The Fates of Black Americans During the Covid-19 Crisis: Social Protests and Implicit Racism

Abstract

Using data for the period of February through July 2020 to observe 20 states in the U.S. with the highest levels of deaths, this paper finds evidence that after controlling for structural racism, a positive racial differential explains excess deaths among the Non-Hispanic Black population. Moreover, the paper finds evidence that implicit racism declines after May 2020, something that we attribute to the George Floyd Effect. The paper also finds evidence that the occurrence of implicit racism is higher in counties with persistent number of deaths, deaths above the sample median, and in red states. Finally, the paper also shows that the number of hospital beds, including ICU beds, is lower in counties with higher shares of the Non-Hispanic Black population. Additional research is needed to identify the medical practices that reduce deaths and the mortality differential not explained by structural racism