Covid- Reflections – The Triple Threat to BAME communities.

If you have been following my Covid-reflections blog, you would know that my next blog was supposed to be all about my thoughts regarding Education and the potential Government approach to reopening schools.  However, like the everchanging tide of this point of history I needed to #unapologetically respond to the news that has been brewing and now looks like it has started to stew, leaving a bitter sensation in the air.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the findings that BAME groups are almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19.  I am guessing that this is not a shock to members of the BAME communities as the news of losing loved ones seemed to be ever present during the peak of this pandemic and the disproportionate number of NHS workers from BAME communities who have lost their lives to Covid-19 is another sad reflection of this truth.

What is striking though, is that somehow a non-discriminatory virus has turned  against its very nature and has become a loud clanging bell of inequality. One can only hope that it becomes a bell in the sea of change, needed to further alert our society, once and for all about the sinking depth of inequality experienced by people from BAME communities, families, homes.

I am sure that further research will be undertaken as to why this phenomenon exists, but I wanted to share my first thoughts about this, I wanted to discuss what I call the Triple Threat that Iles in our BAME communities.

Threat 1 – The MASK

Very much like the use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) many people in BAME communities have understood the protection of wearing their ‘MASK’.  Some of you may recall the striking images of Italian Doctors wearing masks until their faces were swollen and their spirits broken,  well the BAME community have long understood the uncomfortable necessity of the MASK.

Some wear the mask of fitting in, some wear the mask of un-moveable pride, some wear the mask of certainty to cover uncertainty in a country and often world that continues to side-line our representation of human emotion, achievement and being.

These thoughts are not new to anyone who has taken an interest in their fellow man, but it was made even clearer to me, whilst I was listening to a podcast about Autism, Education and ethnicity.  One of the interviewees said that her autism was hidden because she was taught how to present herself as a young black girl and she knew how to entertain others. This confident mask she had learned to wear, which she had used to her advantage and development was also the mask that saw her undiagnosed until she was in her mid 20’s, as people couldn’t see past the MASK to the needs she really wanted and required people  to see. This story is reflective of girls, women and BAME’s on the spectrum and it seems that until they peer under their own mask and make sense of what they need, their needs are ignored.

In relation to the Covid-19 Pandemic, this essential social ‘MASK’ has become a threat to the needs of our communities and has made us seen but not understoood. This MASK has led to the needs of BAME’s being unmet, our voices being muffled, and our air being restricted. In essence, this MASK has somewhat made us visibly,  invisible.

Threat 2 – The Visible – Invisibility Factor

Even if you are a BAME and have managed to shed the MASK, somehow the realness of ‘difference’ still seems to add a factor where no factor should exist.  Pretty much like the invisibility of this virus, unconscious and sometimes conscious bias has a way of creeping into the encounters of and has the ability to deflate the tenacity of the BAME spirit.

I have seen this bias a number of times through my career, with a name like Emma and an ‘acceptable’ phone voice, I have seen
people react as I walk into a meeting because I was not who they were expecting. I could list the experiences.

I have known and will always know that this is a part of my existence but because I am not high profile like say, Meghan Markle, I can somewhat mitigate the impact of this bias on my thoughts, feelings and direction. However, the Meghan Markle tale serves to show how the slipped mask of conformity and (un)concious bias can become an uncomfortable and life altering combination. This combination becomes more deadly and more impacting when it creeps into institutions.   When it casts a shadow on the Education of BAME Children. When it reduces Social Mobility and when it stops the BAME community from accessing services which ultimately could be life enhancing, life affirming and lifesaving.

Threat 3 – The metaphorical LOCKDOWN

Covid-19 has forced us inward, we are all experiencing the constraints, frustrations and uncertainty of Lockdown.  The idea of when will this be better, when will this end, when will the Economy bonce back, just when, are a part of our present thoughts, actions and hopes.

This is a trrue reflection of every time a member of a BAME community comes across the invisibility factor of bias, the same process consciously and subconsciously goes through our minds;  breaking the proverbial glass of our humanity bit by bit, reducing social liberties, risking social unrest and depreciating value.

And as the silent pieces of the hidden broken glass creeps into the public conscious; seen in the reality of higher exclusion rates for BAME’s , higher incarceration rates for BAME’s , higher rates of poverty in BAME communities, and now higher rates in Covd-19 deaths; the metaphorical emotional LOCKDOWN tightens it grip and takes a toll on the well-being , productivity and resilience of those communities.

Now, this is not intended to be an article of blame, we can go in to why and how come for ever, this Is purely an article of awareness.  Hopefully one that will not be added to the archive of great articles before it but one that will add to the Covid sea of change, one that will see the threats to BAME lives erradicated for good.

My hopes are as Covid-19 has made us more aware of our environment, more aware of our neighbour, more aware of ourselves, that Covid-19 will also serve to make us more aware of privilege and more aware of inequalities and better still it drives us all to do something, to do more, to be more to the ‘other’ we live, learn and breathe besides.

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