Archive for May, 2021


It’s been roughly a year since there were massive protests supporting Black Lives Matter due to the several hate murders of Black individuals by White people, being from behind a badge or out of simple plain, garden variety homicidal anti-Blackness. It also, unfortunately, was one of the biggest showings of White Guilt and White Fragility and White Saviorism I have seen in a while, mainly to pretend to care while keeping things roughly the same. Or pretend to care, get called out on it and then whine about “Cancel Culture”. (Hot tip: Yes, accountability sucks (which is usually what “Cancel Culture” is, pointing out your prejudiced f*ck-ups.) Get used to it or stop doing it. Can’t get any simpler than that.) These acts pretty much co-opted the struggle for respecting the inherent civil rights of Black people, which is what any thing to do with White Reaction tends to aim for. Maintaining White supremacy is odd like that. Otherwise the Proud Boys, a White supremacist group, wouldn’t be led by a White passing Latin man – who they only martyr the fall of when it is really, really convenient.

Before we begin, let’s review the various forms of White Reaction:

Let’s review the difference between “actual allyship”, which takes work but has positive lasting effects, and “harmful allyship”, which is easy to do – hence why it is an often sought after choice – but does literally nothing positive or genuinely effective. It’s a bunch of pointless kumbayah’ing meant to keep the same system in place. Pathetic lip service, in other words.

Changes did indeed happen, that is fact, but the changes aren’t that staggering and will probably peter out in a few years. I’m from Baltimore, we had the riots back in 2015. Things changed for a little – and then went back to how it was or got worse because of performative allyship. Oh, and then there was the glaring fact that White people tried so endlessly to call it an “uprising” or a “revolution”. It wasn’t. It was a protest that eventually turned into a riot because all transportation was shut down thanks to the Baltimore police not being that great at crowd herding – among a lot of other things. (City Hall is even more corrupt than the police, brief reminder. And City Hall painted themselves as the Defenders of the People during this time. The same City Hall that is so corrupt I don’t even bother learning the Mayor’s name because they get booted out that frequently). Oh, and those same White people also tried to loot a lot during that “uprising/revolution” that it very much wasn’t – because they knew Black Baltimoreans would get doused with the blame. By them, the White people. And those very same ones that wanted to cast the Baltimore riots like there should be a Muse soundtrack playing in the background also wanted to duck any and every claim that, actually, they are part of the problem, not the solution. From trying to provoke police into shooting at the protesting crowd by screaming “gun! Gun! There’s a gun!” when there certainly wasn’t, to trying to rename and sanitize the opinions of the protests to suit a more “We’re not like those White people, we’re saviors! Also, please focus on us!” gaze. And now, some time later, we’re still in a suffering state. Actually, we have gotten worse in some ways.

Or to put it in a favorite image I have seen:

Yep, sums it up

If anything, it just has been a bunch of White Whinging and Concern-Harassment, which is “oh, I want to unlearn prejudice (not really), can we go deep sea diving through your cultural trauma so I can feel better about myself, even when I royally screw up?”  First of all, I’m not a Diversity Consultant. That is a bona fide job and with a very bona fide rate of $500-700 an hour. Want to frolic wistfully in the pains of others? Those are the go-to guys and it is less “let you frolic” and more “give you a paltry talking to in exchange for buckets of money”. Go pay them. Requests like these are usually about 3 to 15 hours worth, roughly. They break the bank with the greatest of ease but hey, people like me get to have a regular, unharassed day so it works. And Concern-Harassment, though similar, isn’t Concern-Trolling because they act like they want to be taught, not that the individual they are targeting should change. 

Two images that come to mind when I think of last summer:

Wow, did this occur a lot. It is wholly why I haven’t slow-walked anyone about unlearning any biases for years. It’s much easier for me to just rip on the person until they learn or leave.
They usually leave.
Another reason why I just rip on the person until they learn or leave – because they’re usually not interested in learning. They just want to cause hassle for personal entertainment or gain.
Moral of the Story: Nice doesn’t Work. Ever. You’re just one bad day (theirs or yours) away from being “just like the rest”. And it doesn’t have to be a bad day, either. Any regular day will do.

