By Jeff Thomas
Getting back to normal is what everybody wants. But is that the best thing? Should we reopen the economy and put our people back to work in our city’s tourist economy? How would that look and are there changes that need to be made? Masks for wait staff? Raises? New Orleans Mayor Cantrell has extended the stay at home ban, while neighboring parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng is waiting to see the what happens in the next couple of weeks.
According to a 2019 assessment of 35 measures comprising behavioral, policy, clinical care, and health outcomes data by the United Health Foundation.
Red is bad and Louisiana ranks 49th nationally.
What had been considered normal is a system that’s full of so many disparities that going back seems stupid and irresponsible. The Advocate’s Will Sutton wrote an incredible piece that details many of the structural health disparities that were a part of that old repressive normal. In short, the African American population in Louisiana is 30%, yet over 60% of the deaths from COVID19 have been African Americans. Read Will’s article to see how this is based more on structural oppression than individual behavior.
Discrimination is no longer just personal, and the structural inequities that exist in healthcare are just a part of the picture. Income disparities in Louisiana are shockingly harsh. In Louisiana, black men earn less than half of what equally qualified white men earn. And education makes virtually no difference. A white man who dropped out of a Louisiana high school earns more than a black man with a college degree. And the gender gap is a shocking 75%. A white male high school dropout makes $75 to every $1 earned by a black woman with a college degree.
Sooooo, not everybody wants to rush back to “normal”.
Conservatives Want to Return to Work
Out of work and desperate, Americans are exercising their constitutional rights. Conservative white men mock social distancing rules as they protest shutdowns across the country. In Texas, Michigan, and Minnesota mainly white men, fueled by President Donald Trump’s tweets to “Liberate” their economies, raise flags and demand they be allowed to return to work.
Getting Back to Normal
Often the effects on the African American community are an insignificant factor in decisions that affect society. Consider the facts outlined above. Or think polluting plants placed in poor black neighborhoods. Drug policy? Think about the crack epidemic. Had a war on drugs since the majority of crack addicts were black. Heroin affects primarily white suburbanites. Suddenly the war ends and we have a public health crisis. The disparities are omnipotent. The negative impacts on black lives often are relegated to second class status.
Probably the letter by Todd Murphy, President of the Jefferson Parish Chamber expresses this sentiment most completely. Mayor Cantrell extended the stay at home edict based upon the data, which shows more lives, especially African Americans (who have been disproportionately impacted) will be lost if we return to work in the near term. Murphy, in traditional fashion, is not only unconstrained by this data, but suggests that getting back to work is much more important than the lives of his African American neighbors.
COVID19 gives us a chance to end this “normal” where too many African Americans suffer and die in the greatest country on earth.
Instead, we need a new normal that includes healthy outcomes for the entire region.
Great edition and this article is spot on for a way to go forward.
On point as usual Jeff. Too bad we’re already vaccinated against “affuenza”. Whites get rehab while
we got jail sentences.
The need for National Health Ins for everyone has never been more obvious.
Also we need Right to Die a dignified Death laws nationally And an end to longterm care centers(aka. Death camps
And a $15-20 min wage
Is so- called “Normal” the Status Quo to include but not limited to racism?
LBRC- Fear not Covid- 19 as much as you Fear Him! Covid- 19 taketh life, He will
receive your Spirit and Soul for Judgement (LOL? Upside Down Frown across “A Great
Gulf Fixed”!!!).
Racism and its Demonic Spirits are still “Rebellious”! It still takes some
2hrs. to watch 60 min.! Proof? Covid- 19 Ramifications? Those who have Eyes see…
1. He told Pharaoh and Lincoln to “Let His People Go” aka Free (Johnson
Egregiously Rebelled, even “Voided” Grant’s Field Order, 40 Acres and a Mule!
Initially after many trials, Pharaoh acquiesced. Having 2nd thoughts (Uh oh!), Pharaoh
“flip flopped” and…, you know the Story. No different under American, other
Jim Crow and yada…,
In 2020, following the Savagery of Slavery (“Without Sanctuary, The Delectable
Negro” aka eatable Human Fried Livers followings lynchings aka “Strange
Fruit”), The Most High hasn’t moved after “400 yrs.”- His People are Still
oppressed and suffer “Disparate”, contemporary “Peculiar”
Institutions like Urban Share Cropping, Racism and yada…! Police are the Civilian
Military, the De Facto “Posse Comitatus”! Negro Police are witnesses and say
‘Nuttin! The Most High “WILL” Judge!!!
a. Your contemporary “Caste” places “His” at the bottom! Livable
wages? “A Fair Weight for a Fair Measure”! Covid pays now aka so- called
“Relief”!
b. Racist Demons bombed our “Set Aside” communities and still do, civilians,
aka Tulsa, Black Bottom and our “Holy Temples” like Birmingham and yada…! You
are so arrogant in your (R)ebelion, you feel impunity (Your Willie Lynch Judas Iscariot
Politico Negroes, wannabees and Apostates too). No (J)ustice! You’ve deceived (s)elf,
just like Lucifer once of Heaven!
b. Most who labored, not slothful, are home now with added additional compensation, for
a time. Those who still worship man and government lack sight, never repent! Still being
raked over coals for taxes, their labor, for Caesar and his/her gang via ignorance! The
Most High warned “All” Fools like rain falling on the heads of the just and
unjust aka “The Fools and Wise”! Only Fools are still disobedient! “Filth
is Abhorrent to The Most High”, ask Covid- 19! Don’t believe ‘Dat? Just continue to
live in and be Filthy!!!
c. In 2020, you and your Filthy music (A Gift you Distort and give Praise to Filth, is
more Filthy then ever)!!!
d. Those connected under the authority of Psalm 21 will prosper, anticipate feast! The
Most High is their refuge, not man nor his government! Your (k)ings!!!
2. You mocked Greta Tunberg and others, the kid! I told you I’d send “Some”!
What you couldn’t comprehend from Greta, you might from Covid- 19! The air, land and
water are clearer, except for what you still do to “Poison” them and innocent
people even children (You call TRI?). How’s ‘Dat Oil working for ‘yah now, or will be
for transportation “Across a Great Gulf Fixed”? “Rebellion” is your
nature, Demons!!!
3. He said- “A Fair Weight for a Fair Measure”. We requested “Repair”
aka Reparations for how you pillaged, plundered and “Murdered”! You, #45, House
and Senate, Mnuchin, Judas Negro Congressman yada…, said the treasury can’t afford it.
Now you print “Trillions” out of thin air and call it relief- You Liars,
Hypocrites and Demons! Demonic banks, your ilk, profit? Deception Artist like Politicos
and Apostates! You deceive self and ‘Simps! Pharaoh never learned until his last breath,
he’s not an Atheist where he is now and neither will you be!!! Life minus privilege on
Earth, you call (h)ell? Wait until you reach the “1”! Here is Wisdom- “The
Most High is not Mocked” and “His Word “Never Returns Void”! Uh
oh!!! Abba Father! Mashiach, Christoc, χÏιστός- IS!!! …