The Dual Pandemics of COVID-19 and Systemic Racism: Navigating Our Path Forward

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disrupted the way of life for humans all around the world. As the consequences continue to be revealed, it has been abundantly clear that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color. The COVID-19 pandemic shined a magnifying glass on racially based structural inequities in a manner that was impossible to unsee or to look away. COVID-19 disrupted education norms-from forcing online classroom instruction models to hindering our reliance on standardized testing. Education is already rife with evidence of systemic racism as its foundation. Disproportionality in special education, disproportionate punitive discipline, underrepresentation in highly capable learning problems are well established structures that maintain systemic racism in education (Diamond, 2018). As systemic racism is embedded in all of our social and environmental contexts, it is easy to conclude that systemic racism and COVID-19 are not just coexisting, they are interacting to exacerbate negative outcomes for communities of color. This commentary addresses the disproportionate impact of the dual pandemics: COVID-19 and systemic racism. Impact and Implications This commentary provides a rationale for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and the racism pandemic for youth in schools. While we have vaccines to quell COVID-19, our sociopolitical context shows that we also need to address the racism pandemic as it interacts with disease transmission and health outcomes. The primary "vaccine" for the racism pandemic is to focus on youth mental health, racial identity development, and antiracist educational practices in schools.