If there were any sign of something genuinely fruitful coming out of slow-walking privileged groups through unlearning their biases, I would go through with it. But I don’t do things like that anymore because what I have noticed for myself and others like myself is that it’s just an utter waste of time and simply a very easy way to ruin your day while theirs is very amplified from their “learning experience”. You aren’t a person to them, you’re a walking life lesson. And if you don’t Life Lesson exactly right, expect to deal with a nasty storm you 100% did not ask for. And you don’t get to know what “exactly right” is but you’re definitely sure it sits somewhere in the realm of “coddling and defending bad behavior” so they don’t really have to unlearn a thing, you’ll do all the suffering for them. Yeaaaaaaah, no.

Plus, there are countless resources for a regular person to avail themselves to. Loads and buckets. I’m not perfect by a long shot, I have had (and still have) my own biases to check. But I learned by myself how to do that. I didn’t ask a total stranger of any affected group to personally slow-walk me through my own biases and to basically be my punching bag “for experience” until I learn through and through how to treat them like a human being. I would perhaps follow their blog and watch a bunch of documentaries and read books and follow a few other people as well in the affected group but that’s it. No interacting at all. They get to be themselves and not harassed, I get to learn via not harassing. Besides, some other idiot would usually ask whatever I was thinking and I would learn that way as well. Granted, I’m the type that never wants to bother others in general so that’s probably why the “lurk and learn” method works wonders for me. I may not have had full understanding about the affected group I’m learning about but I know enough as a human being that being annoyed by annoying people is, well, aggravating. “Lurk and Learn” works better than “Harass and pester” when it comes to unlearning biases. Way better.

Not to mention, when bothering affected people to learn about how they are affected by prejudice, they’re not the happiest bunch to grace the planet. Because you are bothering them. It’s remarkably easy to take this agitation of being pestered over something very stressful as confirmation bias. (“See! [Affected group] really is loaded with terrible people. I asked one to personally walk me through my prejudice and they had the nerve to tell me where I could stick my questions. How dare they not be nice and notice I am trying to improve their lives?”) Here is a cute picture to help you remember how not to harangue others:

Very adorbs

 

I also must say, I personally have certainly encountered an unusual additional annoyance: Chinese Nationalists. This is probably borne from the fact that I do indeed know Chinese (as well as at least four other languages – to be honest, I stopped counting at five) and thus interact on an international language exchange app that started in China, Hello Talk. By the way, Hello Talk used to be sort of decent, now, it’s part of standard Chinese government level censorship. This means you can’t really say a whole lot on a language exchange app. And if Chinese is one of your languages, it is even worse since you can hardly post in Chinese – because it will be censored for one reason for another. Never really been much of a fan of non-obscene censorship. Back to the original topic, I have been dealing with an insane slew of Chinese nationalists because apparently Black Lives Matter also was used for propaganda bs there as well.

It’s usually in the tone of garden variety anti-Blackness but whiplashing to playing victim. (“See, this is why Black people get murdered – but Asian people also are treated poorly! Look at how China is treated!”) If I never interacted with White people or White society before, this would sound super brand new to me. It’s a different brand of super stupid, to be honest. For the record, whinging to a Black person about the imperialist acts of America is pretty much preaching to the choir. Also, China recently has been going through a lot of Yikes when it comes to oppressiveness, including but not limited to, anti-Blackness. From state-sponsored plays that feature blackface, to acting exactly like West with the Belt and Road Initiative (which hijacks African nations of their materials & people via economic and/or oppressive force and oppresses Black individuals of their freedoms), to deporting Black immigrants in China as a scapegoat for the coronavirus to duck responsibility, to straight up concentration camps (complete with boxcars!) of the Uyghur people. About that, the Uyghur people are not Black, no, but when the world went “Wow, China, you’re looking very … 1940s Germany but with a side of 1800s America and some Hannibal Lecter thrown in for flavor” because of the Uyghur forced labor, which ranges from building technology to picking cotton, as well as harvesting organs of the Uyghurs – which they, the Chinese government, have also done to other Chinese civilians, such as those in the persecuted religious group, Falun Gong, the Chinese government’s response was to bring up American chattel slavery, basically cherry picking Black history to present themselves as “not the bad guy/not the only bad guy” to justify (or deny) their textbook genocide. Cherry picking the collective lives of Black folks to suit your own biased and prejudiced agendas while refusing to interact with said group in genuine earnest – yep, sounds about White. For a nation really mad at the West, they certainly like to pull countless methods out of the West’s rule book. 

