Hi there, Shankar here. One of the bleak realities of the COVID-19 pandemic is that not every group has been affected equally.

Older Americans have suffered more than the young.

Residents of some cities and states have faced a higher risk than others.

There are also vast racial disparities.

In Chicago, for example, black people make up 30% of the city's population. They are 56% of the city's COVID-19 deaths.

Here in Los Angeles, 16% of deaths are African-American. Only 9% of the population is African-American and this doesn't exist.

So I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America and I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID.

Black Americans are far more likely than white Americans to have contracted the coronavirus or died from COVID-19.

Many of the reasons for these disparities reach back to before the pandemic began. There are longstanding inequities in the healthcare system.

In 2019, we talked about a specific source of racial disparities. We also considered an uncomfortable solution.

It's a timely topic and we decided to bring it back today. Here it is.

This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. There is comfort in the familiar. That's why Marlon Wade likes to head over to his local barbershop, wrist action.

It's on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, California. He doesn't come for a cut.

No here, no here. I just wear the ball here. He comes to shoot the breeze. He points to one of the barbers, who's a friend.

That's my son's. That's one of my old school teammates.

Basically, Marlon likes to hang with people who know and understand him. People he grew up with.

Some years ago, when Marlon was in the market for a new doctor, he looked for that same feeling of connection.

I had various choices. I had over 20 doctors at the juice farm.

But once stood out, she was like him, black, and like him, a practicing Muslim.

She gets me, I get her. We talk about life, we talk about our religion. You know, if something wrong with me, she's gonna let me know.

It's the kind of trusting relationship Marlon doesn't believe he'd find in a doctor of a different race.

I don't think a lot of these doctors relate to people of my skin color. Like when it comes to heart disease, diabetes.

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