We know that vulnerable populations are paying the highest price, our seniors, our nursing homes, and our poorer communities.

They are the ones where you have higher infection rates and you have higher risk and higher exposure.

It's Brian Lehrer and this is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday,

May 5th. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday, and yes, everywhere we turn, the coronavirus pandemic, at least in this country, becomes a story of racial injustice.

From the state of New York's latest population sampling for COVID-19 antibodies, that's who had the virus already,

the survey found Latino or Latinx people were much more likely to have had the virus than anyone

else, 25% of all Latinos in the city, and 17% of blacks compared to 11% of Asians and

just 7% of whites. If those numbers are accurate from the state sample, those disparities are

a reflection of economic inequalities that, frankly, go back 400 years

and create more underlying health conditions and put more black and brown people in front line,

at risk, lower paying jobs that we now call essential. Most of you know this by now.

So as we've been asking many guests, what does racial justice look like in a COVID-19 era?

Short-term, and can this be an opportunity to get more serious about a quality long-term when the viral cloud lifts?

With me now, Peneal Joseph, professor of History, Political Values, and Ethics at the

University of Texas in Austin. He is also a host of a podcast called Race and Democracy, which

deals with COVID-19, among many other things. And he's got a new book called The Sword and the Shield,

the Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

So we'll talk about COVID-era racial justice and the book, too,

and maybe compare New York and Texas a little bit.

Professor Joseph, always great to have you on with us.

Welcome back to WNYC.

Hey, Brian. Thank you for having me.

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