What sucks more is that people in China will repeat this nonsense but the second they are asked remotely in-depth questions, out comes the “I respect all people. The Chinese respects all people. We love Black people and are grateful for them!” If this phony act does not work for White people, it is not going to work for other groups. Especially if they have the same narcissistic hyper defensiveness that I usually find way more common with White people in general or non Black people of color (NBPoC) who are middle class or above. Happens every time. For example, when I talked about how the use of Black history to justify genocide with folks in China who would interact with me – just like with White people, these conversations are never started by me, I’m always approached – it would be met with tone-deafness and many red herring attempts. Such as “Racism is so big and difficult a problem, I’m just one person. [So I don’t have to fix any of my bad behavior!]” Uh, ridding racism can be as easy as telling someone, “Wow, that is a really bad joke. Lol, were you trying to be funny? Please keep your day job, ha!” Simple. Or “Wait, when the Japanese treated us like this, we all thought it was wrong. I don’t know, I don’t think I want to be that kind of monster. Unless you thought all that was okaaaay ….” Throwing the ball back at the prejudiced person by evoking shared historical pain is an oldie but a goodie and very effective. Also simple. No, it won’t get you a Nobel Peace prize like Dr. King but it also won’t get you a bullet to the throat (like Dr. King), either. Very easy peasy. Or just examine your own thoughts and root out your own biases. Here is a handy-dandy wheel to get you started – anyone on the planet can use this easy learning tool! 

Look at all the pretty colors! Easy to use for everyone, anywhere at any time! Live in Boston or in Beijing or in Bristol or in Berlin? Still applies!

For me, it’s just like interacting with White people who would bug me about the same, except in a different language. One thing I can expertly say now for fact is that racist, anti-Black bullsh*t sounds roughly the same in various parts of the world and in various languages. China isn’t the only Asian country to pull this behavior (looking at you, Japan and South Korea (oh boy, all that can be said about K-pop alone is warrant enough for its own discussion)) but I do seem to hear the most from China. Yes, there is the whole geo-political rivalry thing between the US and China but if either nation are going to barrel through Black history and people with indecency, it should be noted and brought up. If China is flipping through The West’s playbook of How To Succeed, they should have just simply bypassed the “Engage in Anti-Blackness, There’s Literally No Way This Can Possibly Go Wrong” chapter and kept it moving. 

Also, bringing up anti-Asian sentiment does not justify anti-Blackness. Yes, there have been rifts between the Black community and Asian community but they usually only appear when White supremacy has poked about. Otherwise, there tend to be more unions than not. Like I said, maintaining White supremacy is odd like that. Heck, a lot of Asian Americans are figuring that one out now, that “borrowed White privilege” isn’t real privilege at all – because White people will still set your grandparents on fire should the whimsy strike them. And “borrowed White privilege” doesn’t afford any real protections, you’re just a human shield to conduct White supremacist anti-Black behavior behind, not an actual human being to them. That realization came at them super duper fast when the massage parlor mass shooting occurred and the gunman was referred to as “church-going” and “dealing with a sex addiction” by NBC news and “simply had a bad day” by the police. Anglicizing and minimizing the true awfulness of a White gunman’s racist behavior, check and check. Speaking as a Black person who is extremely familiar with history: stock up on your cat videos and gas masks, Asian America, things are going to get pretty bad. At least there might not be any lynchings, White people aren’t that read up on their history. Maybe.

And for Black folks: try not to buy into White supremacist anti-Asian behavior. Here’s a handy reminder image:

 

But definitely, hold them accountable for when they screw up, be it in the name of White Supremacy/”borrowed White privilege”, colorism (which has been in Asia long before White people showed up), or in the form of straight up murder. Always inspect your mind and check your biases but some things are simply as plain as day. They may call it, “Oh noes, Cancel Culture!” (they like to borrow White Whinging, it appears) We call it, “Accountability – so you don’t coddle a culture that convinces someone else to shoot us in the back of the head at point blank over orange juice. Get used to it or stop doing it.” Remember, check your bias but check the anti-Blackness of others.

