Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic require extensive scrutiny and analysis, and the editors of this important volume have brought together an array of essays that explore the pandemic's disproportionate impact on communities of color. To explain this, chapters excellently situate pandemic data within the historical circumstances of racism and exclusion in the US. As the preface states, systemic racism is the common thread that explains the racial inequalities and the health disparities that preceded and were amplified by the pandemic in the US. Historical practices of exclusion, such as mass incarceration (chapter 10) and forced relocation of Native Americans onto reservations (chapter 6) set the stage for the high rates of illness and death among people of color. The volume speaks to global inequalities (chapters 1 and 7) and domestic ones, which is significant in an era of racial capitalism with global reach. Finally, in addition to rich data and theoretical explanations for these inequalities, the text provides potential policy solutions to prevent racial disparities in the future.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.