Through the Prism: Waves

There is not yet a vaccine for either Covid-19 or racism, so we risked being part of a second wave of illness to be part of the current wave of protest against racial injustice.

When the stay-at-home orders for this coronavirus were first enacted, it felt a bit like a temporary escape from reality. After the initial wave of anxiety, we settled in for a leisurely and almost languid respite from the rush of life. Though I am still working from home--for now--everything else seems to have changed. There is now an overwhelming sense of urgency, as though we can't do enough to make sure that everything is taken care of. Constant anxiety.

Some of that is the fact of reopening. Nearly a month ago I wrote a post about my concerns that reopening was beginning too early. Now we are on the verge of everything going nearly back to normal. My spouse started back to work last week, which meant starting our older son at a day camp for the summer. And though we are still surrounded by warnings about masks, social distancing, and responsible behavior, most of society seems entirely complacent. No one at my wife's workplace, for instance, is wearing a mask except her. More significantly, the political pressure in favor of reopening seems to have changed the collective consciousness.

Current president 45 has never enacted measures at the federal level to make enough of a difference, so it has been left up to states. Our governor in Kansas was one of the first to take action shutting things down. Recently, though, the state legislature passed a bill taking away her emergency powers to maintain the order. She vetoed the bill so the law wouldn't change for future issues, then capitulated and voluntarily changed the order to a mere suggestion, leaving the matter in the hands of county leaders. 20 mayors from cities in our county responded by requesting our county commissioners put local measures in place, but a heated and contentious board meeting resulted in the decision that businesses remain open.

“Twenty electors in [County] signed a letter that government should be a nanny state and should take care of them and I would submit that all 20 of them are wrong,” said our commissioner most opposed to measures from the beginning. “We have no business stepping forward into this arena. We need to leave [County] alone. [County] can handle itself. I have all the faith in our citizens and our businesses to manage themselves.”

As a county agency, my library has responded by accelerating our reopening plans (details are being shared today). The same is happening all across the country in other municipalities.

Yet there is much immediate evidence that citizens and businesses are not managing things well. Many seem to have responded with an all-or-nothing attitude. Pictures and videos have circulated of crowded parties over the Memorial Day weekend with no masks, distancing, or other measures, followed by reports of widespread exposure. Other reports have emerged of exposure by hair stylists and similar. Predictions of a large second wave of infection seem to be coming true.

We are hoping to be able to avoid being part of that, even as doing so is becoming more difficult. And this weekend we made the difficult decision to take our first voluntary major risk, as we felt it important enough to accept the potential consequences. Even as waves of illness have swept the globe, so has a renewed wave of outrage and protest about racial injustice. The killing of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer has sparked the most widespread, energetic action in a few years. After much consideration, my wife and I decided our family would attend one of the local events yesterday. In normal circumstances it would have been an easy decision, but this time it meant both being around crowds of people for the first time during this pandemic and taking our young children.

We have always known we were going to raise socially aware, active kids, and this became the moment we got really detailed and explicit about some of the issues. The first time, because we have the privilege of being able to wait until we felt they were ready enough, because we are white and not poor and they are boys. They have been more sheltered than many, even as we have laid the groundwork for fully educating them. So yesterday began with a talk about our country's history of slavery and ongoing racism and police brutality, and transitioned into their first political action for others. The older is six-and-a-half and the younger turns five in a week.

Because of their youth, they only had attention and patience for the first hour of the formal, permitted event. We stayed on the periphery of the crowd, so we couldn't hear the speeches and were a mere supportive white presence, then left before the angry energy really built and confrontations with police could begin. We saw groups of officers staging for action on our way to and from the event and one counter-protest agitator arriving as we were leaving, but we only saw a peaceful, supportive gathering. Still, it was a beginning.

And now, on top of the rest of our work and life and pandemic worries, we have continued anger about racism, tension about the state of the protests, and an anxious couple of weeks waiting to find out if we exposed ourselves to infection.

An observation: it's amazing how in the space of a few blocks there can be all of this energy and rage and hope, action and activity and violence and destruction, yet just a few more blocks away--and everywhere else throughout the city--all is calm and happy and normal. It made me even more aware of the obliviousness of whiteness and privilege in general.

Kansas City Health Officials Worry That Protests May Lead To Spike In COVID-19 Cases

The gatherings of hundreds of closely clustered people, combined with the recent relaxation of state and local shelter-in-place orders, are almost certain to lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases, health officials say.

Will Protests Set Off a Second Viral Wave?

