I’m back.
I know I’ve been gone for a minute, and the reasons behind why I’ve been gone warrant their own “story time,” but let me say this:
I’d been struggling with how to return, and couldn’t figure out how to handle this with respect for the folks who support me and dignity for myself, but clearly I was shaken out of caring about that today.
In my last post dated almost four years ago (I know, my bad, my bad), which was literally about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his nakedly transparent ploy for clout, money, and power on the backs of the Black and brown communities he endangered, I said the following:
“A wealthy white man; a shadowy, unidentifiable organization whose concern for “urban” health—and we all know “urban” has always meant “Black”—didn’t actually exist before the covid shutdowns began; a man who is all too happy to lie to our faces about something as serious as HIV and AIDS—all want to exploit our legitimate questions about the healthcare system and medical science in America…. for what?
I brought up The Purge, not because I believe in a collective of people trying to literally purge society of Black and brown people, but to point out a depiction of the ways in which people will be comfortable with losing large swaths of the population for political, financial, or professional gains, or worse: clout. [source]”
Today began the process for appointing that man to the highest position over health and health care in these United States: Secretary of Health and Human Services. In other words, his little ploy worked.
I sat through and watched the entire first hearing, an interview process meant to suss out Kennedy’s actual thoughts on the most pressing health matters of our time. And there were attempts to juxtapose things he has said in the past—”there’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” among others—against the things he’s trying to pass off as his views today. But it was exactly as I expected—Kennedy did his best Matrix impersonation, dodging everything even faintly resembling a bullet, repeating canned answers ad nauseum to avoid making news on potentially contentious questions. We get it, we get it—Trump told you to say “every abortion is a tragedy,” but did you have to sound like a skipping CD when you said it five times?
It’s important to understand how the money moves in a situation like this: Kennedy, a man with a recognizable family name, creates media content that attracts desperate and heartbroken families who believe they are the victims of what is known as “vaccine injury,” and then refers them to lawyers who these families pay to attempt to sue pharmaceutical companies. In return, these lawyers pay Kennedy a sizable “finders fee,” to the tune of 10% of what is recovered in the lawsuit. It was always this kind of grift—even as he was building his clout on the backs of communities who could’ve never afforded this kind of “justice.”
I believe we are in times that feel unprecedented, but they aren’t. We know when something doesn’t smell right. This stunk from the jump.
This isn’t about an elaborate “I told you so”—I don’t need all that. What this is, is a reminder that we know con artists when we see them. And while we appear to be heading into an era where the government is led by a crew of three-card-monte enthusiasts, we have to also do the critical work of understanding ourselves, our bodies, and what it means to keep ourselves healthy and safe in a time where it is very clear that the people in power couldn’t care less.
We have to be so much more to each other than this system wants us to be, both to ourselves and each other—if the system thinks it can save itself some money by losing us, then we hold each other together and keep one another safe and healthy. Kennedy might be rising to a new level of power, but we must learn to step into ours. It was there before, and it’s waiting for us now.
PS: In an effort to move away from social media, comments are opening back up here. Feel free to help me rebuild the community here and leave a comment below. Did you catch any clips of the hearing? did you watch it live? What do you think?
