Rona is Testing Us, Girl. Are You Studying?

The COVID-19 pandemic is shaping up to be a test of what many of us scholars and activists consider to be elements of a socialist or communist system of social organization and financial redistribution look like in action. Many businesses are essentially giving back to help all of those impacted: Pyer Moss's pledge to set aside $50,000 for small minority and women-owned creative businesses, the academic resource platform JStor is providing free access to online documents, and many other major and mid companies. More significantly, municipal and state governments are taking measures to combat the threat of houselessness and police activity, by issuing eviction moratoriums, halting low-level arrests, and student loan debt collection.
Working poor communities are being forced to come together and support one another, and also recognize their collective power in pushing for fair compensation. Think pieces are being disseminated to interrogate the inequities being starkly exposed about this society: why marginalized people must form a new political party outside of the left-of-establishment Democrats, the decreasing levels of carbon emissions and return of animal life to the most devastated cities and countries, and mention the abnormal level of cleanliness being achieved for public spaces.

That's the keyword: abnormal. It can be said for everyone that this is a completely unprecedented time that we are all being forced to face. At least that's the feeling of many us whose lives are being newly effected by social dysfunction and lack of preparedness. Marginalized communities' requests for and means of finding support for survival are being amplified. GoFundMe and cashflow handles are being shared more profusely, with the cancellation and postponement of gigs which freelancers are completely dependent on to sustain themselves, service workers are being laid off or having their hours cut short as a line is being drawn at the discretion of city and state authorities between "essential" and "non-essential" businesses to remain open or close. People now quarantined with an abuser are ever more susceptible to violence, are seeking help from friends and peers who may or may not have the extra space to find immediate shelter.
This is what abhorrent leadership does to a nation; an administration completely devoid of empathy, that is consumed by greed for power, and that which projects a wholly distorted and disjointed sense of reality does to people it has essentially pressed into the ground. Beyond the upcoming primaries and general election for this year, 2020 will be a litmus test to see how this unwavering support and solidarity can and must continue for the most vulnerable people and communities to sustain themselves. The outcome of this pandemic will expose many people across societal distinctions to the egregious inequity that this society has operated within and continues to perpetuate. Let's see how this can and will impact how we go about our lives in this doomed place.