The Ugliness The New "Anti-Racist" Obsession With Race Fosters
A woman blamed "Western medicine" for an undiagnosed health issue she had, and I gentle tweeted a corrective remark, saying that it is a "doctor" (or perhaps doctors) who failed, not "Western medicine" (in contrast with pseudoscience like naturopathy).
Western medicine may sometimes or even often fail at being science-driven, but it at least starts with a goal of practicing according to evidence-based science.
I think it's important to think rationally and to have correctives like this even on small matters like one woman believing "medicine" failed her, because these small irrationalities can lead to harmful actions.
I was reminded of my tweet when I read a piece by Ben Zeisloff at Campus Reform with similarly irrational thinking -- that of a racist who has surely been cultivated into being racist by the "woke" think at present of Kendi and DiAngelo and their minions.
After several of his classmates traveled for spring break, the opinion editor of the University of Washington's student newspaper wrote that "spring break reminded me I can't trust white people.""It wasn't enough for the whites of Greek Row to throw summer super-spreader parties that endangered the community as protests for Black lives amid the death of George Floyd occurred mere blocks from them," wrote Andre Lawes Menchavez of The Daily in an op-ed. "Spring break came, and in typical fashion, my white peers at this university continued to disappoint me with their performative activism and how they followed in the footsteps of their violent white supremacist ancestors -- they travelled to Hawaii and Mexico, endangering the lives of local communities for the sake of their own aesthetic pleasure."
"They're not ashamed to post about their colonial pursuits on their feed, either," he added. "A (now former) friend of mine posted an Instagram story of her with a group of white UW Greek life folks taking shots at a restaurant in Mexico, maskless, as a masked server frantically tried to clear off their table."
Based on this experience, Menchavez learned that "Even the white people you consider your 'friends' in this space, even those who are majoring in the 'progressive' departments, are still not to be trusted."
"You say you love and respect my voice as an abolitionist and decolonial queer activist of color, but your actions prove you to be cut from the same raggedy cloth as the nasty colonizers I despise for murdering and assimilating my ancestors," he wrote.
Menchavez recounted that white women in his race relations seminar "actively led our discussions on topics like opting for community care, implementing restorative justice, and condemning white supremacy." Weeks later, however, they "hopped on flights to Mexico and Hawaii."
Good for them that they (or presumably their parents) can afford this. I'm happy for people who can take nice vacations! As for appearing maskless, welcome to the thoughtlessness of one's 20s. My dear, young part-time editor, who lives in NYC, caught COVID from a friend who was similarly careless.
Was this racism on the friend's part? Some other type of bigotry? Or did she just exhibit the frequent asshattery of one in their 20s -- which I "exhibited" by rollerskating up 5th Avenue 50 blocks to work with some regularity back when I lived in Manhattan.
Luckily, I lived to realize what an idiot I was -- and it gives me some compassion for my fellow 20-something idiots. Then again, I don't need to nail anybody to the wall for anything to feel like somebody.
Another little gem from the dude's piece was this:
Noting that "locals of Hawaii are even calling their acts of tourism a form of terrorism that is endangering their communities," Menchavez said that "whites will continue to do what whites have always done in our history -- create carnage at the expense of minority communities in order to obtain their own selfish desires."
I think what they call "acts of tourism" is "How we keep businesses open, mortgages paid, and food on the table."
If the locals don't want tourism, they should shut the borders to tourists. Lots of places are doing or have done it this past year.
NicoleK at May 2, 2021 5:50 AM
If the locals don't want tourism, they should shut the borders to tourists. Lots of places are doing or have done it this past year.
NicoleK at May 2, 2021 5:50 AM
Most people can’t afford to do without a years worth of income.
Haven’t see any studies that show that masks either slow or stop transmission. Most people who have been exposed have caught it. At least half the cases are asymptomatic.
Not saying it is ok to cough on people or go out when you are sick. Just saying the world needs to accept a normal level of risk again. Viruses will always be with us.
