Are Trump and the GOP Targeting Black and Brown Folk For Death By COVID-19?
By: Herbert Dyer
Tags: Donald Trump, Race, Covid 19, Coronavirus, Genocide

Patricia Frieson (seated on the bottom right) was the first person to die from COVID-19 in Illinois. Her sister, Wanda Bailey (standing right), died in the weeks following. Courtesy of the family of Patricia Frieson

Remember the “opioid crisis”? When everyone from Trump to every media maven — liberal, conservative or in-between — were wringing their hands and shedding non-stop, super-sized crocodile tears over the suddenly discovered fact that thousands of “middle class” white people, but especially white youth, were succumbing to the scourge of cocaine, heroin and OxyContin?

They did not just decry the generalized use and abuse of these drugs. They were demanding that “the government” do something (namely, provide “compassionate” treatment) to stem the tide. There were absolutely no discussions, and no calls to lock up these folk and throw away the key because…well, unlike those “other” people, white middle class types do not hail from an inferior “culture”or a reprobate lifestyle which requires punitive rather than compassionate treatment and therefore must needs be stamped out altogether.

You see, as long as the “opioids,” otherwise known as crack cocaine, powdered (raw) cocaine, and heroin only or primarily decimated black and brown communities, not a mumbling word beyond draconian and punitive condemnation, beat-downs by state agents, decades-long incarceration, and incessant crackdowns against white middle class communities were never even imagined.

Enter Covid-19

We are witnessing the same phenomenon again as the coronavirus and the disease Covid-19 run rampant throughout the land.

Among the white media complex, only Thom Hartmann, the leading white male “liberal” radio talk show host, has for months now even dared to notice that the national response to Covid-19 has been decidedly not just racial, but virulently and lethally racist.

Hartmann questions and analyzes the motives of the Trump regime, including the legions of Trump supporters everywhere, who have been so insistent, indeed, adamant to the point of distraction about the absolute urgency to “open up” the economy —and now the public schools — even as the coronavirus continues its unchecked rampage throughout the southern states, i.e., the “Sun Belt.”

In a recent Commondreams.org essay, Hartmann makes the case that this is yet another, but this time deadly, effort to further disenfranchise as many black and brown people as possible prior to the upcoming November election sweepstakes. Hartman highlights the governor of Georgia’s successful efforts to purge at least 50,000 black people from the state’s voting roles just since Georgia’s recent primary elections.

But even that has not been enough for Governor Kemp.

“Now it appears he’s decided that if he can’t prevent Black and Hispanic people from voting he should just help them die,” writes Hartmann.

Hartmann notes that in early April, Kemp and the rest of Trump World, but particularly,

“…everyone from right-wing talk show hosts to major right-wing influencing groups to the Trump administration all pivoted from concern and caution about the coronavirus to the message, ‘It’s time to open America back up and do it now!’”

That this disease seemed to favor black and brown people also ignited the “movement” of neo-Nazis, far right-wingers, and other assorted “conservatives” to storm state capitols — unmasked of course and shoulder-to-shoulder — all while waving Confederate and Nazi flags, and brandishing all manner of firearms directly in the faces of amazingly subdued, even cowering, “law enforcement” agents. Yes, they were demanding at the point of a gun that their leaders rescind all “shelter-in-place” and quarantine restrictions so that they could get back to the business of business, the business of pleasure, the business of leisure, the business of entertainment…the business of what for them amounted to a “normal” life. (Turns out that being locked up for months — even in one’s own home— was just not that much fun after all).

Hartmann allows that Trump and company had,

“…figured out that if they wanted to actually reduce America’s Black and Hispanic population [and thus their voting power], this was their chance. They could use this virus to, ‘Make America white again.’”

As for Governor Kemp, he has again bravely picked up the gauntlet this week and banned all cities in Georgia from enforcing their own face mask requirements.

A number of Georgia cities contain large black and Hispanic populations, particularly Savannah and Atlanta, and had previously mandated mask requirements.

Kemp, by executive decree, however, promptly voided all of those laws and ordinances, even as the virus “spikes” and surges anew throughout Georgia, and the state’s hospitals strain to serve communities of color which, as per usual, suffer inordinately, disproportionately, from this dreaded virus.

Hartmann does not say it directly. Rather, he just asks the question:

“…would [Trump and company] be so craven as to engage in policies that specifically target minority groups for illness and death.”

Hartman won’t say it, but I will: Yes!

Finally, it was only last week when ex-TV game show host Chuck Woolery tweeted that this whole Covid-19 business was a media-driven, CDC-inspired, Deep State Doctors and Democratic Party conspiracy — an elaborate hoax concocted to make Dear Leader Trump (in his words) “look bad” and thus lose the coming election extravaganza. Trump promptly praised and retweeted Woolery’s musings to the delight of his enablers, sycophants, subalterns and acolytes everywhere.

But that was so last week.

This week, it’s being reported widely that Woolery’s own son has come down with Covid-19; and the former “Love Connection” host has had an epiphany, and an accompanying abrupt change of heart about the meaning of it all.

Just like those millions of white conservatives who couldn’t be bothered with caring about black people’s struggles with crack cocaine, now Woolery and his ilk are singing a different tune as Covid-19 strikes the old home front.

Just before deleting his Twitter account, Woolery offered this suspect and conditional mea culpa:

“Covid-19 is real and it is here. “My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones,” Woolery wrote.

And so, “the beat goes on,” with black people leading the way, trying, as always, to drag white America, kicking and screaming, into the very real reality that we really are “all in this together.”