Category Archives: Public Health/Safety

“We recognize that, due to longstanding systemic racism and health inequities in this country, individuals from some marginalized communities may have concerns about needing to agree to such requirements,” explains the page. “For example, historically, the bodies of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) have been mistreated, and used by people in power, sometimes for profit or medical gain.”

Students at Cornell University can use their status as a “person of color” to be exempt from the university’s flu vaccine requirement.

“Students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a Person of Color (BIPOC) may have personal concerns about fulfilling the Compact requirements based on historical injustices and current events,” explains Cornell Health’s vaccine requirement FAQ.

Students can send a private message to Cornell Health in order to request a non-medical or non-religious exemption for the immunization. For more information, the FAQ links to a page “especially for students of color,” which is meant to help minority students concerned about the flu vaccine requirement.

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The State of Oregon continues to defend a state program that distributes federal coronavirus relief funds to black people — and only black people — after two separate lawsuits have challenged the program as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The Oregon state legislature’s Emergency Board created the Oregon Cares Fund this summer — with nightly Black Lives Matter riots raging in Portland — to allocate $62 million in funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to black residents (out of $200 million in total funds). The Oregon Cares Fund website states:

The Oregon Cares Fund is a targeted investment in the Black community from the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund. This fund is meant to provide the Black community with the resources it needs to weather the global health pandemic and consequent recession. The Oregon Cares Fund is for Black people, Black-owned businesses, and Black community based organizations.

At the time, the Oregon Legislative Counsel warned that the program might be unconstitutional, especially because the legislature had not shown evidence that past discrimination was responsible for black Oregonians’ suffering during COVID:

As discussed below, we think the program may potentially, but would not necessarily, violate the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution and the privileges and immunities clause of the Oregon Constitution.

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