Ohio state senator blames coronavirus pandemic on ‘colored’ people not washing their hands

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling for an Ohio Republican state senator to resign or be fired after he questioned whether “the colored population” contracted coronavirus because they do not wash their hands.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, state Sen. Steve Huffman, who is white, made the offending comments during a committee hearing on Tuesday while questioning Angela Dawson, the executive director of the Ohio Commission on Minority Health and a black woman.

“I understand that African-Americans have a higher incidence of prior conditions and that makes them more susceptible to COVID, but does not make them more susceptible just to get COVID?” Huffman, himself a doctor from suburban Dayton, asked.

“We know it’s twice as often, correct? Could it just be that African-Americans – the colored population — do not wash their hands as well as other groups? Or wear a mask? Or do not socially distance themselves? Could that just be maybe the explanation of why there’s a higher incidence?”

That is not the opinion of leading medical experts in this country," Dawson replied.

Huffman’s comments were immediately decried by his legislative colleagues.

“The fact that a well-educated legislator, a vice chair of the Health Committee and a practicing medical doctor would, in a public setting, nonchalantly use such antiquated terminology paired with a hurtful, racist stereotype all in one breath reflects how unconscious this problem of racism is for too many," Democrat Rep. Stephanie Howse said in a statement.

Sen. Cecil Thomas, a black Democrat from Cincinnati who is on the health committee with Huffman, said he would give his colleague the benefit of the doubt but was struck by Huffman’s comments about masks.

“I thought, ‘you have not been wearing your mask since you’ve been here, and you’re a doctor,'" Thomas said.

The Ohio branch of the ACLU was not as charitable in interpreting Huffman’s comments.

"As a practicing physician of nearly 20 years, he knew precisely what type of harm his ignorant, heinous, and callously hurtful comments would have on communities of color in Ohio,” J. Bennett Guess, Ohio ACLU executive director, said.

“There is no reality where he can remain a member of the Ohio General Assembly and make decisions that affect the very communities he undermines and clearly holds such contemptible attitudes. This is what systemic institutionalized racism looks like, and this is how it manifests itself and oppresses the day-to-day lives of people of color."

Huffman ultimately apologized for the remarks.

“Regrettably, I asked a question in an unintentionally awkward way that was perceived as hurtful and was exactly the opposite of what I meant," Huffman said. "I was trying to focus on why COVID-19 affects people of color at a higher rate since we really do not know all the reasons.”