The Double Pandemic: Socioeconomic and Racial Inequality in the COVID-19 Era

In the U.S., the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a societal magnifying glass, highlighting the powerful social, economic, and racial inequities that have existed here for generations, long before the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020. These historic, deep-rooted inequities have infected all aspects of life of people of color, creating the basic ‘pandemic’ of exclusion and hardship that the nation is gradually seeking to erase.

A new infection, COVID-19, is now changing life with an added layer of negative impact on low-income communities of people of color. This report examines the disparate impact in areas such as health, the workplace, unemployment, housing, and the digital divide, and offers recommendations for change.

This report also shaped JOTF’s 2022 policy agenda which focuses on three main pillars: Jobs, Justice, and Mobility. During the 90-day legislative session in Annapolis, JOTF will support the following public policy initiatives that will:

Promote access to jobs, skills training, and benefits
Decriminalize poverty via criminal justice reforms, and
Increase transportation access for low-income workers and job seekers:

Please feel free to reach out to Christopher Dews, Senior Policy Advocate, christopher@jotf.org for further information on our report or 2022 policy agenda.