In Brooklyn, New York, community members joined healthcare workers outside of Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center Thursday, demanding a reversal to Governor Cuomo’s plans to close inpatient services at the hospital. Some 80% of Kingsbrook patients are Black, and community leaders warn its closure would exacerbate unequal health outcomes and disease burden in a neighborhood that’s already one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. This is community organizer and city council candidate Anthony Beckford.

Anthony Beckford: “The more that they take away our housing, the more that they take away our food sources — and now they’re taking away our healthcare — this shows you that there’s a war on the community that must be addressed. It can no longer be ignored, because, at the end of the day, at a blink of an eye, this will all be gone. But we must make sure we fight, so that way it stays. But we must also hold their feet to the fire, because while they’re getting richer, they’re siphoning the money and the resources out of our communities as we struggle more and more. This is a working-class community that has gone through so much suffering over the years, and it must stop.”