Dr. Mary Rambaran-Olm is a literary historian specializing in the early medieval period. You can find her at on twitter at: @isasaxonists or Medium at: @mrambaranolm

In trying to understand our present day and the world that will emerge from COVID-19, many people are drawing parallels between this current pandemic and the Black Death (also known as the Bubonic Plague). The plague began in the mid-1300s in Asia and peaked in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from 1347 to 1351. According to one medical geneticist, the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis “evolved in or near China” and transmission depended on flea vectors to carry and transmit infectious pathogen into other living organisms. Symptoms of the disease included fever, headaches, joint pain, nausea, vomiting and general feelings of malaise, but the appearance of large buboes in the groin, neck, and armpits gave us the name Bubonic Plague. In Europe, the 14th-century plague pandemic had many names such as ‘the Great Death’, ‘the Pestilence’ or ‘Mortality’. Contemporary sources didn’t specifically refer to the pandemic as the “black” death in any European language, and it wasn’t until the mid-18thcentury when the English began using the term “Black Death.” 

Potential parallels between the Bubonic Plague and COVID-19 have been on my mind. Many have reflected on the Plague and falsely concluded that the pandemic ended “feudalism” or ushered in the Renaissance. We know that—by the time the first plague-bearing fleas arrived—medieval European society had long ago started leaving behind a social model dependent on personal relationships and land holdings leased to serfs in exchange for their services or labor. Early capitalism had spread to Europeans long before the Bubonic Plague. The Plague did not usher in or end feudalism. These false narratives of plague-born social change ignore that one of the biggest social changes that the Bubonic Plague did cause was a rise in racial violence. 

We can look to the past and speak about issues that draw parallels to highlight racial and social justice issues today. Medievalists have taken this opportunity to discuss the history of pandemics and highlight that the Plague’s impact was more global than the usual Euro-centric focus that generally dominates discussions. In recent years, scholars in various disciplines have begun to work more closely together to better understand the Bubonic Plague and earlier pandemics. However, what is absent in this discussion is the consideration of racial violence that often accompanies pandemics. Almost as soon as it was suspected the Coronavirus most likely began in China, there was an immediate uptick in Sinophobic attacks around the globe. Similarly, Europeans in the fourteenth century sought a scapegoat for the Plague and singled out Jews, foreigners, pilgrims, Romani, lepers, and the poor as possible causes for the pandemic. Leaders such as the Czech-born Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV (1316-1368) gave anti-Semitic mobs immunity to attack Jewish communities in advance and relinquished Jewish property to local authorities after death, increasing Christians’ financial incentive to kill more Jews. One has to wonder how much we have changed given increased anti-Asian hostility, and the majority of casualties of this pandemic being working-classor low-income, many of whom are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) (see here). 

Written historical records often provide evidence of how groups respond to crises. However, there is either a disconnect or a general lack of discussion between the heightened racial discrimination during COVID-19 and the targets of discrimination during the Plague of the 14thcentury. We are largely ignoring that this crisis has laid the greatest burden at the feet of the BIPOC community. Scholars have recently explained how Black workers, particularly in the American South, are expendable. Yes, Black and Brown bodies are both essential and expendable, and this is not just an issue in America, but one countries around the globe must contend with. As the middleand upper classes begin to protest for us all to get back to work, what they really desire is for us to get back to work to serve them. The death count across America and other countries like Great Britain, Brazil, and even Sweden illuminates how the death burden is not equal. Additionally, countries like France have doctors trying to flex their flaccid, colonial muscles on former colonized African nations, envisioning that these nations might serve the globe as guinea pigs to test possible Coronavirus vaccines. This current pandemic has ravaged the Black and Latinx communities, where numbers of deaths in both groups far outnumber any other racial group in the US and beyond. This is not for lack of trying to protect themselves. This pandemic has exposed the underbelly of racism, particularly, but not exclusively, in the West. What scholars in my predominantly white field have largely failed to see as humanists devoted to understanding the value and agency of humans is that this pandemic has exposed a racial crisis that the world has generally refused to acknowledge.  

When discussing the current pandemic, my colleagues have framed the narrative around patriotism or acts of love. My question is, a love of whom? Yes, we should be wearing face masks and following social distancing rules, but when we see this pandemic in national terms, we lose sight of the bigger, global picture. Political activist Arundhati Roy suggests: “When we think of America [as outsiders] and we see the death numbers, people often assume it is white people, but the death toll tells a different story. There is a hierarchy we often dismiss.” Not understanding, at its core, how capitalism is wedded to white supremacy allows a predominantly white and entitled western population to carry on with business as usual during a pandemic. 

This pandemic is being white washed. Many of Africa’s successes so far at handling the crisis have gone virtually unreported. We have taken the “pan” out of “pandemic” in our discussions.  We have sanitized  history repeatedly, and neglected to draw closer human parallels between the 14th-century Plague and Covid-19. This lack of discussion reveals how much white America (and beyond) is not ready to discuss how they regard BIPOC as nothing more than dispensable commodities. As medievalists we have long preferred the white-washed Plague-narratives around social restructuring or economic transitioning with no thought of how marginalized communities are often scapegoats for crises. Across the board, we have refused to examine the targets of this racial violence.  

On the heels of the murders of #AhmaudArbery, #BreonnaTayler, #RegisKorchinsiki-Paquet, #BellyMujinga, #TonyMcDade, and #GeorgeFloyd, this pandemic is uncovering the ugly truths about the sickness of white supremacy. In the midst of a pandemic Black people and their allies have taken to the streets in America, risking their lives to show Black lives are necessary but unappreciated tools of capitalism. The tremors have reverberated and marches are being held around the globe. While critics decry riots, they refuse to acknowledge the Black men and women murdered in cold blood while the world watches. These uprisings are purposeful. For hundreds of years, it has been apparent that Black Lives did not matter in society. Now we are willing to protest amidst a pandemic because we cannot run. We cannot birdwatch. We cannot drive. We cannot sit. We cannot sleep. We cannot breathe. While the Bubonic Plague of the 14th century may not have been a Black Death in a literal sense, we must face the horrendous truth that COVID-19 most certainly is one.