About The Documentary

​It has been a few years since the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared. While the past years have been challenging, it has been particularly devastating for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the United States. Even though most coronavirus cases in the U.S. occurred among the white population, proportionally, people of color have a higher risk of testing positive for the virus, being hospitalized, and dying from COVID-19 than their white counterparts. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) website (April 2021), American Indians or Alaskan Natives, who represent 1% of the U. S. population, test positive for the disease 1.6 times more, are hospitalized 3.5 times more and die 2.4 times more than white people; Black or African Americans represents 12% of the population, test positive 1.1 times more, are hospitalized 2.8 times more and die 1.9 times more; 2 and the Latinx population represents 18% of the U.S. population but test positive 2.0 more, hospitalized 3.0 times more and die 2.3 times more than whites.

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In conjunction with the disproportionate number of people of color impacted by COVID-19 and the disparate outcomes, Black communities also had to contend with the trauma experienced because of the countless deaths of Black people at the hands of law enforcement. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic that drove many of us indoors and required social distancing, it didn’t curb the number of fatal police shootings of Black people and those who are Black presenting. According to the ACLU 2020 research report – The other epidemic, from January 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020, police officers shot and killed 5,442 people. 46% of fatal police shootings kill white people, representing 60% of the U.S. population. Another 24% of fatal police shootings, representing 12%, kill Black people. The number of Latinx was 17% of fatal police shootings and representation of 18% of the U.S. population.

 

While this aspect of the pandemic has been told by the media and other news outlets repeatedly, some untold stories about the pandemic were not told by the media. To capture some of these unique experiences over the past two years, Dr. Best recorded a series of podcast episodes on the podcast Inside Out/Outside In from June 2020 to March 2022. The recordings from the podcast episodes, in addition to archival footage and new video recordings, will be used to create a documentary film capturing the diversity of the Black community in America amid two pandemics – COVID-19 and Racism. The purpose of this documentary film is to share the untold stories of the two pandemics while showcasing the diversity of the Black experience in America. It highlights the challenges, resilience, and humanity of a people.