Members of public invited to Portsmouth Stand Up to Racism online meeting to consider impact of Covid-19

An online public meeting hosted by Portsmouth Stand Up to Racism will be held on May 3, with talks by guest speakers and a chance to submit questions for discussions.

Simon Magorian, one of the group's co-ordinators, said: ‘Racism is a virus which will only make it harder to beat this disease.

‘It is more important than ever that we stand up racism.’

‘People have noticed, and it's very hard not to notice, the high proportion of fatalities from coronavirus are people from BAME backgrounds.

‘We are in a situation where the government is still asking migrant doctors and nurses to pay an NHS surcharge if they get ill while doing their jobs, which is outrageous.

‘We've seen how Prince Charles and Boris Johnson have had coronavirus which shows it is classless - anyone can have it. But the outcomes of the virus are not and that needs to be addressed in our approach to the pandemic.’

Guest speakers for the meeting include Roger McKenzie, the assistant general secretary of Unison, Amanda Martin, president of the National Education Union and Sandra Charles and Frieda McCormack from Portsmouth City Unison.

Jon Woods, chair of the Portsmouth Unison branch, added: 'The meeting will be a chance to explore why a higher proportion of Bame people are dying of Covid-19 with a view about how we can try to protect people.

'The virus is affecting people from poorer background for various reasons such as where they live and what type of work they do but there are also fears that BAME key workers might be more at risk because their concerns might be more easily dismissed by managers.

'We need to raise awareness about this.'

The meeting will be held on the video call platform Zoom at 2pm.

To request to attend email [email protected]

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