Equalizing Disproportionate Death and Punishment in Black and Brown Communities: An Emergency Shutdown on Death, Inequality, and Deliberate Indifference

Authors

Angela Dixon

Abstract

(Excerpt)

According to an old saying, “death is the great equalizer.” But is it? It may be in the sense that absent a contravening force, it is an appointment that all must keep. Yet data indicates that all do not die equally. Socioeconomic status (“SES”), which includes levels of occupation, education, income, and wealth, all delay or advance mortality. People of a higher SES outlive, generally, people of a lower SES; moreover, such disparities continue to widen as trends of income inequality intensify.

Perhaps predictably, race, just like class, exacerbates inequities. Black Americans in the United States remain the pivotal example. Some scholars theorize that stemming from the brutalizing institution of American slavery, Blacks “die” twice. In life, they die a “social death,” before experiencing a physical death—a death that may shrink their longevity in comparison to their white counterparts as a direct result of the “social death” they experience because of societal oppression. Arguably, other marginalized populations suffer a similar fate. While this Article does not explore the concept of social death in its layered complexities, at least mentioning social death remains critical to underscoring the larger point: that is, the strata of inequity, the layers of dehumanization, ultimately, prove to be strenuously stifling. With the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic, a larger swath of the global population realized what it was like to have the possibility of a premature death be more imminent. Having experienced the deadliest pandemic in over 100 years, anyone could be a casualty. Humanity found its fate linked in a way that it had not in quite some time. Regardless of race, class, or even incarceration status—yes, the “free” found its fate linked to the “incarcerated” in ways it had not been previously.