Pandemic Populism and Racism Revisited

• In Event: Centering and Enacting Dynamic Cultural Practices in Learning and Development

Abstract

This paper analyzes COVID-19’s impact on the African American community and how the pandemic prompted populism. It proposes a new 4P Social Change Framework and uses the SPELIT model (Schmeider-Ramirez & Mallette, 2006) as the methodology to evaluate the social, political, economic, legal, intercultural and technological complexity of structural racism. This evaluation emphasizes the pandemic’s societal impact and its disproportionate impact on Black lives. Root causes of societal divisions and unrest are further examined and attributed to the deeper virus of systemic racism, referenced as COVID-402, reflective of the 402 years since the first African slaves arrived in the United States.

Authors

• Jeannette Pugh, Pepperdine University

• Bonnie Nixon, Pepperdine University