Pandemic racism – and the nursing response

Racialization in nursing: Rediscovering Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and subalternity

“…The COVID‐19 pandemic exemplifies the biological and cultural constructions of race as newspapers and social media describe events where people from Asian racial backgrounds are exposed to blatant racism because of their phenotypes (Lee Young, 2020; Thorne, 2020). Blaming Asian men and women for COVID‐19 is a manifestation of biological or nativist racism.…”

“…The discipline of nursing may no longer remain hesitant to reflect on its hegemonic tendencies that support structural violence within the profession and health organizations as the conjunctural crisis creates the conditions for changes. Nursing's long history of democratic racism escapes the fact that racialization constitutes a professional and social responsibility (Hilario et al, 2017;Mapedzahama et al, 2012;Puzan, 2003;Schroeder & DiAngelo, 2010;Thorne, 2020). The invisibility of the structures that maintain colour-blind discourses obfuscates how racial and social privileges create heath inequities (Hamed et al, 2020).…”

“…The purpose of this paper was to explore Antonio Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and subalternity as heuristic guides to address racism in nursing. Gramsci's life was a fight against structural violence and capitalist privileges, and his concepts of hegemony and subalternity apply to our current battle against racism brutally mirrored in the COVID‐19 pandemic affecting the world (Laurencin & Walker, 2020) and nursing (Nielsen & Dieperin, 2020; Thorne, 2020). As a form of structural violence, racism operates within social and institutional structures and reinforces the social, cultural and economic privileges of whiteness, creating health and social inequities (Chisholm‐Burns, 2020).…”

“…The purpose of this paper was to explore Antonio Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and subalternity as heuristic guides to address racism in nursing. Gramsci's life was a fight against structural violence and capitalist privileges, and his concepts of hegemony and subalternity apply to our current battle against racism brutally mirrored in the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world (Laurencin & Walker, 2020) and nursing (Nielsen & Dieperin, 2020;Thorne, 2020).…”

Toward a moral commitment: Exposing the covert mechanisms of racism in the nursing discipline

“…Scholars within the nursing discipline have long analyzed the injustices experienced by racialized populations (Anderson et al, 2009;Blanchet Garneau et al, 2018;Browne et al, 2005;Hall & Field, 2012;Hilario et al, 2018;Racine, 2003Racine, , 2021Racine & Petrucka, 2011). However, the structural injustices exposed in light of the Black Lives Matter protests in response to overt police brutality across the United States and the recent wave of COVID-19-related anti-Asian hate crimes across North America, both fueled by racism and xenophobia, have brought unprecedented attention in the past year to the need to implement antiracism solutions (Cheng & Conca-Cheng, 2020;Misra et al, 2020;Thorne, 2020Thorne, , 2021. These recent national and international events provide the nursing discipline with an opportunity to assert its moral commitment to antiracism.…”