And if there are any Asian American folks who think they can successfully fight for better respect but still think anti-Blackness (and colorism) is the truth, the light, and the way – you might as well go home and stick your head back in the sand. Can’t dismantle the same White supremacy that thinks turning your elders into bonfires and your sisters into bullet cabinets & walking fleshlights is “self-expression of frustration” if you plan on still holding on to it with a death grip. Historically, it really does not work out well. Well, not for you. White folks will be fine, if not somehow benefited – which the main point of White supremacy, by the way. Angry Asian Man explains this far better than I do, hence why his blog has lived in the Links of Interest at the top of this blog since the literal creation of this very blog. He even added a podcast.

Dealing with Chinese nationalists is certainly annoying and a brand new annoyance for me. Also note I say “Chinese nationalists” not “Chinese people”. Not all of them spit nonsense, but the nationalists? Oh, they certainly do for sure. And I am aware sometimes it is probably people of the “50 Cent Army”, paid pro-nationalists trolls, but still these folks need to be reined in and they tend to burst into fireworks when you simply bring up general, accurate Chinese history. So much is censored over there that it takes very little to find something that will easily flip the tables and upset them. Heck, just bring up the concentration camps that are happening now or the Tiananmen Square massacre and eventually they’ll be the super angry one. Oh, and bring up the BBC. Apparently the channel that pumps out nothing but Dr. Who and dry television really gets them going. I’m not a fan of the BBC myself (though, I do love Red Dwarf and Chef!), it’s not enough to practically bust a vein over. Except when the BBC is being racist, which is practically all the time. Over-censorship makes for easy counter trolling, thankfully. Troll or not, they usually block me because I get them angry enough. Huh, just like White folks who also pester me for racist reasons.

Oh! And another thing that I’m super sick of hearing over this past year:

“I love all people of all races and backgrounds.”

Usually people who say this are usually caught with their hand in the Cookie Jar of Racism. I have rarely met individuals who have said this phrase and actually lived up to it.  What they usually mean is this:

“I have not personally murdered a non White person (Black, really) via lynching and I know how to not say slurs when the irritable affected are not around – only around people who look like me or the sycophants of that group that I keep around for anti-racism rep but I tell them it’s ‘friendship’/’relationship’. And I know one Whitewashed MLK phrase. Maybe two if I think really, really hard. I salt my learned hatred of you in heaps of sugar.”

Still racist all the same. Even without a personal body count, even without a pointed hood, even without a membership card to a known hate group. I posted this in the last post but it bears saying twice:

There is no “racist boogyman”, I have met a lot of super nice racist people. They’re still racist and I would steer clear of them whenever possible. Nice or not nice, you don’t want to find out which side of the coin you’re on because it flips in the blink of an eye. The people who have attended lynchings would all be considered “nice people”, not monsters. The people who have expressed hateful statements or very problematic statements would usually also be considered “nice”, with “well-meaning” tacked on. They are all very nice – up until they are not. Some are good at using this like a weapon (White Feminism is a diamond example). Some just like to act baffled but still lovable – it’s that pesky, unhappy darkie that just wants to make a mountain out of a mole hill, ugh, always want to find the problem in everything. Can’t they just cheer up

Do people who are all accepting exist? Totally! They’re just a very small minority. And it usually shows up in their actions, they don’t need to boast over and over how awesome a person they are to people who don’t look like them and how caring they are and that they don’t see race or anything. They don’t have to because it’s not even a focus to begin with. Remember, they are all-accepting. And one thing I have learned about all-accepting people: they are certainly not accepted by all, and especially not the majority. Because they genuinely disrupt the status quo, and that is seen as a very big problem. They basically get the “if you like them so much, we’ll treat you like one of them” treatment, which can get pretty fatal at times. (Fun fact: White abolitionists and Civil Rights supporters were commonly lynched because of that sentiment. The good ol’ “if you love them so much, you can die like them”. Remember, White supremacy is about maintaining itself, even if it means killing White people who “don’t get with the program”. White supremacy is odd like that.) I have seen White friends get booted from jobs, advancement and other life joys because of this exact sentiment – and always from “I accept all people of all races” types. I’ve seen Asian friends pretty much get ostracized because they wanted to be anti-Black and learned that their communities are not as collective as they thought. Those are just two broad examples of plenty others. Basically, as long as you don’t disturb the status quo, you’re accepted. So much as poke at it and you’re officially a problem. Remember, authentic allyship is quite hard. 

