Then, on March 11, everything fell apart. The World Health Organization proclaimed the coronavirus a global pandemic, and the National Basketball Association shut down after a player tested positive for COVID-19. The news sounded the death knell for the Essence Festival, which first was postponed, then cancelled. (Despite the pandemic, New Orleans’ culture marches on.)
Before McNair knew it, 95 percent of her business for the year was gone. She had to lay off all seven of her employees and 25 independent contractors. “I’ve had to put my staff on hold and hope when things come back they will come back,” she says.
Why Black businesses are more vulnerable
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “The disparate racial impact of the virus is deeply rooted in historic and ongoing social and economic injustices. Persistent racial disparities in health status, access to health care, wealth, employment, wages, housing, income, and poverty all contribute to greater susceptibility to the virus—both economically and physically.”
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, says Black Americans are still recuperating from the economic collapse of 2007-2009, which had a staggering impact on Black wealth. “Unlike other communities, African Americans are not as equipped today to recover from a second period of economic collapse.”
Epps agrees. “The impact of COVID opens all of the inequities, disparities of the double and triple standards in America,” he says. “When it comes to education, income, business, or health, we are disadvantaged and devastated to a much larger extent than white people.”