Across the country, mayors, public health experts and other officials worry that even though many protesters are wearing masks, the risk of new coronavirus cases will increase as thousands gather. . . .

Anti-Racism Protests Versus COVID-19 Risk: 'I Wouldn't Weigh These Crises Separately'

But the risks of congregating during a global pandemic shouldn't keep people from protesting racism, according to dozens of public health and disease experts who signed an open letter in support of the protests.

"White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19," the letter said.

Initially written by infectious disease experts at the University of Washington, the letter cited a number of systemic problems, from the disproportionately high rate at which black people have been killed by police in the U.S. to disparities in life expectancy and other vital categories — including black Americans' higher death rate from the coronavirus.

"Data is showing that blacks and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in many states," said Nsoesie, who was not among the letter's signatories when NPR contacted her. "Racism is one of the reasons this disparity exists."

She continued, "Racism is a social determinant of health. It affects the physical and mental health of blacks in the U.S. So I wouldn't weigh these crises separately."

Lat week I also had the opportunity to attend a brilliant virtual event, a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds about their recent collaboration. Though I still haven't made it to his books, I have previously blogged some of Kendi's major ideas and been influenced by them--as he is widely influential. I have also read some of Reynolds' fiction on poetry and found him most deserving of his current position as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Because I think their message encourages it, I've taken the liberty of amplifying it here.

https://vshow.on24.com/vshow/sljdod2020/home?regPageId=17014

(registration is free)

School Library Journal Day of Dialog Virtual Event

May 27, 2020, archived for on-demand viewing

Morning Keynote: Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi in Conversation about their book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, moderated by Kiera Parrott

Ibram X. Kendi wrote a masterful book on the history of racism in the U.S. (Stamped from the Beginning:

The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America), including some concepts that have dramatically informed current race discussions. He asked Jason Reynolds to rework his academic book for a younger, more general audience ("I was Jason's research assistant for the book he wrote," Kendi said in the talk). I recommend their conversation about it for everyone. No need to have read either book.

What follows is my attempt to summarize and paraphrase the conversation, with a long transcribed section in the middle when they are talking about the metaphor of their book as a vaccine for racism.

[5:00] – Q: Can you lay out the fundamental core of Stamped?

Three types of behaviors:

Haters – Segregationists – “racists”
Likers – Integrationists – “not-racists”
Lovers – Anti-racists

If you are not being anti-racist, by definition, you are being racist. There is no “not-racist” middle ground, no neutral.

Not a personal label or category, but a behavior in a given moment. You are not racist or anti-racist, you can merely practice the behaviors.

[12:00] – Q: Can you talk more about Gomes Eanes de Zurara, who in the book you call the “first racist?”

The Portuguese were the first trans-Atlantic slave traders. Zurara was a historian who described these actions, and came up with the concept of people from Africa being a black “race” who deserved their enslavement. He created the frame for the narrative we’ve been within ever since.

[16:10] Reynolds: “Remember, that there’s something about the documenting of a thing that makes it real. Right? Even if it is untrue. Right? In the documenting of a thing, something is happening. In the same way that we’re representing Stamped to you to offset that, to turn back the other way, to document a new thing. . . . Racism and slavery started with that very thing, the manipulation of context and narrative.”

[17:00] – I’ve heard you describe racism as a virus. Can you talk about that?

[18:30] Reynolds: “When we think about what a virus is—first of all, there are viruses all around us. I mean, we breathe in, like, billions of germs and things like that every single second. Right? We’re just taking it in; our bodies are full of this stuff. Right? But there are certain viruses that enter our bodies unbeknownst to us, attach themselves to our cells, right, they attach themselves to the cells of who we are, and then—also unbeknownst to us—they propagate in our body. Right? So they attach themselves, and then they copy themselves, and they start slowly taking over who it is that we are, and we don’t even see it happening. Right? We don’t even know it’s happening. That’s what racism is.

“And, then, because we can live in a space where we seem asymptomatic we can literally pass this virus to a child, pass this virus to your brother and sister, pass it to the students in your class, because you, you appear to be asymptomatic. Right? Meanwhile, the virus is living all up in you, changing the molecular structure of who you are, doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and you’re passing it to the next person, and passing it to the next person, and then they grow up, and the virus has spread in their bodies, and they don’t understand what’s happening to them, and it continues to do this

“The beautiful thing about antibodies, is what happens with antibodies is, when a doctor gives you a vaccine they’re injecting information from the virus into your body, and then your body recognizes—attacks the information, it attacks it, recognizes it, memorizes it—the antibodies memorize what it is, what it feels like, so that the next time you breathe it in the antibodies in your body recognize it as racism, and fight it off. Right?

