My different take on #blacklivesmatter

History lesson for those interested.

This link is an official government timeline of the Tuskegee Experiment Remember this lasted 40 years ending in 1972. (Repeat: 1972!!!) – The CDC is of course now reviewing this, but several other publications stipulate the same timeline.

Now my analysis:

Black people (in particular Black MEN) are NOT simply anti-vaccine conspiracy theory nuts. There is a DAMN good reason they are skeptical of the US medical industry.

How the Tuskegee Experiment started (from the CDC website): In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks. It was called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”

Two important questions:
1.) What was the purpose of letting Black Men go untreated for 40 years?

This was in the USA and in the latter part of the 20th Century. AND from my reading the cure was available in 1910 (22 years BEFORE this experiment began).

Which leads to Question #2

2.) Why did they need to justify treatment programs for Black Men AFTER they had the cure? (Why not just cure them?!)

This reveals at BEST an incredible insensitivity to the value and the humanity of Black Men and at WORST: Outright cruelty! (Read the name of the study again “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” and ask yourself this: Does that sound like they had ANY thought they were studying human beings?

One could draw a reasonable line to how THIS mindset relates to our prison industrial complex, but I won’t go there except to remind all reading this that June 1971: Nixon officially declares a “war on drugs,” Which (BTW) is the REAL reason 1 in 4 Black men have exposure to the criminal justice system. So it is not an easy sell to me that this is not linear or (dare I say it) intentional.

So…..if we have a system that would lead a government to allow Black Men to go untreated for 40 years (with a very curable disease) and THEN (shortly afterwards) create a system where (eventually) one in four Black Men end up with criminal exposure, that begs the question that many Black Men have today: Do OUR Lives REALLY matter to YOU?

Or maybe even this: Do you think our government or our country thinks and values us as fully human beings the same as you are?

BTW: Please don’t take my word that this was the intention behind the War on Drugs, the Nixon administration already admitted this years ago.

Given the current scope and scale of the BLM protests this year, I am hopeful, but we need to be careful and vigilant because……

• History as shown above suggests otherwise (it can happen again and is still happening)
• Even “Liberal” Hollywood suggests otherwise as they keep the Thug Myth (and others) going

I personally do not think it is hatred, in 2020 we are generally mostly past hatred, I believe now it is the fear of the current patriarchy We must make them feel safe, right?

What would Hollywood Fear? That maybe a movie featuring a Black Man playing a Super hero with an all Black cast would more than hold its own amongst the best and popular movies of all time. Some may fear a world where sometimes the hero looks like US.

Now, it may be that openly saying the lives of Black men matter and we are fully human means they fear losing their inherited dominance, one of the perks is them being IDEAL male that all ladies desire. You know, the 007 thing.

Arguably that was the REAL intent behind the Jim Crow laws of the “old” south.

That is what may be behind the response to BLM is “(Insert Non-Black Group Name Here) Lives Matter”.

They get it, and they hear it. They KNOW what it means! These are VERY intelligent people! But…

• Saying it means that they feel that they will lose a power over a people that they have long assumed that they have a right to.
• Saying this means they would have to also admit that we have power too and can lead the world successfully.
• Saying this means that they will have to admit that we can do ANYTHING just as good (or better) than they can.

Wait: I did not mention Police Brutality did I?

No need, others have covered that exhaustively, I am just saying that the rabbit hole goes much deeper than than the current movement provides for.

BLM should not just be a single thread of interaction with police.

IMO, we need to talk about the issues Black men face that are overlooked by almost EVERYONE and EVERYDAY!

As for me: I am hopeful and expect that the vaccine works AND I will probably take advantage of it when it comes to me and I get this may not come until mid next year.