(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Mostly affecting Black & Brown communities [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-06
If you want people to shrug concern about something, all you gotta do is say “it’s going to affect or is affecting mostly Black and Brown communities or Disenfranchised communities” and watch the worry fade away from the larger demographic. It is an unconscious thing in most people and it is a human reaction. A sigh of relief when danger is not headed in your direction.
It is a seemingly innocent phrase, hell even caring so much so that all manors of Black and Brown news anchors use it without a single thought. It is a phrase I’ve come to hate, even if I understand that it is at times necessary as a warning.
But, there is also a dark side to it, It is this very take after all that got a plan to deal with covid, shoved into a drawer under the first administration of the current regime. It is often uttered to steer the majority away, to make them shrug, to make them become uninterested and unfortunately it works all too often.
What we’ve noticed is when they say working class, somehow Black & Brown folks are not included in that working class…. wonder why that is? Have you noticed when they speak of the disenfranchised or the poor, the imagery is almost always Black & Brown folks, same when they talk of gangs and violence (even in apps/software for graphics).
One wonders how things might have been different if the phrase “the working class” had been used instead, in some instances? Might have saved some lives during covid. Some might not have been so quick to ditch masks and shun vaccines if they thought they were in a much danger as the Black and Brown folks.
And that’s why when now you start telling folks that things are going to affect the “poor and those in need” your working class shrugs it off because you’re not talking to them or about them. See, they’ve been trained to associate poor, disenfranchised, needy, welfare, snap, chips, etc… with Black and Brown folks so thoroughly that even when they know they are poor, needy, on snap, food stamps and other benefit, until you say the magic words “working class”… it’s not they who will be affected (that’s why they are in shocked right now as stuff starts hitting them). Know which social benefits they associate with themselves? Medicare, Medicaid and social security and that too is by design.
It’s so easy to pit folks against the “others” with manipulated language. You keep thinking my focus on language and words is silly, but words and language have started wars, have moved people to tears, have changed hearts, has created gods… and you think “it’s only words”… how naïve is that? Words shape your mind, your thought process, it makes connections in your brain without you even knowing it, but you dismiss language when certain folks point to its abusive nature in your speech. How utterly irresponsible.
One man said “I think, therefor I am” another said “In the beginning there was the word” yet another said “The pen is mightier than the sword”… but Americans say “it’s only words, words can’t hurt you”… The arrogance of that sentence is overflowing with ignorance.
#TheAmericanHaitianPoet #Woke #SocialPoetry
paypal.me/murielvieux to help
#ThePoet - Muriel Vieux – May 29th, 2025, ©All rights reserved
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/6/2326293/-Mostly-affecting-Black-Brown-communities?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
