"Our Community, Our Responsibility": Community Efforts to Navigate the Intersection of COVID-19, Poverty, and Structural Racism in Durham

        By Rachel Holtzman, Jacqueline Nikpour, and Kelby Brown

When COVID-19 first began to spread widely, experts held their breaths. Tweets to the tune of “the virus doesn’t care if you’re Black or white, poor or rich” came rolling in. No one knew for sure who would be most affected. As students of health policy and health equity, we held our breaths too. We hoped our racial and ethnic minority and working-class neighbors would not be disproportionately impacted, as they so often are in health care, but feared they would. As COVID-19 wreaked havoc on our communities, it has uncovered the all too familiar reality that divisions of race and class are woven into the fabric of our society.

The reality is that COVID-19 hasn’t caused new disparities -it’s only exacerbated those that already existed. For example, while Black and Latinx people make up just 22% and 10% of the North Carolina population, they account for 36% and 23% of COVID-19-related deaths (respectively). This is partially due to occupational segregation that has resulted in nearly a quarter of Black and Latinx workers being service industry workers, compared to just 16% of white workers. Therefore, when we are told to stay safe by staying home, there’s a big racial divide in who has access to that privilege. Furthermore, while 40% of white North Carolinians hold college degrees, only 30% of Black North Carolinians do, perpetuating the disparity in social mobility that allows one to endure economic downturns like this. Even the Black-owned businesses in Durham, such as Beyu Cafe and Empower Dance Studio, are having to make severe reductions in hours and staffing that will make it hard for them to recover. The result of these co-occurring realities is that low-income people of color in North Carolina -and in Durham specifically -are facing increased physical risk from COVID-19, with fewer of the protections that come from steady employment and wealth. The virus may not discriminate between who it infects, but structural racism sure does.

The effects of structural racism on communities of color in Durham is nothing new. A clear example is the near erasing of the Hayti community which was once home to Durham’s thriving Black middle class and hundreds of Black-owned businesses -even praised by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. This once-bustling community was decimated by the urban renewal movement in the 1960’s. Rather than routing the new NC-147 highway through any of the many predominantly white neighborhoods in Durham, the state elected that Hayti should be the scapegoat, and in the process razed nearly 200acres in the heart of “Black Wallstreet” to the ground. Hayti was nearly destroyed, with most businesses going under and many families permanently displaced. The list of minority communities in Durham that have endured through decades of racism goes on and on.

Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, these systems of oppression, Durhamites have grown incredibly resilient. This resiliency is embodied within Hayti’s community food pantry, the nonprofit Believers United for Progress. If you were to drive to the food pantry, you might almost miss the small shop entirely. Once you arrive, though, you’d be greeted by the Director, Kasib Abdullah, a middle-aged Black man with laugh lines at the corners of his eyes. Kasib is well known in the Durham community as a leader, a friendly face, and the owner of the delicious restaurant, New Visions of Africa, out of which Believers United for Progress is run. Unlike many businesses, Kasib’s purpose is not to make money -it’s to feed and engage with the community. Long before the pandemic, he and his staff served free community meals to children and families, bringing together folks of all nationalities and religions from within and beyond Hayti. Kasib also sponsors mentorship programs and the like for kids and families, as well as a community garden. These programs are taking a new shape in the face of the pandemic, but are continuing to engage and support the community.* The nonprofit’s role in the community can even be seen on Kasib’s business card, with three pairs of brown and white hands clasped in handshakes along the side and “our community, our responsibility” stretched across the top.“

Our community, our responsibility” is a motto that holds true throughout Durham. Now, more than ever, Durahmites are building upon existing networks and creating new ones to support one another during COVID-19. At least 15 neighborhoods are now part of the Durham Mutual Aid Network, which is organizing support within and across neighborhoods using a framework of solidarity and collective liberation -the recognition that everyone’s struggles are interconnected, and thus our liberation is too. Families are building new victory gardens like that of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, using small spaces to harvest fresh food for folks who need it. The Durham Public Schools (DPS) Foundation has started providing thousands of meals a week to low-income families through the Durham FEAST program, after the DPS feeding program was shut down due to an employee testing positive for COVID-19 (see Xie et al. reflection). A group of Durham residents and organizations created The Thriving Community Fund for Durham-based minority owned businesses that demonstrate “transformational strategies to end racism and poverty.” Throughout the many pockets of Durham, residents are showing their tendency towards community-led resiliency in instances when we can’t fully rely on the government for support.

What’s happening in Durham is not unique; instead, it’s connected to a broader movement of people calling for systemic change. From Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign, to the more than 200 groups that have signed onto the NC People’s Platform for Social and Economic Survival and Beyond Us, it is clear that North Carolinians are hungry for reform. They embody a long history of progressive movements by, with, and for working class communities and communities of color, as well as people who have become newly involved in their communities in the time of the pandemic. And the need for these movements is only growing as COVID-19’s impact continues to worsen disparities of class and race. We must collectively look back at what led us to this moment and forward to our reimagined future of interdependence and mutual flourishing. Only together will we have the power to withstand this pandemic and pave a new highway that bends towards justice.

*Believers United for Progress will be one of the distribution sites for the USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which will send bulk food to community food pantries to be redistributed to people in need of food aid over the next six months. Kasib is currently looking for volunteers to help him repackage food for around three hours a week. If you’re interested in getting involved, you can email Kasib at humanityone@believersunitedforprogress.org with the head line “Volunteering for the USDA Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.”

This reflection was authored by some of the 2019-2020 Duke University Margolis Scholars as part of a five-part series reflecting on the disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of the Durham community. Each of the five reflection pieces centers around one of the five top health priorities in Durham, identified by the community in the 2017 Durham County Community Health Assessment. For more information, visit https://healthydurham.org/.