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Rachel Seidman portrait
Dr. Rachel Seidman

“The voices I’ve heard as an oral historian float in my head, framing the way I react to the health and economic disaster wrought by the coronavirus. None of us should ignore the wisdom held by those who are suffering most.”

 

 

 


What to do about COVID? Start by listening to people.

by Rachel Seidman, Director of the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill

Volunteers stand by table
Seidman pulls to COVID-19 donation site staffed by volunteers in Carrboro, N.C.

 

Today I donated groceries at Carrboro’s town hall. In the parking lot, a masked volunteer took the food out of my trunk, thanked me, and I drove off. All around the country, others are doing the same, because so many more of our neighbors suddenly face hunger.

As I drove away, I thought about an oral history interview I did with Ilana Dubester, an advocate for North Carolina’s Latinx community. She started helping immigrants get necessities like food, but over time realized she didn’t want to “give people fish or teach them to fish,” but rather to clean up “the toxic pond” – the structural issues that warped their lives. The voices I’ve heard as an oral historian float in my head, framing the way I react to the health and economic disaster wrought by the coronavirus. None of us should ignore the wisdom held by those who are suffering most.

Right now it’s all hands on deck to save lives, sustain our local businesses, and stem the devastation. But soon we need to start fixing the structural problems in our politics, healthcare, education, and economy that exposed us to this terrifying disease and led to the damage it is wreaking. How? In part, by listening to people.

 

Read the entire essay at History News Network.

 

Photos by Rachel Seidman, Ph.D.

#COVIDintheSOUTH

 

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