Georgia leaders say reopening state is ‘attack’ on Black people

Black leaders in Georgia believe that reopening businesses in the state in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is an attack on African Americans.

Gov. Brian Kemp allowed some businesses to re-open on Friday that have been shut down since he issued a stay-at-home order April 3 to combat the spread of COVID-19. To date, the southern state has more than 21,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 870 deaths.

Just two weeks later, gyms, salons, barbershops, bowling alleys, and churches are once again opening their doors. However, not everyone is happy about the premature reopening. Even President Donald Trump who said he wanted the economy started “more than anyone” urged Kemp to reconsider.

Atlanta mayor Keisha Lane Bottoms provided statistics in a Good Morning America interview that Georgia’s cases had not slowed enough to reopen. She also said that she didn’t feel opening up the economy was “irresponsible.”

“Simply because we have hospital beds and we are not at capacity does not mean we need to work to fill them up.” – Mayor @KeishaBottoms discussing #COVID19 on @GMA. pic.twitter.com/sdwW3P2zDr

— City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) April 24, 2020

READ MORE: Mayor receives text calling her the n-word: ‘Shut up and re-open Atlanta’

Stacey Abrams, who lost the 2018 gubernatorial race to Kemp, blasted him on Twitter.

“Georgia: 14th highest infection/7th lowest testing rate; less econ resilient & 1000s of low-wage workers already forced to risk their lives to make a living. Weakened healthcare w/closed rural hospitals, no Medicaid expansion & a doctor shortage. Reopen? Dangerously incompetent,” she tweeted.

Georgia: 14th highest infection/7th lowest testing rate; less econ resilient & 1000s of low-wage workers already forced to risk their lives to make a living. Weakened healthcare w/closed rural hospitals, no Medicaid expansion & a doctor shortage. Reopen? Dangerously incompetent. https://t.co/FFfk9EoN3l

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) April 20, 2020

Mitch Magee, co-owner of Distinctive Kutz in Atlanta, described Kemp’s directive as an “attack” to CNN. He noted that most of the places reopening draw large Black gatherings, a group that has been disproportionately affected by the deadly virus.

“It seems like it’s an attack on us. Those places are all in our community, where we live on top of one another,” he said. “I have right to be paranoid because our people are dying more than whites.”

READ MORE: COVID-19 hitting Black people hard? Too bad, get back to the plantation

The Rev. Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia declared in a Facebook Live that Kemp’s decision was motivated by greed. He claimed Kemp’s disregard for Black lives was “leaving us to the slaughter” in the video that’s been seen more than 1 million times.

“They understand diabolically that African Americans are prone to do spending,” Bryant said. “To stimulate the income, they gotta make ‘negroes’ spend money, and they’re banking on us not spending it with ourselves.”

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, wondered if Kemp even cared about what his quick reversal would do to his Black constituents.

“I wonder if he is putting profit over people, and that if that is the result of a lack of empathy because of the disparate impact on African-American people and Latinos,” Johnson said.

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