COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates and Vaccine Hesitancy among Black People in Canada.

OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 vaccine mandates increased vaccination rates globally. Implemented as a one-size-fits-all policy, these mandates have unintended harmful consequences for many, including Black Canadians. This article reports findings on the interconnectedness of vaccine mandates and vaccine hesitancy by describing a range of responses to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies among Black people in Canada. METHODS: Using qualitative research methods, semi-structured interviews with 36 Black people living in Canada aged 18 years and over across 6 provinces in Canada were conducted. Participants were selected across intersectional categories including migration status, income, religion, education, sex, and Black ethnicity. Thematic analysis informed the identification of key themes using Foucauldian notions of biopower and governmentality. RESULTS: Our results show how the power relations present in the ways many Black people actualize vaccine intentions. Two main themes were identified: acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in the context of governmentality and resistance to vaccine mandates driven by oppression, mistrust, and religion. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 vaccine mandates may have reinforced mistrust of the government and decreased confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine. Policy makers need to consider non-discriminatory public health policies and monitor how these policies are implemented over time and across multiple sectors to better understand vaccine hesitancy.

Beauty.

Beauty is not race neutral. It is a racialized category/ perception which emerged through centuries of European colonization, Indigenous genocide, African/Black enslavement and indenture resulting in an aesthetic hierarchy with Blackness at the bottom. The coloniality of aesthetics means that still today hair perceived as Black in texture and styling and darker skin on African descent bodies are the repositories of anti-Blackness. However, Black women, children and men continue to fight back by (re)creating Black antiracist aesthetics focused on valorizing Black skin and hair.