ANALYSIS: Racism has a physical impact on the body – here’s how This article first appeared on The Conversation. I began to write this essay in January 2020, what feels like years ago. The issues I wanted to raise are no longer even partly hidden. The effects of racism on the body, especially the black body, are in plain sight. Most of these problems have been there for centuries, but are now called pandemics. Pandemics of murder, of disease and of social inequality. In the face of new waves of deaths, including those that precipitated the Black Lives Matter movement, the world is reawakening to the power of racism to kill people.