Isab at May 2, 2021 6:49 AM
Not all of us, Isab. I mean, viruses will always be with us, but the threat from many individual virus can be caused to go away.
When people who are afraid of needles get their shit together, I mean.
Crid at May 2, 2021 6:54 AM
Not all of us, Isab. I mean, viruses will always be with us, but the threat from many individual virus can be caused to go away.
When people who are afraid of needles get their shit together, I mean.
Crid at May 2, 2021 6:54 AM
Not really. They all mutate, Especially the flu.
I had the vaccine. But I can fully relate to the people who don’t want to take it. Chances are good at this point, after running thru the population for over a year, they don’t need it.
Isab at May 2, 2021 7:13 AM
"Not really"?
I'm kind of wondering how you think human progress happens at all. Last year we had a woman in here announce that five million ("10% of the retirement set") were going to die from Covid… And she was proudly, theatrically blasé about it.
Talk like this begins to seem like a witlessly pornographic bloodlust.
Did people really think herd immunity was going to come without vaccines? Really?
Crid at May 2, 2021 12:25 PM
It ain't just medical science, and it ain't just people with degrees.
Crid at May 2, 2021 12:29 PM
Not sure what you are trying to say here Crid. Vaccines are really important for diseases with a high mortality rate.
And not all diseases have been amenable to vaccines. The vaccines themselves have variable levels of effectiveness.
In a historical sense, in the U.S. Covid has barely budged the needle above the daily mortality from all causes.
The masks are fucking virus theater. Not effective, not the right kind, and not used properly by most people.
If it wasn’t so sad, and liberty threatening, I might be amused by former libertarians turning on a dime, and thinking they have the right to shut down entire countries and other people’s livelihoods in a futile failed effort to stop a disease with a 99.5 percent survival rate.
Isab at May 2, 2021 1:11 PM
" super-spreader parties that endangered the community as protests for Black lives amid the death of George Floyd occurred mere blocks from them"
His tribal name shall be "Swims With Red Herrings" from now on.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 2, 2021 1:23 PM
Not sure what you are trying to say here [sic] Isab.
So the economic and social suppression of so much of our nation diminished threats from other hazards, such as conventional winter influenza?
Maybe we should keep these policies in place.
Good to know! Writing that down! They all mutate.....
Crid at May 2, 2021 2:37 PM
Anyone over age 20 with weeping butthurt about having to wear a silly little mask was probably not much dialed into the commonweal anyway.
Merely as a courtesy to distractable seniors... Too much to ask, huh? We will remember this about you.
Crid at May 2, 2021 2:44 PM
"liberty threatening"
Crid at May 2, 2021 2:45 PM
“Maybe we should keep these policies in place.”
Policies huh? Like the ones that transferred sick people with active cases of Covid into nursing homes? Most likely to inflate the death count for political reasons?
No amount of mandated mask theater will atone for that.
https://www.aier.org/article/the-cdcs-mask-mandate-study-debunked/
Isab at May 2, 2021 3:44 PM
Sick people? In a context of barely-budged mortality?
Crid at May 2, 2021 5:20 PM
Notice how those crowded and often-maskless protests were not described as "super-spreader" events.
Conan the Grammarian at May 2, 2021 6:33 PM
OK but then they can't complain when tourists come. Either they close borders and just do their economic activities amongst themselves, or bring in tourists. Those are the options.
NicoleK at May 2, 2021 10:22 PM
You are asking people to be internally consistent, NicoleK. As Conan points out that isn't being offered. What you do when someone wants to play a 'heads I win, tails you lose' game is up to you.
Ben at May 3, 2021 1:09 PM
"A woman blamed "Western medicine" for an undiagnosed health issue she had,..."
Wonder if this is the sort of person who is simply eager to define things in terms of blame.
It's tough for some to realize that Rule 1 is that Shit Happens, and that Rule 2 is that Rule 1 always applies.
Radwaste at May 3, 2021 3:25 PM
Leave a comment