inequality in incomes, education levels and access to health care that causes COVID-19 to pose a higher threat to people of color than to those who are able to work from home and afford to have groceries and other essentials delivered to their doorstep.
We are all at equal risk of contracting COVID-19. We are not all equally likely to be able to fend it off because of societal and structural inequities in our system. So let's not pretend that an extra handwashing for granddaddy is going to make the biggest difference.
I'm not throwing any shade at our Surgeon General, who is required to get out his president's message. He means well for African American and Hispanic communities, but just needs to choose his words more wisely. Adams did say something I loved: "Call your friends and family, check in on your mother, she wants to hear from you right now."
Trust me -- black, brown, white and everything in between -- your mom wants you to call her.
Yes, call -- don't text her! Do it now.
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Esther Cepeda's email address is [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @estherjcepeda.
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