Even as we finally come to grips with the racial bias that permeates so many aspects of American life, some people in New Mexico, as in much of the country, promote a narrative about child abuse and COVID-19 that is, at its core, riven with racial and class bias.
What are we really saying when
we spread fear about how, supposedly, the moment mostly white middle-class
professional “eyes” are taken off children who are overwhelmingly poor and
disproportionately nonwhite, their parents will unleash savagery upon them?
We’re saying that poor people and nonwhite people are too uncivilized to raise
their own children without white professionals constantly spying on them.
It was bad enough when this
fearmongering was promoted at the start of the pandemic. But now, major
national news organizations, Bloomberg Citylab, The Marshall Project and the Associated Press have all found little evidence for such claims.
