PRESS RELEASE - Covid-19 in the Black Community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 26, 2020
SpokesPerson: Carolyn Riley-Payne, President, Seattle/King County NAACP
PHONE: 206-321-0382
EMAIL: president@seattlekingcountynaacp.org communications@seattlekingcountynaacp.org


The Seattle-King County NAACP, under leadership of President Carolyn Riley-Payne, is extremely concerned about the profound effect that COVID-19 is having on the Black community in Seattle and King County, and the country.  Black people are an overall disproportionately affected community in the number of cases and deaths of COVID-19.  This will not be tolerated.

The Seattle-King County NAACP is working with and reaching out to State and local officials on the improper safety and protection to our community during this time. Our community lacks the proper universal measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 by employers: proper Social Distancing called for by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), personal protective equipment, and regular cleaning and sanitizing of work spaces and its equipment. This is in part due to Black Americans being more likely to be employed in jobs that are considered essential—grocery clerks, fast-food workers, transit, postal and delivery workers.  Just this past week in Seattle, King County, Washington, 59-year-old Samina Hameed, a King County Metro bus driver, died after contracting the virus. 

Our NAACP branch is asking our community for its stories. Did you get furloughed or laid off due to COVID-19? Were you promised restoration pay while you're laid off? Were you retaliated against for demanding a safe work environment during this global pandemic? Contact us with your story at communications@seattlekingcountynaacp.org

The Seattle-King County NAACP recognizes that the disproportionately negative effect of COVID-19 on the Black community is an indication of ongoing structural and institutional racism in the United States Healthcare system; the response by our State and local leaders, and our community employers, is an opportunity to save Black lives and correct the systemic problems in our healthcare systems.