When you see Black Americans express skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine, it is not because we are anti-vaxx or anti-science. It is because we know the history of Medical Racism in America, and we know our CURRENT EXPERIENCES with Medical Racism in America. The Healthcare profession has EARNED the sideye that it receives from the Black community.
This Twitter thread is fabulous and expresses a great deal:
Let’s be honest.
Many Black person will refuse to take this COVID vaccine bc most of us don’t trust that white people or the government mean us any good.
And when that happens, know that the hesitance is not some baseless paranoia. It is completely rational.
Let me explain.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
3/ But when my Black patients balk at the idea, I won’t judge them. Because I intimately I understand their fear.
Listen. Even I’m a physician myself, and even I don’t trust ya’ll.
Being a doctor has made me LESS trusting of the Medical Institution as a whole, not more.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
5/ A lot more Black people with die if we don’t get this vaccine campaign right.
The odds are not in our favor based on everything that has led to this moment.
We need laser focus and surgical precision to pull this off.
But I believe we can.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
7/ As a Black woman and front line physician currently caring for patients with and without COVID on Chicago’s South Side – here is what will ACTUALLY work in my view:
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
9/ There’s not enough time because white people and the white supremacist institutions that run our country have been abusing and terrorizing Black people for over 400 years. And continue to do so actively.
Again, this point is not a debate.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
11/ You all have not earned it. And you certainly won’t earn it in time for this latest vaccination effort.
Let that hope go.
In Medicine, we triage during emergencies.
The trust can’t be repaired in time. We can and should fix that on the back end…once we survive this.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
13/ And not just wealthy Black people, Black academics and other Black “elites”
Give the mic and give MONEY to Black people on the ground.
Give it to grassroots organizers. Give it to Black church leaders. Give it to the people who live, work and love in Black communities.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
15/ White ppl – This is bigger ego. Or at least it should be.
If you are not the right person to get this done…it is okay. I promise.
Just PLEASE be honest with yourself about it.
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
17/ One final piece of parting advice, that never fails.
If you get lost out there, just remember:
Listen to Black women.
😉
— Dr. Brittani James (@DrBrittaniJ) December 3, 2020
“..A statement from Swalwell’s office provided to Axios said: “Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn’t seen in nearly six years — to the FBI. To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story.”
What happened: Amid a widening counterintelligence probe, federal investigators became so alarmed by Fang’s behavior and activities that around 2015 they alerted Swalwell to their concerns — giving him what is known as a defensive briefing.
Swalwell immediately cut off all ties to Fang, according to a current U.S. intelligence official, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Fang left the country unexpectedly in mid-2015 amid the investigation. She did not respond to multiple attempts by Axios to reach her by email and Facebook.
Between the lines: The case demonstrates China’s strategy of cultivating relationships that may take years or even decades to bear fruit. The Chinese Communist Party knows that today’s mayors and city council members are tomorrow’s governors and members of Congress.
Fang’s friends and acquaintances said she was in her late 20s or early 30s when she was based in the U.S. and was enrolled as a student at a Bay Area university.
She used political gatherings, civic society conferences, campaign rallies, and campus events to connect with elected officials and other prominent figures, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Bay Area political operatives, former students, and current and former elected officials who knew her.
U.S. intelligence officials believed she was overseeing likely unwitting subagents whom she helped place in local political and congressional offices.
Fang attended regional conferences for U.S. mayors, which allowed her to grow her network of politicians across the country.
She also engaged in sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern cities over a period of about three years, according to one U.S. intelligence official and one former elected official.
At least two separate sexual interactions with elected officials, including one of these Midwestern mayors, were caught on FBI electronic surveillance of Fang, according to two intelligence officials. Axios was unable to identify or speak to the elected officials.
Between 2011 and 2015, Fang’s activities brought her into contact with many of the Bay Area’s most prominent politicos.
She volunteered for Ro Khanna’s unsuccessful 2014 House bid, according to a former campus organizer and social media posts. (Khanna, a Democrat, was elected to the House in 2016.) Khanna’s office said he remembers seeing Fang at several Indian American political gatherings but did not have further contact with her. Khanna’s office said the FBI did not brief him on her activities. Khanna’s 2014 campaign staff said that Fang’s name does not appear in their staff records, though they said that their records do not include all volunteers.