To be honest, I didn’t expect much to happen in a year, because it usually never does. Or in two, or in ten. There are some glacial changes but usually the status quo resets itself and goes back to being what it was. There’s a reason why a lot of the same sentiments from the 1860s and the 1960s are still around today. Almost right down to the words and tone of irritation. And so are all the pandering answers and the lip service that are more self-serving than anything. Not much has changed, only the technology has gotten better. Without severe disruptions, that’s pretty much the pattern of how things are going to be. And that, everyone, is a problem. 

Accidental vacation, huzzah. The second one in so few months.

I simply had a lot to do. But now, I’m back (I think).

At least I was half active on my Instagram, where I mainly showed my cat, my 3d printed masks, and my orchids recently. Oh, and my roses. I like scented flowers, what can I say? Especially flowers that smell like candy and/or chocolate – though I don’t really like eating candy and chocolate. I’m complex, it is what it is. I’ll eventually post them to my Tumblr.

I think taking breaks are not that bad, especially when juggling a bunch of things. In the past, I would try to schedule posts so breaks weren’t that obvious but then there are times where you simply just go “Nope” and that’s it.

As of two weeks ago, I’ve gotten both vaccine shots against Covid-19. I am now considered “fully vaccinated”. Still wearing masks. Still socially distancing. Still cleaning things. Now, I have experienced (and seen, and heard from others) that getting the Coronavirus vaccine is immensely difficult – oh, and before we touch on that, let’s touch on bunk for a second.

I’ve also heard from others that people will sometimes go out and about and try to sell to people, usually in poorer neighborhoods that have obscene lack of access to vaccinations – due to terrible hospitals, deeply prejudiced/rude healthcare workers, simply no properly enforced vaccination system, and a long, horrific Western medical history of White medical practitioners using Black and Brown (well, anyone that wasn’t White, really) people as lab rats over and over again – these people will try to hock oils that will “get rid of the coronavirus”. I have zero idea what the oils are made of but I can tell you, it’s a load of bullsh*t. These folks tend to target those standing at bus stops and hock their wares. It has also floated to me that this is also a thing on the internet, including fluffy bunnies and dabblers, who are folks who basically like to play pretend when it comes to magick and occultism. (Having a Killstar bag or a cottage dress doesn’t make someone a witch. Hopefully fashionable but not a witch). This is remarkably dangerous for so, so many reasons.

Here’s the thing: while quite a few forms of science has witchcraft DNA (from potions to modern medicine, from alchemy to chemistry, for example), there is absolutely nothing, and I mean not a single thing that can be purchased from Instagram or Facebook that can vaccinate against Covid-19 or remove it from your body. No phony online witch doctor can cure you via DMs. Even in cultures that do have genuine witch doctors and shamans, they will say just about the same thing a person in a lab coat will (in certain places & cultures, they’re also the same people. And they’re still legit). Which is, “It’s the coronavirus. You need to get medicine and/or treatment for Covid. Or best, vaccinated.” If it is being sold (emphasis on the sold part), it is most likely dubious. If it is being sold on the internet, it is definitely dubious. If it is being sold on the internet via social media, it is a 100%, solid gold scam. Social media can provide a lot of things, dependable medicine is not one of them. Especially not ones gears towards a pandemic. If it is being sold on the internet via social media through an influencer – it is not only a super scam but, congrats, you officially seen someone who is willing to kill you for a couple bucks and with a super edited, but glitzy, smile. They should be behind bars and deplatformed quickly.

If you see anyone posting, selling or spreading such information (from oils to spells about Covid, they’re all phony), report them to the social media platform and even to local governments if possible because they are just trying to make money off of scared people, even harm or kill a few. Doesn’t matter if they are famous or fairly unknown, these folks do not need to harm people just to collect a few coins. They don’t care about the population and especially not their communities, just themselves. You’ll be pushing daisies and they’ll dump out a phony apology just to hock the next thing offered to them for a couple more bucks.

Back to the difficulties of getting a vaccine in the community. I have tried to get a vaccine in the community and, wow, is it difficult. There is the option of going to a mass vaccination center, like a football stadium. However, according to those I know who have gone, it can be long, lengthy and nerve wracking – and this is assuming they have appointments. One friend tried to show up a few minutes early for their appointment but wound up soaking two hours away because of how long the lines were. There are pharmacies, like Walgreens and CVS, but they are so inundated that calling on the phone is pointless (it will just direct you to their website, and their website will direct you to their phone, it is an ouroboros of bullsh*t) and should you get a human, they will be a very frazzled and snippy one.

