Black, Latinx community members reflect on impact of COVID-19 Multicultural Institute/Courtesy The pandemic has disproportionately affected racial minorities, with Black individuals having the highest death rates from COVID-19. The pandemic has also highlighted the discrimination and inequality that racial minorities face. For Daniela Gonzalez-Perez, the day labor program assistant at the Multicultural Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified the struggles that have confronted racial minority groups before the country shut down in March 2020. Racial minorities have historically experienced discrimination and inequality, with the pandemic reproducing those struggles in the form of disproportionate COVID-19 deaths, case rates and access to resources and information, according to Gonzalez-Perez. She and other members of the Latinx and Black communities shared the impact of the pandemic on their communities and what it has meant to them.