“So what we’re saying is: if racism is a virus, then books like Stamped, or these conversations, or pushing toward anti-racism is a version of a vaccine. But in order for it to work you have to ingest it. You got to be able to live with the fact that racism is real. You got to be able to live with the fact that racism is in you. You got to be able to live with the fact that America is built on it. You got to be able to live with the fact that your whiteness has been, has saved you. Right? You got to be able to live with the fact that my blackness has put me in jeopardy over and over and over again. You got to be able to live with all of that, and then you’ll be able to attack it and see it for what it is and continue to fight it off. So that was the metaphor that I had given about a month ago around the idea of racism as a virus and anti-racism as a vaccine.”

[21:15] Kendi: “Yeah, I mean, I think that’s brilliant. And I think to extend it even more, when it comes to vaccines, we systematically give vaccines to young people because we don’t want them to get viruses. And I think that’s why this book, we should be systematically giving it to young people, so that they don’t ever have to grow up with chicken pox or measles or racist ideas and then spread it to other people and then create a sort of racial pandemic. So that’s why I think books like this are absolutely critical. And that’s why it was at least very critical for me to get—and to somehow convince—you know, someone like Jason who could literally create those antibodies. Because not everybody was going to be able to really create the type of antibodies that could seep into the mind of a child, you know, and certainly Jason did it with this book.”

[22:17] Jason: “And you know I was saying there was one other part about that metaphor that I was saying back then. It was: we only want to get well if it don’t hurt. But anyone who has ever had a vaccine—if you have ever had a vaccine, right, you ever got a flu shot, right, you know that your arm is going to hurt for a while. It don’t feel good. It doesn’t feel good, but who cares if it can protect you from death, if it can protect you from spreading something deadly. Right?

“You get that shot—this, Stamped is no different. There are parts of this book that are going to make you uncomfortable, going to make you a little sad, it’s going to bring you some pain, it might bring you a little guilt and shame. Whatever! Deal with it! If it means you might be able to further vaccinate yourself and save some of these children. Or vaccinate our children so that they can grow up and not even have to worry about the virus anymore. As much.”

[23:15] Kendi: “Yeah, you know, if I can just speak sort of personally, that’s precisely what I thought about, you know, when I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, in which I was in a tremendous amount of pain as a result of the cancer, in which I realized that treatment was going to be painful. So, to me, there was going to be pain regardless. But only one route had the potential for there to be no pain. And so that was the route of treatment.

“And I think one of the things that Jason is trying to sort of emphasize is that even if you don’t recognize it, somehow there is pain by having this virus. And a lot of Americans are denying the pain that they’re experiencing, and they’re even denying the pain that other Americans are experiencing as we’ve seen in the last few days. And so I think it’s critically important for us to realize there are only two routes and both routes are routes of pain, but the route of anti-racism has the chance to one day heal ourselves and certainly this country.”

[24:30] Q: Is it possible to finally become anti-racist or is it always a work in progress?

Reynolds – Laughter. Is it possible for men to be not misogynist? Will there ever be a day when I wake up and I can say I’m no longer a sexist? No. First, I don’t get to absolve myself. Second, I live in a world that does everything it can to imbue me with misogyny, and as long as I’m in that world I’ll always be influenced by it. Alcoholics are always recovering alcoholics. It’s always there. It’s a constant journey of undoing.

Kendi – No individual ever becomes a racist or an anti-racist. These are states of being. And so we should be striving in each moment to be anti-racist.

[27:45] What did you learn about someone historical in your research process that really surprised you?

Kendi – I set the standard, defined what a racist (and anti-racist) idea is before I looked at the history, so I could impartially measure people’s actions against them.

I was surprised by my hero W.E.B. DuBois, at how racist some of his ideas were. Assimilationist.

Reynolds – What was confirmed for me was how consistently black women have been anti-racist throughout history.

[33:20] Q: Jason, can you talk about how you “translated” Dr. Kendi’s work?

Reynolds: I refused three times to even try because I didn’t think I had the ability. But he kept asking me and finally I gave in. At first I tried to edit and abridge his book, and that just ruined it. So finally I decided I had to take his ideas and translate them into my own voice. And that’s what finally worked, making it my own book. It’s a rewrite.

Kendi: I was just Jason’s research assistant. It’s a completely new book. And that’s precisely why it’s so great.

