NAACP calls for equity in state virus response

The groups unveiled a list of priorities Friday they say leaders should take up when they return to session next week.

NAACP state President Rev. T. Anthony Spearman said raising the minimum wage and expanding Medicaid would help low-income workers who are most likely to suffer from the outbreak in both health and economic terms.

"We have turned to calling those who are out there on the front lines 'essential workers,'" Spearman said. "Yet, governmental officials' refusal to expand Medicaid proves those workers have yet to become essential human beings."

Spearman and former state NAACP President Rev. William Barber also called on state leaders to reduce the number of inmates in the prison system to lower the risk of virus outbreaks that could turn even a short stay for a non-violent offense into a potential death sentence.

"We cannot allow people in power to become comfortable with other people's deaths," Barber said.

Barber said too much of the federal relief effort has been directed to corporations and businesses, while little has been done to provide the basics like food and medical care to the millions of low-income, low-wage workers and their families.

Duke professor William Darrity said black communities are suffering disproportionately from coronavirus cases and deaths because they're more likely to work in low-paid frontline service jobs where the risk of exposure is highest, and because long-standing health disparities make them more likely to suffer from pre-existing conditions that increase the severity of COVID-19.

The virus, Barber warned, "will host in those communities. Now, what the rest of society needs to know is that it will not stay in those communities. So, unless we close the inequalities, we are all at risk."

The NAACP is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state to force the release of more prisoners who are at high risk from coronavirus. The first hearing in that case is scheduled for Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.

Both Barber and Spearman urged people to continue to stay at home and care for themselves and their loved ones. Spearman has lost family and friends to the virus, and Barber has seen it sweep through multiple members of families in his congregation.

"This is serious business," Barber warned. "Do not believe these folks who are lying and saying we are ready to go back. It is an invitation to death. It is an invitation to infection."