Fang helped with a fundraiser for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) in 2013, according to a flyer from the event Fang shared on Facebook. She appeared in photos over multiple years with a host of California politicians, including Khanna, Swalwell, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and then-Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.).
Gabbard “has no recollection of ever meeting or talking with her, nor any recollection of her playing a major role at the fundraiser,” a spokesperson said in an email to Axios.
Chu’s office said they have no records of Christine Fang. Honda said he had no memory of meeting Fang.
Fang was put under FBI surveillance, four current and former U.S. officials said. The FBI’s San Francisco Division led a counterintelligence investigation into Fang’s activities, according to one current and one former U.S. intelligence official.
“The fact that she was traveling around the country” getting close to U.S. politicians “was a big red flag,” said one of the officials. “She was on a mission..”
https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1336159824216813568?s=20
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1336423858161725442
Yeah, me too.
https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1336367248676679685
https://twitter.com/MySavageDynasty/status/1260689690765807617?s=20
Really, really sad, isn’t it?
https://twitter.com/Katy202012/status/1336377329694621696?s=20
https://twitter.com/annette_pora/status/1336300282834202625?s=20
https://twitter.com/EdnaK_/status/1336306719643889667?s=20
https://twitter.com/Rosalita57/status/1336334240393269248?s=20
https://twitter.com/NewBlackMan/status/1336110649672425472
https://twitter.com/ObamaFoundation/status/1336062510710075395
He went to West Point Fifty Years Ago.
What did it take to make it through West Point Fifty Years Ago???
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1336096364074311682
https://twitter.com/MadisonSiriusXM/status/1336109815584747521
https://twitter.com/afrosabi/status/1336101856263753728
😒😒😒
https://twitter.com/josecanyousee/status/1336183438970261505
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1336297335136133127
https://twitter.com/enfantkg/status/1336299119913152513
NYT + US invasion of Iraq reporting = Loss of credibility forever
https://twitter.com/RealEggcredible/status/1336271295596666881
https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1336258192725200898
If only he were more the particular version of ‘black’ as expanded/redefined by massa.. specifically, mixed-race.. complete with all that ‘advantage’ of ‘duality’ smug b.s.. that also automatically gets one right to the front of the line when ‘black’ is called for..
Had he perhaps, even had the good sense to marry some white/Jewish woman.. he’d already have much of the mainstream media actively shilling for him right about now.. silly guy..
Tsk tsk..
How on earth are the deciders ever going to be able to properly ‘evaluate’ him.. his allegiance to Israel.. the wink-wink assurances that come with seeing photos of Grandpa Beauregard.. or in-laws who are shomer Shabbat ..or ‘vintage’ photos of Ma or Pa freshly immigrated from some country not designated ‘sh*thole’.. non-black, and very importantly, super grateful, non-threatening.. zero vestiges of that inconvenient enslaved lineage thingy..
Or, perhaps, he and wifey can present incontrovertible evidence that they’ve always ‘proudly’ leaned republican.. get some military top brass, some Alabama alt-right types to vouch for them..
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1335228397455200260
He’s the absolute worst kind of cowardly limp d*ck weasel..
Even his eyes scream hollow, damaged, 2-bit fraud..
Thread
https://twitter.com/GeoRebekah/status/1336065789313638400
This is outrageous.
https://twitter.com/dandrezner/status/1335751613433208834
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1336084265168154626
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1336115345812238338
https://twitter.com/PierceAH66/status/1336292523858423808
https://twitter.com/NicolasEdny/status/1336288762180022273
The dangerous Black Man😒😒
https://twitter.com/AsteadWesley/status/1336108944159354880
https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1336006090736230408
If Mrs Noem could somehow pull it off, I bet she would …and the complicit media would go right along with it, too.. alternately handwringing and tsk-tsking, all while spinning it to actually justify/validate him, her, it..
Good Afternoon, Everyone 😊😊😊