Six feet apart or six feet under: The impact of COVID-19 on the Black community

Abstract

To date, 110,000+ people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the authors will discuss COVID-19 relative to Black people and their overrepresentation among those who are infected and died from the disease. Their dying, death, and grief experiences are explored through a cultural and spiritual lens. The physical distancing, social isolation, misinformation, and restrictive burials and cremations now elicited by this unprecedented pandemic have had diminished familial, cultural, emotional, and economic impacts on the Black community. Implications for public health and Black peoples’ involvement in the political process are also addressed.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Joelle James, a 2020 graduate of Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, who conducted the interviews to collect the information presented in the case studies.

Notes

1 The terms Black people, Blacks and African American are used interchangeably to denote people of African ancestry.