There is also the difficulties of even getting an appointment itself. It should not be easier to buy concert tickets than it is to get an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccine (by the way, in-person concerts should not be happening, they’re just super spreader events just waiting to happen). Just like concert ticket sites will hold your ticket for five minutes or so, it should be the same for an appointment setting. Granted, there can always be logistical problems with that – everyone chunking up the system because of all the five minutes (or so) timers are active on available appointments, good ol’ scalpers (that should be sort of easy to fix with checking ip addresses, names and such, to prevent one person scooping up a bunch of appointments and trying to sell them off) – but these are problems that can be handled. Hopefully. I mean, we’re almost a year and a half in of handling a virus that can be easily defeated with regular dish soap and a mask and look at how badly that is being handled, from the start to now. Totally predictable but definitely still disappointing.

My vaccination came because I work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where they are making a mad dash to vaccinate as many employees as possible. Makes sense, given they are the place that has the core of the vaccine research, that they would have better and easier access to vaccines than the average health clinic in America. No greedy and/or incompetent middle men like what regular health clinics have to deal with, no round-arounds or snippy people, either. There was a line but it moved pretty fast. However, NIH is only vaccinating its employees not the entire country, so a way smaller number of people means a smoother run, I would imagine. Either way, if I didn’t get vaccinated at my job that is literally responsible for the creation of information about covid and the vaccines and treatments, I still would most likely be unvaccinated because of how hard it is to be vaccinated in the communities.

And speaking of government organizations interacting with pandemics – what the CDC said is quite sus. For those not in the know, the CDC said: “… [F]ully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance”. This sounds really simple on paper, and I would sort of agree, except for several caveats:

  • A lot of people are unvaccinated and it is quite easy to lie since there is zero obvious difference between a vaccinated and a non-vaccinated person at face value.
  • Related to above, there is even a black market for buying fake vaccination cards (just like there was and is a black market for buying fake negative covid results), which means a lot of people are willing to risk their lives and the lives of others just to not wear a mask. Oh, and help Covid become new, stronger variants
  • There still isn’t full documentation on whether a vaxxed person can catch and spread Covid to others in asymptomatic fashion. That is still being worked on
  • A lot of places did away with their “laws, rules, and regulations”, they’re pretty open now so the unvaccinated and vaccinated don’t really have any pandemic mandates to go by. One place I know of in Virginia is holding a four day rock festival event that is supposed to have 180+ bands and they have indeed claimed to have no restrictions and aim to be filled to full capacity. Please cue Bad Religion’s “Infected”

At NIH, they’re still operating as if the CDC never changed the rules (meaning full masking and social distancing and all the other pandemic protocols are still in effect) because of a lot of the reasons I mentioned above – especially the “can’t tell if you are vaxxed/unvaxxed by looking at you” part. Also, at NIH, they always include the phrase “against current variants”, because it is the truth – the current vaccinations only protect you against the current variants, and to variable degrees per variant. The USA is *miles* from achieving any sort of herd immunity.

The part highlighted is the most important part: the fully vaccinated. There needs to be a population of at least 70% fully vaccinated to count as “herd immunity” against Covid. Herd Immunity is, as explained by Oxford dictionary, “resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population that is based on pre-existing immunity of a high proportion of individuals as a result of previous infection or vaccination.” As you can see on the graph above, we are at 38.6% Fully Vaccinated. And less than half of the nation has at least one shot of vaccinations. Some are indeed refusing their second dose because of how bad the effects the first one was for them, others are very “one and done” and thus do not want their second shot. Being half vaccinated in the nation that has the most Covid cases and deaths in the world and wanting to live, frolic and free, is not a great idea. Partial vaccinations can make it easy for the coronavirus to become vaccine resistant as it interacts more and more with half-vaxxed bodies. Plus the immunity wanes a little bit in the body since it is not at full capacity. This is why people who are considered half vaxxed are still told to wear a mask and adhere to pandemic protocols. Yes, it is not common for viruses to out-pace their vaccines but also Covid has proven to be rather uncommon. Also, there’s the people factor that still gets forgotten in super science pieces: the people who still catch and spread Covid are still real and their lives are still impacted. There still research underway about long haul Covid, which affects a lot of people who have caught Covid. Heck, for example, there is zero clue to as how a child that has caught Covid will do in school or in life due to long haul symptoms such as brain fog, weaker vital organs and upped chances for things like stroke before adulthood because of how Covid affects the brain. In other words, if you brought covid home to your kid, congrats, you may have done a superb neuter to their future and quality of life. At least they might not live long enough to really be that upset, perhaps. Wear a mask, social distance and get fully vaccinated. If you are an essential worker, please be careful for yourself and others. If you are not an essential worker (you don’t work in transport/delivery, food or public healthcare), stop being stupid and stay home. The important part is to try to wipe out Covid, not help it get stronger and mutate better.

