Is NY City's Vaccine Mandate Racist, or Antiracist?
What does it mean to be racist? Can a policy be racist? Well, according to many “antiracist” activists and authors, esepcially the leading one, Ibram X. Kendi, we know exactly the answer to both of those questions.
Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities.” — Ibram X. Kendi
So how does this definition, that encompasses not only racism but the measurable inequities in society, apply to NY City’s new vaccination mandates?
The way the vaccine mandate is set up, there will be restrictions in place that require businesses to mandate proof of vaccination in order for patrons to enter. These new rules will start on August 16th and enforcement will begin mid-September. Patrons to these businesses will have to show proof of at least one dose of COVID Vaccination to enter. No final list of businesses affected has yet been published, but city officials are working on it and it will likely include gyms, restaurants and museums. City workers are already mandated to be vaccinated or to submit to regular testing.
And to understand, according to Dr. Kendi, if this policy is or is not racist, we will have to look at COVID vaccine equity and ask the question: “Does this policy create or increase inequity or equity?” How are racial groups affected by this policy and is that affect felt equally? What will be the results of that policy along racial lines?
According to NYC Health there is already inequity amongst racial groups when measuring COVID vaccination levels. You can look for yourself where I have it linked, but this is the chart on their site as of August 5th, 2021:
Like many other measurements where people are sorted into these racial categories, there are several differences among these groups. Why those differences exist is not something I’m looking to understand here. And that is not necessary for assessing racism or antiracism as defined above. What we need to know is if the policy will create greater inequity or not.
Leading the pack with COVID vaccination are the Asians and Native American/Alaska Native populations of NY City. Bringing up the rear, at 35%, is the Black population of NY City. These aren’t the only groups presented, but looking at the extremes on either end can help us ascertain how the policy will play out in terms of equity.
While the great majority of Asians and Native American/Alaska Native residents of NY City will be able to move freely about the city and enter buildings to enjoy fitness, fine dining, and museums, nearly two out of every three Black residents will be precluded from doing so. And what does that mean to how they will be living their lives?
It would be hard to come up with a model or prediction of what happens to a population of people who are largely excluded from society and what specifically will happen to them, but I doubt it would be positive. We can look to the past and ask if we have ever done anything like this that de facto affected people in an inequitable fashion. Maybe something that precluded a defined group of people from sitting at counters in department stores or didn’t even allow them in the building.
I wonder what already non-diverse places will look like once further restrictions on our population are in place? Will the racial diversity of museum attendants increase or be more monolithic? Will people not able to enter grocery stores, who already are suffering from health inequities, be forced to use only drive-through services? How will that affect their health equity? We could go on, but the reach of these restrictions wouldn’t be exhausted any time soon.
Anyways, I think we can gather that the answer to our question is pretty clear.
“A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people.” — Ibram X. Kendi
It is definitely not antiracist. These groups are already displaying inequities that will force more inequity as a result.
Neither am I the only person to think so.
A city councilman from Staten Island noted that there is a great disparity amongst those vaccinated, along racial lines, and had some words of warning for NY City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“I believe this is the spark that will get a lot of people very angry about the city’s response,” he said. “This is going to create two separate classes of people.” — Joseph Borelli
It’s incredibly ironic that a mayor who has recently been accused of creating a policy inherently racist against Asian children looking to apply to elite high schools for the sake of increasing Black representation, is now creating a policy that does the exact opposite along those racial lines. Asians are already going to be leading the pack when it comes to freedom of movement in the city while Black residents will be highly restricted. I wonder if that policy will affect the schools he is trying to integrate and if those black children will be allowed on the premises.
But this is what happens when you have a vision of society based on ever-changing goals and not based on principles. Principles like equality, not equity, where every individual person is expected to be treated equally regardless of the outcomes. As long as we govern or think in terms of goals and toss out principles if and when they annoyingly get in the way of our fleeting and poorly concocted goals, we will continue to have complete intellectual incoherence insanity.