[36:40] Q: Can you talk about how subtle forms of racism spring up in everyday language and media?

Connotations for words like blackness, darkness, whiteness, and lightness.

Calling kids thugs and gangsters and calling behaviors ghetto. “Ghetto” ghettoizes black people. “Racially coded language.”

[41:00] How have kids and teens responded to the book?

Love the book. Angry that the ideas in it are new, that no one has taught this history before.

It clarified things for them, gave them words and concepts for things they’ve experienced but not been able to describe. I want to be able to give a name to this thing I’m feeling; this did.

Though his point is a different one and the metaphor functions differently, to reinforce Reynolds' idea I want to share again a previous instance of being impressed by an author considering his work as a healthy exposure for children. From An Inoculation Against the Darkness:

Neil Gaiman, as he so frequently does, has said it beautifully. This comes from a post at Brain Pickings about his new telling of Hansel & Gretel. In talking about why he chose to retell that story, he got into why so many of our classic, lasting stories for children deal with darkness:

I think if you are protected from dark things then you have no protection of, knowledge of, or understanding of dark things when they show up. I think it is really important to show dark things to kids — and, in the showing, to also show that dark things can be beaten, that you have power. Tell them you can fight back, tell them you can win. Because you can — but you have to know that.

And for me, the thing that is so big and so important about the darkness is [that] it’s like in an inoculation… You are giving somebody darkness in a form that is not overwhelming — it’s understandable, they can envelop it, they can take it into themselves, they can cope with it.

And, it’s okay, it’s safe to tell you that story — as long as you tell them that you can be smart, and you can be brave, and you can be tricky, and you can be plucky, and you can keep going.

An inoculation against the darkness, giving you just enough to help you learn to deal with the real thing when it shows up. That's it. That's it exactly.

And since this post is about attempting to vaccinate children with information and stories, a few of my kids' recent antics as shared on Facebook.

Sometimes [Spouse] and I will put on a movie or show from our youth. Usually it takes a good bit of convincing for the boys to give whatever it is a chance. Tonight she started something while the rest of us were doing Legos.

"What's that?" they asked.

"The Parent Trap."

"Wait, what? Parent Trap? They trap their parents?"

"Uh-huh."

"I want to watch! Let me see!" as they rushed the TV.

-----

They never go small, easy to contain, easy to clean up. Hashtag trash bag water balloon.

-----

Me: "I see [Older]'s bottom."

[Spouse]: "Yes. I keep waiting for him to put his underwear on. I thought maybe he would when he set a hot bowl on his lap and burned his penis a bit, but still waiting."

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Talking with [Older] about his first two days at his day camp for summer. "I hope the other kids don't take over my secret resting spot now that I showed them. I really hope the bad kids don't."

"Are there some bad kids?"

"Yeah. I'm kind of nice and kind of not."

"You're somewhere in the middle?"

"Yeah."

Good honesty and self-awareness, bud.

The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health

Abstract: The American Academy of Pediatrics is committed to addressing the factors that affect child and adolescent health with a focus on issues that may leave some children more vulnerable than others. Racism is a social determinant of health that has a profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families. Although progress has been made toward racial equality and equity, the evidence to support the continued negative impact of racism on health and well-being through implicit and explicit biases, institutional structures, and interpersonal relationships is clear. The objective of this policy statement is to provide an evidence-based document focused on the role of racism in child and adolescent development and health outcomes. By acknowledging the role of racism in child and adolescent health, pediatricians and other pediatric health professionals will be able to proactively engage in strategies to optimize clinical care, workforce development, professional education, systems engagement, and research in a manner designed to reduce the health effects of structural, personally mediated, and internalized racism and improve the health and well-being of all children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families. . . .

. . . These health inequities are not the result of individual behavior choices or genetic predisposition but are caused by economic, political, and social conditions, including racism.

The impact of racism has been linked to birth disparities and mental health problems in children and adolescents. The biological mechanism that emerges from chronic stress leads to increased and prolonged levels of exposure to stress hormones and oxidative stress at the cellular level. Prolonged exposure to stress hormones, such as cortisol, leads to inflammatory reactions that predispose individuals to chronic disease. As an example, racial disparities in the infant mortality rate remain, and the complications of low birth weight have been associated with perceived racial discrimination and maternal stress.