Also, here is the graph again, not blocked by the info tidbit:

The US Population is about 330 Million, by the way

There is still the concern of vaccinations in historically marginalized communities. Already racism has shown it’s ugly head time and time again during the pandemic (and before the pandemic, and will again after the pandemic). It is zero surprise that when it comes to scarce supplies and unstable lines like how vaccine rollout has been, prejudice will very obviously show its head. From White people flocking to the historically marginalized communities to suck up available appointments to trying to route vaccines towards richer, historically privileged communities. Then there’s turning hospitals and health centers in the historically marginalized communities with atrocious community histories into vaccination centers. I have already heard of several, such as King hospital up in New York. John Hopkins is in its own class of “holy sh*t, what the f*ck”, stretching from inception to now. This alone can make people turn down the vaccine. If you terrify people from even wanting to walk through your doors or looking in your general direction, you’re probably not going to have a densely vaccinated population. Most people, when it comes to needles and bed-side manners, generally do not want to have Jigsaw from the Saw series come to mind. This is a systemic issue that is heavily danced around by, well, the system that keeps it in place. Even when it was brought up on Global Citizen’s VAX Live online concert event, the distrust, it was never really talked about, just painted as “Oh, those silly Black and Brown people. How dare they not believe in science! They have no reason to fear. Because everything that has ever happened in science was always ethical and above board. Always. What paranoid kooks. Don’tevertalkaboutwhathappened,we’resaviorsandyou’reliars.” People in historically marginalized communities definitely want to be vaccinated, we’re the ones who have been really seeing the decimation, but it is difficult to want a vaccine when there are systemic, physical and psychological barriers put in place. Needles are already scary by themselves, there sincerely is no need to try to make that experience even more terrifying, especially not to the point of driving someone to say, “Ehhhhh, I rather take my chances with Covid. Both these doctors and this virus are trying to kill me but at least the virus is honest about it.” This is something the medical community is extremely aware of and their current methods of handling such issues is, well, things like VAX Live. (I love the Foo Fighters with all my heart but the entire event is still a load of crock when you think about it. The Foo Fighters are amazing though). Yeah, the smart answer would be “to work and diligently root out all systemic issues via hiring better, firing system enablers (as well as the bystanders and inducers, etc), actively listening to the community (which must include ‘hearing the not-fun and the really not-fun parts – and without pulling the classic “speed them up to shut them up” method’), working diligently to improve systems and not in a way that is strictly self serving and out of pandering” but remember, that all requires work and a lot of introspection that will bear very few happy self-realizations. And I mean very few.

Very, very few.

These vaccinations are very important and the mad dash to get them shows the problems that were already here and spoken about at length by the affected. It is very important to get vaccinated, it is very important to get accurate information about the vaccine and the virus, it is extremely important to have trusted individuals in health – especially public health – fields to express this information and not be confusing about it nor allow for wide gaps to be abused out of blatant selfishness. There is still a lot of research and information that needs to be done about how Covid is going to affect all our lives, for the rest of our lives. I lived through a lot of things, such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the HIV/AIDS pandemic (which is still happening, by the way), 9/11 and more – this is definitely not going to be one of those “things we will eventually forget, maybe even the week after its over”. There are a lot of untold issues, sicknesses and definitely fatalities. At least a vaccine is a good first step but not if it is tagged with countless problems. Otherwise, we’re all going to be right back at square one.

At least this still gives me a proper chuckle:

Back but in Mourning

I legit was planning to be back today, had a long post and everything but a really, really close friend and mentor passed from Covid & metastatic cancer complications on the day I got my first shot (April 13) and their funeral was yesterday so I don’t really have much chutzpah to say anything. Here is their obituary and here is the experience of what their job put them through as a librarian at Temple as she fought cancer.

Here’s a cute video to fill the space:

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