Racial Equity, COVID-19, and Public Policy

The Triple Pandemic

Elsie L. Harper-Anderson, Jay S. Albanese, Susan T. Gooden, Elsie L. Harper-Anderson, Jay S. Albanese, Susan T. Gooden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032261805
• eBook ISBN: 9781000835670
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Racial Equity, COVID-19, and Public Policy: The Triple Pandemic focuses on the health, economic, and justice impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial equity. The book does not simply document the problems made worse by the pandemic, but it provides historical context for issues that rose to the surface in new ways, the existing inequities revealed during COVID-19, as well as policy responses to those issues. The volume is distinguished in its focus on the implications for racial equity through an examination of both existing public policy and new ideas for change.

The chapters in this volume demonstrate the ways in which this period of American history and politics is unique, most notably in the convergence of major threats to public health, economic livelihood, and access to justice. This "triple pandemic" will be felt in the coming years and will continue to unfold, depending upon the adequacy of the contemporary response. This edited volume is designed to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of issues including policing, housing, business, disaster response, education, immigration, vaccine distribution, reentry of justice-involved individuals, and the responses to public protests—all with a unifying focus on racial inequities and social justice concerns that elevated these issues to broader public attention and political response. This coalescing emphasis on public policy as both a cause and effect to address these issues makes the book a unique contribution to the public policy literature. This book responds to audiences seeking a better understanding of the events that occurred, the conditions that set the stage for their eruption into wider public view, and what might be done to prevent social and racial inequities in the future.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction—Why This Book? Why the Wilder School as the Launching Point? Why Now?
• 2 Unmasking Disaster Disparities and Inequality in Local Emergency Management
• 3 Racial Disparities in Pandemic Public Opinion: Findings From the Wilder School Commonwealth Poll
• 4 Equity Partnerships in Action: Vaccines and Public Health
• 5 Immigrant Equity and Lessons From the Triple Pandemic
• 6 Policing in America: Finding a Way Out of the Cycle of Scandal and Unfulfilled Reform
• 7 Demanding Change and Racial Justice: Public Protests and Demonstrations During the Covid-19 Pandemic
• 8 COVID-19, Race, and Justice: Implications for Reentry of Justice-Involved People (JIP) Going Forward
• 9 The Impact of COVID-19 and the CARES Act on Black Workers and Black-Owned Businesses in Virginia
• 10 COVID-19 and Housing Instability: From Emergency Response to Longer-Term Transformation
• 11 The COVID-19 Pandemic Response by Institutions of Higher Education: Negative Consequences for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
• 12 The Triple Pandemic and the Road Ahead
• Index