The COVID-19 Pandemic and Inequalities Among Students at the University of Texas at Austin--Mary Edwards and Julie Blocker
The COVID-19 Pandemic has ravaged the world for the past year, and we have seen over 1.6 million deaths due to the virus (John Hopkins 2020). Of these deaths, more than 297 thousand are in the United States alone, with more than 24 thousand in our home state of Texas. As we know, global disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic do not affect everyone equally. Poor communities and communities of color have been shown to be most at risk to the virus due to previous existing structural inequalities. If the previous numbers weren’t bad enough, Black Americans make up 18% of these deaths, while they only make up 13% of the US population (Contrera 2020). Additional studies done by the CDC found that African Americans were 5x more likely than white Americans to get COVID, and people who identify as Latinx were 4x more likely. (CDC 2020). This exponentially higher number is due to social and systemic racial inequalities of these communities that society has put into place. Some of these may include living in crowded and unsafe environments, being essential workers, having inconsistent access to healthcare, and having chronic health conditions.Thus, these communities are more likely than the average White American to be at “a higher risk of serious illness due to underlying health conditions and longstanding disparities in healthcare and other socioeconomic factors” (Koma 2020). It is not that People of color, specifically Black Americans are more susceptible to the actual infection of COVID, but “Rather, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and obesity, all associated with poverty and limited access to health care and housing, are amplifying COVID-19’s impact among black Americans” (Reddick 2020).
This podcast explores the systemic inequalities that people of color and lower income communities face, while looking at the student population of the University of Texas at Austin. We distributed a virtual survey to UT students about how COVID-19 has affected them, their demographics, and their thoughts on pandemic created inequalities (some survey results are posted below). Our results showed that students of color were almost 2x as impacted as white students, based on the 25 responses we received.As of Fall 2020, The University of Texas at Austin’s student population demographic is 5.3% Black, 23.4% Hispanic, and 38.9% White (https://www.utexas.edu/about/facts-and-figures). Even though the majority of UT’s student population is white, the one’s most affected by the pandemic have beens students of color, especially balck and latinx students.
Next, we interviewed student reporter Andrew Zhang of the Daily Texan to hear what he has to say about pandemic inequalities on campus. He discussed how campus reopening has disproportionately affected students of color and lower income classes. He also discusses that many students have to work part time jobs during this time, which puts them even more at risk. Students of lower income classes also may have been affected by the student housing market, as many apartments did not let students break their leases even in a pandemic.
Lastly, I interviewed with a student, Miguel Vences, who is a senior advertising major at UT. He caught COVID back in March of this year, and identifies as a Latino and low income student. We recorded his experience with it in the podcast.
As the podcast displays, students of color and lower income classes are being more impacted by the pandemic than traditional white students. White students are less likely to be impacted and take proper safety precautions compared to minority students, all while forcing these disadvantaged students to bear the brunt of the pandemics effects. While we have limited resources and data due to time constraints and other barriers, I hope this project has brought attention to the socioeconomic and racial disparities that the pandemic has brought to life.
This podcast explores the systemic inequalities that people of color and lower income communities face, while looking at the student population of the University of Texas at Austin. We distributed a virtual survey to UT students about how COVID-19 has affected them, their demographics, and their thoughts on pandemic created inequalities (some survey results are posted below). Our results showed that students of color were almost 2x as impacted as white students, based on the 25 responses we received.As of Fall 2020, The University of Texas at Austin’s student population demographic is 5.3% Black, 23.4% Hispanic, and 38.9% White (https://www.utexas.edu/about/facts-and-figures). Even though the majority of UT’s student population is white, the one’s most affected by the pandemic have beens students of color, especially balck and latinx students.
Next, we interviewed student reporter Andrew Zhang of the Daily Texan to hear what he has to say about pandemic inequalities on campus. He discussed how campus reopening has disproportionately affected students of color and lower income classes. He also discusses that many students have to work part time jobs during this time, which puts them even more at risk. Students of lower income classes also may have been affected by the student housing market, as many apartments did not let students break their leases even in a pandemic.
Lastly, I interviewed with a student, Miguel Vences, who is a senior advertising major at UT. He caught COVID back in March of this year, and identifies as a Latino and low income student. We recorded his experience with it in the podcast.
As the podcast displays, students of color and lower income classes are being more impacted by the pandemic than traditional white students. White students are less likely to be impacted and take proper safety precautions compared to minority students, all while forcing these disadvantaged students to bear the brunt of the pandemics effects. While we have limited resources and data due to time constraints and other barriers, I hope this project has brought attention to the socioeconomic and racial disparities that the pandemic has brought to life.
