*It was only a matter of time before somebody blamed Black folks for the COVID-19 resurgence in Republican-heavy states. Yup, time makes fools of us all, and racists and white nationalists continually reveal themselves to be the biggest of fools with every election cycle and with every cultural issue that comes clanking down the pipe.
But this is just history repeating. Circles within circles, paradigms within paradigms.
Last week, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick did what his like tend to do whenever their policies backfire, blame Black people.
It would be a mistake for us to not circle back to the policy of Republican Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, who has been demonstratively, vehemently and stupidly anti-science, anti-mask and anti-common sense from the very beginning of the pandemic.
However, as has always been the case, white-nesia kicks when the right is wrong, which is often.
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This is not what Dan Patrick said last night. It’s a lie.
Dan Patrick said Black Americans are the “biggest group” who are unvaccinated in Texas. That’s a lie. And now, Dan Patrick is lying about his lie because he’s being held accountable for his lie.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 20, 2021
Another information circumnavigation we’d be silly not to mention is that Abbott, who also texted positive for the coronavirus, just issued an executive order blocking vaccine mandates across the state of Texas.
According to USAfacts.org, only 47 percent of Texas residents are fully vaccinated. The demographic breakdown is as follows: 37 percent of the Latino population, 30 percent of the Black population and 41 percent of the white population are fully vaccinated.
The Circle of Politics
Texas was one of the earliest states to reopen following the first wave of the pandemic, one the last states to allow children to attend school via Zoom and has a large conservative base that truly believes the coronavirus is a political issue rather than a health and public safety issue.
I mean, for real, an anti-vaxxer by the name of Scott Aply, who died August 5 due to COVID-19, was a Republican Texas state official who celebrated “mask burnings” and said vaccines were the enemy of the people.
Aply was not atypical of the average 40-to-50 something white male in the state of Texas. He is typical to the point of almost being STEREO-typical.
Yet, with all this information out there that places the increase in COVID related deaths and new cases of COVID to levels that surpass the numbers of the first wave, but a Republican Lt. Governor then wants to come out of his face and blame this one Black folks? With all the evidence pointing the blame squarely where it belongs. That is, with the conservative regime that currently occupies the governorship.
Right now, the state of Texas is seventh in COVID-19 deaths per day at 200, according to trade publication Becker’s Hospital Review. The state has had the most deaths overall from the COVID-19 virus since the pandemic began.
The Circle of History
Thus far we’ve explored several circles. There’s the circle racial paradigm we mentioned due to the scapegoating of Black folks by the Lt. Governor, there’s the political circle that we’ve explored because anti-vaxxer idealism has ruled the Republican Party since Donald Trump, and now we tie together with temporal twine reminding us that racists will play any card just so as long as it hurts a “lesser” individual. Be they political opponent, ally or constituent (Back in June 2020 Gov. Abbott blamed young adults for the increase in COVID. (Of course, he didn’t mention his impudent response to the crisis at hand).
But ultimately the story is painted in the hues of men.
While researching this piece I stumbled across a very well-sourced piece in the Japan Times that was so usefully I had to give attribution and respect.
The piece, titled The Ugly History of Blaming Ethnic Groups for Breakouts, lists both the disease and the way those in power took the environment of death and fear as an opportunity to heap blame on an already marginalized population within their midst.
The Black Death was blamed on the Jewish population in 1348 by the Christian population, for example. An interesting tale recounted therein is of the syphilis outbreak of the 15th century. Though easily treatable in modern times, death from syphilis is slow and painful. If one was “lucky” madness that ensued after the brain was infected might take the one’s mind off the pain of being covered in canker sores.
The interesting part, though, is that as it spread across the continent and the globe each region blamed the disease on foreigners.
From: The ugly history of blaming ethnic groups for disease outbreaks
“The Germans blamed the French, calling it the “French Disease.” Not to be outdone, the French blamed the Italians. Later, the Poles blamed the Russians, the Persians blamed the Turks, Muslims blamed Hindus, and the Japanese would blame the Portuguese.”
Similarly, the Irish were blamed for cholera outbreaks in 19th century NYC, Jewish immigrants were blamed for tuberculosis around the same time, Italians blamed for polio in the early 1900s, Haitian people were blamed for the spread of AIDS in the 1980s, and just last year, Asian folks were blamed for COVID-19 in America.
The current news cycle is filled with circles revisiting past coordinates and we are once again at that place where it’s being posited that it is Black or Brown people’s fault Americans are suffering.
As it is in Afghanistan so too is it in Texas.
Welcome to the present, past and probable future, ladies and gentlemen. Ignorance is infectious and it won’t be long before Lt. Gov. Patrick is parroted in other red state hotspots.
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