The rising death toll, disproportionately among black residents, has led Michigan to create a racial disparities task force.
An aunt, an uncle, and a cousin have tested positive for coronavirus, says Cassandra Spratling. A friend’s husband died. Her brother’s friend, like her aunt and uncle, is hospitalized.
“I’m almost afraid, I almost hate turning on my Facebook page, or even sometimes answering my phone,” says the 64-year-old Detroit native, once a journalist at the Detroit Free Press. As the number of deaths from Covid-19 rise in the city, she says, “it makes me a little nervous when I get a phone call because I’m always afraid that it’s going to be somebody I know.”
Spratling, in her northwest Detroit neighborhood, islike many African Americans nationwide, watching in fear as the coronavirus rapidly spreads in her hometown and in other black communities across the US.
By Khushbu Shah, Vox
Featured Image, Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press
Full article @ Vox