Digging Deeper Into NC’s Racial Disparities During The COVID-19 Pandemic

WUNC | By Anita Rao,

Published July 2, 2020 at 11:41 AM EDT

A number of North Carolina's Latinx residents who contracted COVID-19 work at poultry or meat-packing plants in the state.

North Carolina’s COVID-19 cases continue to climb, and the state’s Black and Latino populations are being hit the hardest. Black citizens comprise about 22% of the state’s population, but they account for a third of deaths. And nearly half of the people who have tested positive identify as Hispanic, even though the group makes up less than 10% of the state’s population.

Host Anita Rao talks with reporters Leoneda Inge and Victoria Bouloubasis about the effect of racial inequities during the coronavirus pandemic.

What is causing these disparities and what larger social inequities do they highlight? Host Anita Rao explores these questions with reporters Victoria Bouloubasis and Leoneda Inge. Bouloubasis is an independent journalist and investigative reporter for Enlace Latino NC. Inge is WUNC’s race and southern culture reporter.

Anita Rao

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.

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Josie Taris

Josie Taris left her home in Fayetteville in 2014 to study journalism at Northwestern University. There, she took a class called Journalism of Empathy and found her passion in audio storytelling. She hopes every story she produces challenges the audience's preconceptions of the world. After spending the summer of 2018 working in communications for a Chicago nonprofit, she decided to come home to work for the station she grew up listening to. When she's not working, Josie is likely rooting for the Chicago Cubs or petting every dog she passes on the street.

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