Ocasio-Cortez Claims Coronavirus Relief Should Be 'Drafted with a Lens of Reparations'
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Friday for all further coronavirus relief legislation to be drafted with particular care for the perceived impacts of historic racial inequality.
With confirmed cases of COVID-19 skyrocketing this week both stateside and abroad toward their expected April peak, according to The Wall Street Journal, Ocasio-Cortez claimed non-white communities in the United States were being hit hardest.
A solution for this problem, the radical-left freshman representative suggested, was the introduction of reparations-related provisions to House Democrats’ forthcoming phase four virus relief package.
“COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions.”
“Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations,” she added.
COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities.
Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions.
Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 3, 2020
As of Friday, the United States was reporting more than 270,000 of the nearly 1.1 million confirmed worldwide cases of the virus, with New York City claiming approximately 1,584 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
Ocasio-Cortez, a city native herself, would later suggest these numbers only served to prove her point, writing, “[b]y almost every measure, our Queens community is the hardest hit in the country by COVID.”
By almost every measure, our Queens community is the hardest hit in the country by COVID.
I am heartbroken to share that Priscilla Carrow, a giant & compassionate leader who served as an Elmhurst hospital worker, Community Board 4 member, CWA local 1180 member, has passed. https://t.co/KDjiIfQjYM
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 3, 2020
The remarks would earn Ocasio-Cortez no shortage of backlash, however, from fellow social media users — particularly conservatives, who seemed to find her comments both foolish and deeply partisan.
“[Ocasio-Cortez] wants coronavirus relief to be ‘drafted with a lens of reparations,’ therefore automatically turning such relief into a hyper-racialized Culture War issue,” journalist Michael Tracey wrote. “Remember, she was the ‘most coveted’ endorsement for the leading ‘Progressive’ presidential candidates.”
Others were far more cutting in their responses, heckling the freshman representative for her efforts to tie unrelated crises to racial and economic justice since first stepping on the national political scene in 2018.
“Don’t ya just hate it when you find out that a global pandemic is racist…” comedian and political columnist Tim Young asked.
“My hero Occasional Cortex @AOC has demonstrated to the world how one could engage in cognitive distancing from reality,” famed Canadian psychologist Gad Saad wrote. “She likes to be several light years distant from science, logic, reason, and common sense.”
“But when it comes to peddling victimology, she is right there!” he added.
AOC wants coronavirus relief to be “drafted with a lens of reparations,” therefore automatically turning such relief into a hyper-racialized Culture War issue. Remember, she was the “most coveted” endorsement for the leading “Progressive” presidential candidates
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 3, 2020
Don’t ya just hate it when you find out that a global pandemic is racist…
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) April 3, 2020
My hero Occasional Cortex @AOC has demonstrated to the world how one could engage in cognitive distancing from reality. She likes to be several light years distant from science, logic, reason, and common sense. But when it comes to peddling victimology, she is right there!
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) April 3, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez was not the first prominent Democratic Party figure to advocate using coronavirus relief legislation as a staging ground for progressive social justice and economic action.
De facto Democratic agenda-setter and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi last week suggested the forthcoming phase-four relief bill would be another expensive one, indicating it would include a 15 percent increase in SNAP food stamp funding as the ink dried on a historic $2.2 trillion phase-three package signed into law by President Donald Trump on Mar. 27.
“We want more, and this was a big, strong step, but we need more,” Pelosi told reporters. “As I have said, there’s so many things that we didn’t get in any of these bills yet in a way that we need to.”
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