Social Justice Commons^™

Chronic Inequities: Environmental & Structural Racism During Covid-19 And Hurricane Laura Disaster Recovery, Tomeka M. Robinson, Sabrina Singh

Critical Disaster Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the realities of systemic health inequities within the United States. While the virus has severely impacted the entire country, people of color bear the brunt of this pandemic, from surges of COVID-19 cases in their communities to spikes in unemployment rates. Simultaneously, citizens are dealing with the impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. The common denominator concerning these two stressors is that they can be exacerbated by institutional racism. This can be seen in the case of a small city in Southwest Louisiana, namely, Lake Charles, which has become a …

Connectivity And Racial Equity In Responding To Covid-19 Impacts In The Chicago Regional Food System, Rowan Obach, Tania Schusler, Paulina Vaca, Sydney Durkin, Ma'raj Sheikh

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The COVID-19 outbreak led to major disruptions in food systems across the globe. In the United States’ Chicago region, the outbreak created immediate concerns around increased hunger, food insecurity, supply chain disruptions, and loss of local livelihoods. This was especially evident in communities of color, which faced disproportionate impacts from the pandemic. In March 2020, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC) coordinated a Rapid Response Effort that convened people in working groups related to emergency food assistance, local food producers, small businesses, and food system workers to address urgent needs that arose due to the pandemic. Each working group …

For The Poor, It Was Just Friday: The Implicit Focus On Middle-Class Habitus In Conceptualizing Disaster, Amy Sorensen, Shelley Koch

Critical Disaster Studies

The importance of the academic study of disaster is in its potential application to policy and practice in times of dire circumstance and human suffering. In this paper, we situate the Covid-19 pandemic as an exemplar for an exploration of “disaster” using a framework that connects sociological theory and critical disaster studies. We use a Bourdieusian approach to situate the re-stabilization of the middle class habitus as implicitly central to disaster mitigation strategies. This theoretical approach illuminates the disconnect between critical disaster studies and on-the-ground disaster recovery approaches. It is this disconnect that leads to the disparate impact of disaster …

Affordable Housing: A National Crisis Fueled By The Coronavirus • A New Jersey Perspective, Latino Action Network Foundation

Center for Urban Policy Research

The Latino Action Network Foundation [LANF], its sister organization the Latino Action Network [LAN] and longtime ally, the Fair Share Housing Center [FSHC], have collaboratively monitored affordable housing issues in New Jersey for more than a decade. As part of its ongoing work, LANF sponsored a housing roundtable on September 10, 2021, to assess the affordable housing situation in the state and offer policy recommendations. At that time, a coalition of advocates, including the three organizations named above, were fresh from a legislative victory that safeguarded tenants unable to pay their rents during the pandemic and gave them a degree …

Protecting A Woman’S Right To Abortion During A Public Health Crisis, San Juanita Gonzalez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

As COVID-19 infected our nation, states were quick to issue executive orders restricting various aspects of daily life under the pretense of public safety. It was clear at the outset that certain civil liberties were going to be tested. Among them, the constitutional right to an abortion.

This comment explores Texas’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the limitations it imposed on abortion access. It will attempt to address the legitimacy of the “public health concerns” listed in executive orders issued throughout numerous states and will discuss the pertinent legal framework and judicial scrutiny to apply.

According to the Fifth …

Pandemic Schooling: Lessons In Equity, Advocacy, And Racial Justice, Donna Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It was my fourth year of teaching at a Brooklyn elementary school when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school buildings, and the entire city, to enter a world of lockdown and quarantine. New York City was an early epicenter of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and the virus quickly revealed severe racial and socioeconomic disparities across the city. A disproportionate number of cases, serious illnesses, and death has been experienced by low-income Black and Latinx communities. At the same time, 2020 also ushered in a national racial reckoning following the May murder of George Floyd.

In this thesis, I will provide a …

Social Worker’S Adjustment And Perception When Dealing With Double-Exposure During A Natural Disaster, Magaly Santos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Limited research captures the perceptions and adjustments of social workers living and providing treatment in the same communities during a disaster. Few studies have captured the stressors and responsibilities put on social workers during an ongoing disaster. This paper reports the findings of the double-exposure captured using a qualitative approach in collecting interviews from nine mental health professionals who continued working during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A constructivist paradigm was used to capture each participant’s reality. Participants described the sudden change to remote work as difficult when having to find the balance between work and life demands, providing …

Non-State Actors’ Covid-19 Response In Nepal, Jenna Mae Biedscheid

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research explores the ways in which non-state actors have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal and the needs present in the months before drastic increases in cases began on May 11th. In doing so, it describes how social and political inequality within Nepal has caused people experiencing the most need to be left out of early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic relief effort. This research includes a literature review which situates Nepal amidst the global pandemic as well as interviews with non-state actors currently responding in Nepal. It finds that migrant workers, daily wage earners, Dalits, Janajati/Adivasi peoples, …