Here we are. Sometimes I still think this is a bad dream. But then I wake up again with no place to be but here, in my own home. Must be a dream…can we all just wake up already?

Even as the Covid disease continues to find hosts (bodies to infect), many states (to include my own) have started to reopen certain businesses. There are many different perspectives on what should open and what should not. And many believe everything should remain closed; while many others believe the entire world should reopen.

Anger and sadness everywhere. Emotions are high and rightfully so. But one thing I fail to understand is just how this reopening has become a stage to set blacks, or African Americans up for failure or to basically set them up for this disease. Yep, I’m black and I said it.

YES! I understand how blacks are disproportionately affected by this disease due to lack of healthcare, lack of access to Whole Foods (or nutritional) foods. I totally get ALL of that and I’m not saying that isn’t true. But how did we get to this point where a stimulus check being given combined with salons and nail parlors being open equal blacks being targeted.

I’ve heard it all. Some believe that this is a system to send us blacks out first so we catch the disease and die. But first spend those stimulus checks and then catch the disease. To believe that means that blacks are the only ones to receive stimulus checks AND blacks are the only ones to frequent salons and nail parlors AND blacks are the only ones not abiding by recommendations.

I don’t know about you but I’m insulted by these comments as if ALL blacks are ignorant. To say that means there are no ignorant folks belonging to other races! I won’t receive such banter! Each nail parlor I’ve visited in the past years, I’ve been the minority. And I can tell you now that our hair roots are not the only ones showing. Come on now!

So you mean to tell me white folks didn’t receive any stimulus funding??? Surely you don’t believe that. It reminds me of how many THINK blacks overburden the welfare system.

So NOW that we are reading statistics CORRECTLY for once, let me break it down. Prior to now, statistics went a little something like this. For example (all hypothetical figures), in the state of Alabama 60% of blacks are on welfare compared to 20% of whites. We see this and believe the majority of blacks are on welfare so when politicians talk about welfare, we turn our nose down at blacks because they are getting handouts causing taxes to rise for the middle class whites.

This way of reporting stats has been the norm since the beginning of time. But to read that above and to draw a conclusion, your assumption would be flawed because the proportions involved are not known. So let’s take it a step further. Let’s say the above stats were based on a population of 100 people. With blacks as minority, there are only 20 in that data set with the remaining being whites. So truth is: 60% of blacks on welfare equals 12 blacks on welfare compared to that of 16 whites.

So who is overburdening the welfare system again? So if we are going to look at the WHOLE picture now with Covid-19, let’s look at the whole picture from now on when percentages are given to make comparisons. Now for part B of this…

So for this other picture we are painting. Hypothetically values again, let’s say for New Orleans 2000 people died from the Covid virus; 45% white and 48% blacks. (This is close to the ratio that was blasted across your screens.) While blacks are only 20% of the population. So YES it is true that in this example, blacks are disproportionately affected!!! However, if we use raw numbers here, it still reads that 900 whites died while 960 blacks died. 900 versus 960!

So I ask again. How does this equate to “they are wanting to reopen now that they see blacks are the ones dying.” HOW? How can we forget about the 900 whites that died? Does that mean whites will just magically stop dying? I know I sound rather blunt but when folks spew this stuff, they aren’t holding any punches either. So why should I? To say this means that “they” don’t care about the whites that died either.

My whole point is this…pause for a second please. Let’s think through all of these stats being given out before drawing up conclusions especially false ones. Am I crazy to think blacks haven’t been targeted in this society? Absolutely not. But I’m not crazy to think that the reopening is designed to kill blacks…alone.

This disease isn’t racially motivated. The reopening has a $ attached to it. So if we want to talk about something, let’s keep the main thing the main thing. It’s about that dollar. To believe just black folks are ignorant and affected by this disease…you can miss me with that. Where did this disease start again? Oh ok.

Fun fact: Utah opened their salons 1 May. How many blacks live in Utah? Less than 3%.

Thanks for your attention. Remember you are your own competition.

Competition of 1