Prairie State Wire

Racial inequality seems to be the reason why African Americans in Illinois are suffering more than their neighbors.

No one can accuse global pandemics of racism since every person regardless of race or cultural background is susceptible to becoming infected.

But the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that racial inequality can still be a huge factor in how people of different races come out of a devastating outbreak.

In this case, black Illinoisans not only experienced a higher death rate when COVID-19 struck the state but they also suffered more in terms of financial losses.

With regard to the death rate, the main reason why black Illinoisans had a higher death rate compared to their white neighbors is because of the nature of their jobs.

According to the Guardian, black Illinoisans make up 30% of the population of the state but they make up 60% of the total deaths.

One reason for this is that blacks make up a disproportionate rate of service industry employees in jobs that usually cannot implement stringent social distancing policies.

The Guardian says another reason is that a lot of African Americans in Illinois live below the poverty line and have limited access to health care.

As for their financial woes, African Americans were already having a hard time getting capital/loans from banks to start or operate their businesses even before the pandemic struck.

Now that more businesses across the nation are in need of financial backing to stay afloat during this pandemic, smaller businesses owned by black Illinoisans are having a hard time getting assistance.