Investments in policies to address social determinants of health, such as poverty, have yielded improvements in the health of children. The Food Stamp Program, a War on Poverty initiative first developed in the 1930s during the Great Depression and later revived in the 1960s, is linked to improvements in birth outcomes. Efforts in education, housing, and child health insurance have also led to improved health outcomes for issues such as lead poisoning, injuries, asthma, cancer, neurotoxicity, cardiovascular disease, and mental health problems. Expansion of child health insurance has improved health care access for children, with significant gains for African American and Hispanic children in terms of access to well-child, doctor, and dental visits.38 Despite these improvements, it is important to recognize that children raised in African American, Hispanic, and American Indian populations continue to face higher risks of parental unemployment and to reside in families with significantly lower household net wealth relative to white children in the United States, posing barriers to equal opportunities and services that optimize health and vocational outcomes.

Juvenile justice involvement is also a critical social determinant of health. Because racial inequity continues to shape the juvenile justice system, this area is a modern example of race being an important determinant of short- and long-term outcomes. The AAP published a statement in 2011 focusing on key health issues of justice-involved youth, which was recently revised to include an in-depth discussion on racial and ethnic inequalities for this population. Although the overall rates of youth incarceration have decreased, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian youth continue to be disproportionately represented. While incarcerated, youth experience additional adverse experiences, such as solitary confinement and abuse, that have the potential to undermine socioemotional development and general developmental outcomes. Differential treatment of youth offenders on the basis of race shapes an individual’s participation and ultimate function in society. This type of modern racism must be recognized and addressed if the United States seeks to attain health equity. . . .

Racism became a socially transmitted disease passed down through generations, leading to the inequities observed in our population today. . . .

'We Are Living in a Racism Pandemic,' Says APA President

We are living in a racism pandemic, which is taking a heavy psychological toll on our African American citizens. The health consequences are dire. Racism is associated with a host of psychological consequences, including depression, anxiety and other serious, sometimes debilitating conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. Moreover, the stress caused by racism can contribute to the development of cardiovascular and other physical diseases.

The impact of these repeated horrific incidents is inflicting trauma on the broader African American community. Research shows, for example, that compared with whites, blacks feel more negative stereotype threats and more racial profiling when interacting with the police.

However, psychological research also points to possible solutions. Studies find that when police act in a procedurally just manner and treat people with dignity, respect, fairness and neutrality, people are more likely to comply with their directives and accept any outcome, favorable or unfavorable.

The American Psychological Association urges those who are experiencing trauma in the aftermath of these tragedies to practice self-care. Connect with family, friends and other community support people, talk about your feelings and limit your exposure and that of your children to news media and viral videos. Seek professional help if you need it.

Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not

Over the last few months, Black people have not only watched their friends and family members die at higher rates from the coronavirus, they have also watched people who look like them be gunned down while going for a jog, be murdered in their homes, threatened while bird watching in Central Park, and mercilessly choked on camera. . . .

Hhere’s a newsflash for all the white people unaware of this fact: your Black colleagues may seem okay right now, but chances are they’re not.

The likelihood that your Black colleague lost a family member to COVID-19 is painfully high. The chances that your Black colleague was triggered by the viral video of Amy Cooper because a white woman used her race and privilege and weaponized it against him is incredibly likely. The possibility that your Black colleague is afraid to go for a run, or terrified when her husband leaves the house, or just simply enraged by the incessant lies this country keeps telling us about equal liberties is so high you’ll need a ladder to get it down. . . .

Every day, Black people take the personal trauma we all know to be true and tuck it away to protect white people who are ignorant to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to keep going when your grandma won’t survive coronavirus because she has serious pre-existing conditions. It's hard to be your best self at work when we watch white women feign terror on the phone with authorities that will arrive at the scene and kill the Black man she called the cops on. It’s even harder when you watch those cops kill that Black man on video, and sometimes the killers aren’t even cops.

But we show up for work anyway. And we contain our rage, tears, fear and sadness. We write to each other in group chats. We send each other articles that articulate our feelings. We post and repost and retweet on social media. But we don’t take our pain to work.

So while you navigate this pandemic which has ravaged our way of life — and prematurely taken the lives of so many no matter what race — acknowledge that burden is falling on your Black colleagues disproportionately. And know that they’ll never show it. They’ve learned to navigate their worlds too well for that. And although we were told the degrees and the jobs and the accomplishments would somehow protect us from being treated like second-class citizens; although we were made to believe that working hard and contributing to society would mean society would treat us like human beings, we’ve learned the painful truth — that’s a lie.

On behalf of your Black colleagues: we’re not okay. And you shouldn’t be either.