12 Practices for Protecting and Maintaining Black & Brown Health During the COVID-19 Crisis

During this period of immense uncertainty, your immune system is the most important factor in maintaining your health.

Below are 12 suggested practices to strengthen your family and community’s health. Our ancestors practiced many of these to survive and thrive during grave circumstances.

In North America and Europe — as hospital staff, grocery store clerks, and farmworkers — Black and Brown people make up the vast majority of the essential workforce. Many essential workers reside in the most underserved communities within these societies and have become susceptible to the coronavirus spread.

COVID-19 has further demonstrated our collective vulnerability in global systems where our health and wellness are the lowest of priorities but we stand as “essential” for the livelihood of society as a whole.

In New York City, two-thirds of COVID-19 related deaths are identified as “Black” and “Hispanic” persons.

There are similarly high numbers of representation in other U.S. cities and throughout western nations, where the most vulnerable populations are not given media visibility or priority in the health care system.

The most vulnerable people are migrant workers, undocumented people, the incarcerated and detained, people experiencing homelessness, and those with disabilities.

Currently, governments are globally focused on hygiene to curtail the spread of the virus, giving less attention to circulating vital information on practices that support immune system health.

In this article and linked working document, my family and I are advocating for practices that support alkalinity (balanced body acidity), sustainability (environmentally conscious), practicality (accessible and flexible), and are economical (inexpensive).

These practices are inspired by:

• “Ital” Rasfatarian consumption practices
• Dr. Sebi’s high alkalinity diet
• Black veganism
• Global Black and Brown Indigenous food culture
• Ancestral/traditional Afro-Indigenous food culture practices from the circum-Caribbean (South Carolina to Jamaica to Bahia, Brazil)

Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels

Although my family and I have incorporated these holistic tools into our daily lives, not all 12 points below will work for every person.

It is not universal and someone’s particular health status or geographic location may dictate the resources they are able to put into practice.

For example, in the United States, food insecurity and living under systems of food apartheid can be prohibitive to accessing fruits and vegetables at reasonable costs — if at all.

US food pantries, although improved in the past 10 years, only provide limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are vital in giving our bodies the tools it needs to work through the COVID-19 virus.

In addition to carefully selecting frozen and canned fruits and vegetables as a resource when fresh is not available, accessing community gardens or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with support for low-income and food-insecure community members will be essential.

Fruits and vegetables from tropical regions are labeled as “superfoods” in the mainstream (mostly affluent white) health and wellness spaces. Papaya, mango, dragon fruit, callaloo (all types of leafy greens), yucca/cassava, and quinoa are vital in increasing our immune systems and fighting viruses.

In North America and Europe, it is important to buy fruits and vegetables from Asian, Central/Latin American, Caribbean and African markets.

Some of these stores are in quaint and ethnic neighborhoods (known by the community) or in small sections in mainstream supermarkets, while others may be larger markets or even supermarkets that are catered to specific ethnic communities.

It will be important to access what is already readily available in neighborhood markets, such as plantains, nopales, cassava, chayote, leafy greens, and star fruit, to diversify our food intake and obtain immune-boosting foods.

The World Health Organization advocates for hand washing and social distancing to suppress the spread of this global pandemic. In addition to the privilege attached to most forms of social distancing, water access demonstrates systemic inequities, the importance of water as a human rights issue, and the existence of a global water crisis.

In the United States, the Flint water crisis and Dakota Access Pipeline protests demonstrate environmental inequities with clean water access, indigenous land rights, and corporate pollution. Additionally, low-income families are in constant fear of losing water access due to the non-payment of bills to the local/state government or private companies.

Across the world purchasing water in bottles, sealed plastic bags, or retrieving it from unreliable sources has environmental and health costs. But this may be the sole clean water resource in some communities.

Access to safe and clean water is NOT available to every community in the United States and water access is a global crisis.

Some of the practices below are prohibitive, but in working through the virus and managing your or your loved one's symptoms, please take the 12 points into consideration.

Please share resources with community members whether it is viable information, food, water, masks, or cleaning supplies.

I share this information standing in many positions, two being: I am NOT currently an essential worker, and I am living in an urban environment in the US with my immediate family that pools resources (place to stay, food, water, holistic medicine, finances, car, and information).

This has been integral to my personal understanding of this crisis and the way my family plans to work through the inconsistencies and fear surrounding this situation.

My positions have advantages and disadvantages, which can be understood as part of systemic inequities built into this global pandemic.

One disadvantage is buying into systems of inequality, like the US food system, in an effort to access ancestral and traditional foods and herbs (avocados, cinnamon, cacao) that were once obtained from my grandmother’s farm.

Health and wellness knowledge passed on to me by my grandmother, mom and aunt have been the most critical tool of this experience.

This knowledge is rooted deep in the Blue Mountain ridge of St. Thomas, Jamaica.

From them and the ancestors that came before, “food is our medicine, and water is life.”

Thank you and please see the following link to a working google document providing specific information on each of the 12 practices.

Feel free to contact me for clarification, edits, or additions.

12 Practices for Protecting and Maintaining our Health during the COVID-19 crisis

Link for Details

1. Do not eat MEAT and DAIRY (or limit intake) [*beef, pork, poultry, eggs, and fish = MEAT]
2. Do not eat GLUTEN (or limit intake)
3. Limit your sugar intake, even natural sugars like honey
4. Drink teas and a lot of warm herbal drinks, AND a lot of warm water with lemon/lime/key limes
5. Limit your intake of processed foods
6. Make most of your food at home
7. Increase your vegetable and fruit intake by 5X
8. Take vitamins and supplements that support immune system health
9. What to do if symptoms begin or if you are moving through OR helping family members move through the virus
10. Movement/Exercise & Positive Vibez through music, art, and meditation
11. Household Cleaning and Homemade Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
12. Example of a grocery list and How to bring groceries into the home

En español:

12 Prácticas para proteger y mantener nuestra salud durante la crisis COVID-19

Aquí hay un documento de Google enlace para detalles

1. No coma carne ni lácteos (o limite su ingesta) [*carne de res, cerdo, aves de corral, huevos y pescado — Carne]
2. No coma gluten (o limite su ingesta)
3. Limite la ingesta de azúcar, incluso de azúcares naturales como la miel
4. Beba tés, bebidas a base de hierbas calientes y grandes cantidades de agua tibia con limón / lima / limas
5. Limite la ingesta de alimentos procesados
6. Cree la mayor parte de su comida en casa
7. Aumente su ingesta de verduras y frutas a 5 veces al día
8. Tome vitaminas y suplementos que apoyen la salud del sistema inmunitario
9. ¿Qué hacer si comienza a tener síntomas, si usted tiene la enfermedad o si está ayudando a otros miembros de la familia que atraviesan el virus?
10. Haga movimiento, ejercicio y mantenga energías positivas a través de la música, el arte y la meditación.
11. Mantenga limpio su hogar y su equipo de protección personal (PPE)
12. Ejemplos de listas de compras y de cómo traerlos a su casa