When Racism Kills

It could be argued that racism always kills some people eventually, one way or another. 

But it’s taken me until today to be able to comment on an article in Tuesday’s New York Times, which had me so stunned and upset that well…it took me until today. 

The article reported on a Harvard study that showed that the South African government’s position on AIDS treatment has cost 330,000 adult South Africans their lives along with another 35,000 babies.  All together, 3.8 million years of life.  Those numbers are about as easy to wrap your mind around as if you tried to count the number of stars in the sky in a single night. 

And why did the South African government deny its own people the treatment they needed?  Because the prevailing view was that the drugs, and I quote, were “peddling centuries-old white racist beliefs that depicted Africans as sexually rapacious.

“Yes, we are sex crazy!” the document’s [a document crafted by A.N.C. leaders] authors bitterly exclaimed. “Yes, we are diseased! Yes, we spread the deadly H.I. virus through our uncontrolled heterosexual sex!””

In other words, it was a white racist plot.  The Presidency of South Africa changed hands two months ago, and the new President immediately took steps to remove the Health Minister who suggested treating AIDS with garlic, lemon juice, and beetroot. 

So under any other circumstances, we would call this genocide, and that’s what I call it.  The former President ignored science, because it was white science.  Wouldn’t provide drugs, because they were white people’s drugs.  It isn’t mentioned in the article, but there is that rumor that white people created AIDS to begin with as a way to wipe out black people.  Now white people are providing toxic drugs to those people who managed to survive, just as a way to make sure they go ahead and die. 

It’s ignorance, but it’s also racism.  The idea that nothing good can come from white people.  And that idea kills. 

Here’s the full article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Shopping Insanity

Last night while watching my two Thursday TV programs–Jeopardy! and CSI–I saw numerous ads for retailers who were opening early today, with special extra discounts along with the already advertised discounts, for those arriving early.  One (Kohl’s), was opening at 4:00 A.M.  Two (Sears and Circuit City) were opening at 5:00 A.M.  My first thought was, I’m glad I don’t work in retail. 

Then when the 11:00 news came on, they reported that people were actually camping out at one of these stores (though I never heard which one).  I simply could not fathom this.  I can sort of understand people camping out to be the first to get tickets for a concert or a movie, but even then it’s a stretch for me to grasp it.  However, I think the waiting in line part turns into a sort of festival of its own, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  But shopping? 

Of course, as I’ve said before, I pretty much hate shopping (well, not counting shopping for food).  I don’t shop for pleasure, only for necessity.  There are exceptions, such as last week when Fakesister visited and we checked out two stores I’d never been to that I wanted to see. 

I realize that some people consider shopping a sport, and apparently a competitive sport at that.  So just now I heard on NPR that a 34-year-old man, an employee of Wal-Mart, was trampled to death in Long Island, New York at about 6:00 A.M. this morning.  The store opened at 5:00 A.M., but I guess things weren’t moving fast enough for the crowd (mob) outside, so they broke down the doors. 

I’m sure no one there planned to kill anyone today.  But the reality is, once it starts, there’s no getting out of the mob.  It’s like a living organism until the foremost members of the organism reach an impenetrable object (the legendary “brick wall”).  When the forward motion stops, it relieves the pressure on those behind.  I would never have believed this could happen, that you could get caught up in a crowd and be unable to retreat if it hadn’t happened to me personally. 

The occasion was Jazzfest in New Orleans–the first and last time I ever attended.  Jazzfest attracts hundreds of thousands of people and it’s held in a very small space.  They have many different stages going on all at once, and the year I went, Jimmy Buffett was playing on the main stage.  I’d come with two friends, but we’d become separated, so I was drifting around on my own (me and my water bottle, it was blazingly hot) and headed for the main stage.  By the time I realized I wanted out, it was too late.  I kept trying to turn around, and couldn’t.  The pressure behind me and to either side was relentless, and I had no choice but to keep moving forward.  I started saying to myself, Don’t trip, don’t fall down, Don’t trip, don’t fall down.  Then I remembered to pray that no one in front of me tripped and fell down either, because I would have had no choice but to walk over them.  At last the forward motion eased, I presume because the head of the beast ran into the walls of the stage.  It’s a wonder that the people in front of the stage weren’t crushed.  Which has happened. 

People die from being crushed, trampled, and suffocated.  There are so many famous examples.  The long ago Rolling Stones concert.  Soccer games.  Pilgrims at Mecca.  All it takes is one spark of panic.  I’m not sure how panicked the people around me at Jazzfest were; at least overtly we were all staying calm, but there is no way they didn’t feel the same sense of helplessness I did. 

This is a preventable situation.  Namely, don’t let yourself get in a crowd like this.  And to do it all for saving a few dollars at Wal-Mart?  To some extent I think this shows the level of anxiety people are feeling about the economic situation.  That in order to buy presents for Christmas, you have to get the best deals and be there first.  But there are those who, as I said, view it as a competitive sport.  Anybody who gets in front of you, smack ‘em down.  I blame them, but I also blame the retailers.  They set this up. 

But mostly my heart breaks for this poor guy who went to work this morning and never made it home.