Pandemics of COVID-19 and racism: how HBCUs are coping

Komanduri S Murty; Tamara B Payne; Komanduri S Murty; Tamara B Payne

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2021026

AIMS Public Health

2021, Volume 8, Issue 2: 333-351. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2021026

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Pandemics of COVID-19 and racism: how HBCUs are coping

Komanduri S Murty ^{1
,
,},
Tamara B Payne ²

1.
Professor and Char, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, USA
2.
Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Counseling and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, GA, USA

Received: 02 February 2021 Accepted: 29 March 2021 Published: 31 March 2021

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are currently facing unique challenges to deal with parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and Racism, given the population they serve (mostly African American) are at high risk of these unprecedented crises. HBCU leaders are adopting various strategies to respond to both the pandemics in order to protect their stakeholders. This paper addresses various models that HBCUs have adopted or planned to adopt to cope with these pandemics, gleaning the data from various secondary sources and selected first-hand interviews with HBCU administrators.
- pandemics,
- COVID-19,
- racism,
- social justice,
- vaccine,
- HBCUs,
- African American,
- George Floyd,
- Breonna Taylor
Citation: Komanduri S Murty, Tamara B Payne. Pandemics of COVID-19 and racism: how HBCUs are coping[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2021, 8(2): 333-351. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2021026

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Abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are currently facing unique challenges to deal with parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and Racism, given the population they serve (mostly African American) are at high risk of these unprecedented crises. HBCU leaders are adopting various strategies to respond to both the pandemics in order to protect their stakeholders. This paper addresses various models that HBCUs have adopted or planned to adopt to cope with these pandemics, gleaning the data from various secondary sources and selected first-hand interviews with HBCU administrators.

¹ Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are black academic institutions of higher learning established prior to 1964 with principal mission to educate black Americans. Historically, they have served a population that has lived under severe legal, educational, economic, political, and social restrictions. The composition and position of the black population have influenced the development of HBCUs, and in turn, HBCUs have contributed much to the advancement of the black population. Traditionally, in comparison with other colleges, HBCUs are poor in terms of financial resources, physical plant, and teaching facilities; they have faced opposition from the white power structure; and, they have dealt with many students who are not adequately prepared for higher education. They are a vital national resource and have served as the fulcrum of African-American Leadership. Currently, there are 101 HBCUs (51 public and 50 private non-profit). Twenty-seven HBCUs offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's, 83 offer bachelor's, and 38 offer associate degree programs [9].

² Seventeen public HBCUs now in existence were established under the second Morrill Act of August 30, 1890, which paved the way for the development of legally separated black and white public colleges in border and southern states. During the period from 1890 to 1899, one black college was either planned or founded per year in each of the seventeen border and southern states. They were unequal and did not offer four-year college programs. The legacy of the industrial, mechanical, and agricultural education of blacks in the South stems from this period, and all of the schools established under the Morrill Act offered degrees later on. Actually, the public HBCUs were created by the southern state governments for three reasons: (1) to get millions of dollars in federal funds for the development of white land-grant universities; (2) to limit black education to vocational training; and (3) to prevent blacks from attending white land-grant colleges. Following Reconstruction (after 1877), southern legislatures enacted a host of segregation laws, including those that excluded blacks from all the white educational institutions. Yet the region had received federal funds for designated white institutions since the passage of the first Morrill Act in 1862. In order to prevent continued discrimination against blacks in public higher education, the federal government enacted the second Morrill Act of 1890, mandating that all states had to either provide separate educational facilities for blacks or admit them to existing colleges. All southern and border states opted to establish “separate but equal” agricultural and industrial schools for blacks in order to get federal money for white land-grant colleges. These facilities were never equal, and consequently, public HBCUs have never come close to their white counterparts financially or academically [9],[11].

³ Krieger et al. pointed out that the COVID-19 Racial Data Tracker reported 6,448, 573 cases as of September 13, 2020, of which 37.5% were missing data on race [18]. Table 1 also shows that race is unknown for 33.3% of COVID-19 cases, 6.5% of COVID-19 deaths, and 7.3% of hospitalizations.

⁴ Although overt racial discrimination in housing is illegal, many covert de facto methods continue to exist, which result in racially segregated neighborhoods. Studies show that poor Black neighborhoods tend to lack parks or other greenspaces, dedicated trails for walking or biking, access to healthy food, clinics, or properly maintained infrastructure, amenities, or appliances. On the contrary, they are frequently characterized by high crime, noise and air pollution, etc. and often located within the close proximity of toxic waste sites, factories, highways and other places of health hazard [21].

⁵ Syndemic perspective or approach involves the consideration of biological connections (i.e., disease concentrations and disease interactions) under the prevailing social structures and social relationships, e.g., social inequality and injustice) as well as socio-genic environmental conditions, e.g., hazards of the built environment, toxic commodities, pollution, etc. Stated differently, syndemics develop under health disparity, caused by poverty, stress, structural racism, pollution, etc. Unlike comorbidity, which focuses on disease co-occurrence with or without interaction, syndemic theory stresses on adverse disease interactions (i.e., how the presence of one disease or disorder enhances the consequences of other diseases or disorders), their causes (social environments including social structures and social relationships), and consequences for human life (increased risks of exposure, morbidity, and mortality) [22].

⁶ While these responses were given by interviewees and found in some news articles [24],[25], other explanations could be that enrollments at HBCUs are generally lower, testing may not be widely available at points [26], testing programs on campus may have been delayed, or some campuses may have been closed [27] to avoid higher infections.

⁷ A survey conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) between December 10–21, 2020 revealed a significant gap in vaccine confidence among Black adults. Fewer than one-quarter of respondents responded ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ confident in COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, safety, or adequate testing among Black adults; only 16% were reportedly confident that the vaccines would be distributed equitably [52]. Even in an earlier survey conducted between November 18–29, 2020 by Pew Research Center, only 42% of Black American adults were inclined to get vaccinated when available, compared to 63% of Hispanic and 61% of White Americans [53]. Sadly, at least to some, the distrust in the U.S. public health service among African Americans is deeply rooted in the historical exploitation and abuse of Black bodies in the name of medical progress (e.g. Tuskegee experiment) to justify lower standard of healthcare and other forms of scientific racism [54].

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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