AOC Delivers Hundreds Of Meals To Underprivileged New York Residents
With her district devastated by the current coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been vocal about its effects and the government’s response. Research has backed up AOC’s claim that the virus is hitting lower-income neighborhoods harder than others revealing that more cases have popped up in Brownsville, South Bronx, Flatbush, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst.
All neighborhoods largely populated by minorities and people of color. Now, on top of rallying for “coronavirus reparations,” AOC is doing her part in ensuring these neighborhoods get the meals they need to survive.
In a tweet recently shared to her social page, AOC shared a picture of hundreds of meals prepared at her Bronx office.
“100s of meals at our Bronx office packed up and ready to go w/ #TeamAOC volunteers. This effort is 100% from the people, using small-dollar donations organized via our email list. Thank you to everyone offering time + resources. Lots of families eating tonight bc of you,” she wrote in the tweet.
For minority groups, there’s no denying that COVID-19 has had extreme effects.
According to reports COVID-19 deaths have appeared at disproportionate amounts in African-American and immigrant communities. In New York, where COVID-19 deaths have reached all highs, nearly a third of New York City’s infections are in Queens- a city with one of the most diverse populations in the world. More alarming is the fact that the hardest-hit neighborhoods are ones populated by undocumented and working-class people. In a recent interview with Democracy Now! Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Trump’s response to the pandemic for its part in the many deaths occurring across the United States highlighting them “deaths of incompetence,” “deaths of science denial” and “deaths of inequality.”
In her recent interview, Ocasio-Cortez called for coronavirus reparations for minorities.
Speaking about the enormous racial and ethnic disparity in the Coronavirus cases appearing in hospitals across the country, particularly the deaths that are occurring, Ocasio-Cortez emphasized the need for government intervention. Particularly when it comes to Queens, New York. “This is one of the most working-class and, as you mentioned, blackest and brownest communities in New York City. It is extraordinarily dense. Even for New York City, it is a very dense and densely populated community,” Ocasio-Cortez explained. “It’s no surprise that, you know, in the wake of this pandemic, right after the Trump administration announced its public charge rule, which basically said, if you are undocumented and seek public services, public healthcare, SNAP, WIC, etc., then you will be essentially put on a fast track to either denial of citizenship or outright deportation — and so, now that we have this pandemic and it is hardest-hitting in communities that are heavily immigrant and also with strong historically black communities, as well, that people are either afraid to go to Elmhurst Hospital out of the cost or out of sheer fear that they will be put in the public charge list.”
Since the rise of the pandemic, Ocasio-Cortez has eagerly pointed out the higher numbers of COVID-19 fatalities in low-income communities and its roots in underlying inequality.
“COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities,” Ocasio-Cortez expressed her outrage in a Tweet last Friday. “Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions,” the Bronx-born lawmaker added. Inequality is a comorbidity. COVID relief should be drafted with a lens of reparations.”